Stereotyping Today

Today's class about stereotyping was very interesting. I see people being stereotyped on a daily basis and now I know how all of these stereotypes were constructed. As an example I am a manager at a small candy company. I am usually there by my self unless we have large orders so I do everything from assembling the product to making pallets and bringing them down to the freight trucks. Every time I bring the pallets down, the truckers give me a funny look because this is supposed to be a mans job. I remember last summer we had a larger order which took up 6 different pallets stacked 8 feet high. On the day the freight truck came, I was the only one working so I had to bring everything down myself. This also made it easier for me because once they found out I was a female, the truckers (always male) would always come help me without complaint. Although it is their job to help with pallets, I still think the fact that I was a female made them more likely to help and be less judgmental. Stereotypes are part of everyday life and cannot be escaped. We take in what we see in the media and use that as our own judgment and live our lives based on these images and behaviors. Although stereotyping is wrong and can be construed negatively, it can be fixed. Based on Dyers article on stereotyping, one way to escape it is by individualizing people. This will show that everyone is different with their own personality and not the same as the rest of their culture- be it race or gender.