Stereotypes People
Essay Preview: Stereotypes People
Report this essay
Abstract
This paper examines stereotypes people endure during their lives, such as, people that are overweight, people with tattoos, and politicians. When people are stereotyped against it can affect their live in a negative way and the affects can shape a persons choses in the career they choose, the person he or she chooses to marry, and how they perceive themselves. How Pre-existing Beliefs Distort Logical reasoning explains how when a person is stereotyped against it can determine how a person sees themselves fitting into society. Stereotyping Has Lasting Negative Impact will explain even after a person leaves a situation where stereotyped against it has a lasting effect on the decisions he or she makes in his or her life. Making people aware of the effects stereotyping has on others may help others be careful with the words and actions they use when speaking to or interaction with others. The goal of this paper is to show there is proof stereotyping has a lifelong effect on people regardless if the stereotyping is intentional or innocent.
Stereotyping
Stereotyping is when something is believed about a group of people that is untrue or only partly true. When someone stereotypes against a group of people they tend to not understand that group or do not want to understand them. Some groups of people that will be discussed in this paper are stereotyped against because they are overweight, tattooed, and politicians. As humans we tend to allow negative stereotyping to determine our thoughts, feelings, and our lives in general. According to April Kemick, from the University of Toronto it has been proven that stereotyping has a lasting effect on peoples lives (Kemick, A. 2010).
The negative effects of stereotypes creep into society and sometimes start with an innocent beginning. The public sees a group as a whole according to their race, national organ, religion, ethnic background, sexuality, and the list can go on and on.
It is easy to look at a group of people and determine in your own mind how these people may live, act, and think without getting to know them. If you do not try to get to know people you do not understand or do not want to understand, than you may not get a full picture of who they are and how they live.
Some people think overweight people have no self-control and use food to control their emotions. Overweight people just have to stop eating so much and exercise to control their weight. If overweight people have self-control they would not indulge in unhealthy food to control their emotions. Stereotyping against people that are overweight can led to them becoming depressed and self-conscious. Teasing and taunting an overweight person can cause that person to develop other deadly eating disorders such as Anorexia Nervosa and or Bulimia. Anorexia Nervosa is an eating disorder where a person just quits eating and sees themselves as fat when they look in the mirror and Bulimia is an eating disorder where a person over indulges while eating and then they makes themself vomit in an attempt to keep the food from digesting and dispersing fat from the food into their body. Some overweight people may use food to control their emotions but some people are overweight because of medical reasons, such as, thyroid disease or because they have not been educated on how to control their weight with healthy eating habits and regular exercise (Fichter, M. M. and Quadflieg, N. (1999).
Some people may believe tattoos scar the body, tattoos are for gangsters, and people that get tattoos do not care about their appearance. Individuals that get tattoos scar their bodies and will have to live with the scars for the rest of their lives no matter how badly they want to get rid of them. Only gangsters get tattoos because they have to wear the mark of the gang they are involved in so they can proudly display they are part of a brotherhood (gang). People who get tattoos have no or low self-esteem. Tattoos make people ugly and the recipient of tattoos does not care about how they look and do not care about themselves. A tattoo can be considered a scar but they can be removed through a medical procedure using laser surgery. According to Dr. Robert Tomsick, associate professor of dermatology at the University Of North Carolina School Of Medicine (2000) removing an unwanted tattoo can be more painful and expensive then getting the tattoo in the first place. Maybe people get tattoos because they are in a gang and have to show their brotherhood but not everyone that gets tattoos