Stereotypes by Nazeefah Motala


My personal experience with stereotypes occurred in my matric year when I was approached by a male class member who was absolutely disgusted by the fact that I had applied make up, wore a somewhat ‘fancy’ dress and had my hair done, on the day of a test. I could tell he was not pleased by the facial expression he gave me, which was followed by the words “Girls like you are incapable of getting good grades. I bet you fail most subjects because you’re always putting make up on and getting girly. You exist to look pretty.”

This had obviously hurt me and I was quite confused by his remarks as I have never shared my marks with this classmate. I didn’t have much to say in return. He had made the assumption that I was stupid. We proceeded to write our test, of which, was returned fully marked within the hour. The male student was livid to find out that I had passed with 80% as well as surpassed him as he received 60%.
I believe the broader issue is that people make judgements and guide themselves to believe in these judgements like they are scriptures from the Bible. This issue causes internal conflict in those who are judged and leads to a major loss in confidence. The alarming part is that there are various types of stereotypes such as stereotypes about, race, gender, age, culture and religion and more. It is never ending.

The root cause for these issues can be found within ones upbringing and the media. How one is raised contributes to how they will behave, think and treat others. In terms of the media, it has a huge contribution to this issue as the media constantly creates expectations (high and low) of people or society. This can lead to deep psychological issues within humanity as they are trying to live up to these expectations, or trying to disintegrate a certain carried belief that relates to them.
Acts of resistance could be to create awareness of the fallacies of stereotypes through social media. Protests could also be considered. Actors involved in this issue are parents, the media, society, schools, and those who fight against the stereotype.

by Nazeefah Motala 
Age 21
University of Johannesburg 


Comments

  1. Yip24 March 2018 at 18:41

    People, people are stupid and don't really understand how to interact with other people so they do and say stupid shit its always the case...fxxking humans.

    ReplyDelete

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