stereotype

Some Thoughts About Stereotype

In the story “The Myth of the Latin Woman”, Judith Ortiz Cofer discusses how she

was treated by various people due to their conception of her as a Latin woman. Her

strong theme discusses various stereotypes that Latin women are subjected to such as

they are being viewed as uneducated, hot tamale, and labeled as submissive workers.

Judith Ortiz Cofer believes Latin women are stereotyped as sexual firebrand

because of their dress. Clothing was always a big culture clash. She states that she

learned to dress from her mother, “as young girls, it was our mother who had grown

up on a tropical island, where the natural environment was a riot of primary colors,

where showing your skin was one way to keep cool as well as to look sexy.” In

America, people think that Latin girls were colorful clothes and show a lot of skin

because they are prostitute or easy to get with. The author proves this is untrue after

going to her first high school dance with a boy who tried to kiss her but she rejected.

In everyday use, the concept of the stereotype is used in various contexts: usually

the word stereotype is used to refer to members of some kind of collective: firemen

are courageous, blondes are less intelligent, Africans are poor, and the Latin girls are

hot and so on. When a person makes inferences with a new person or about some

social events, they use their existing knowledge to reduce the uncertainty in the

situation. The less one knows about the object, the more one uses stereotypical

generalizations.

Americans are pushy and the English are reserved, right? Wrong, says a new study,

which reveals there is no truth in this sort of Cultural stereotypes. There was no

correlation between perceived cultural characteristics and the actual traits. These

stereotypes focus our attention on some certain features , which is not good at

understanding one culture comprehensively .When we walk on the street, for instance,

just to get to a certain address, we may not be able to tell how many barber shops we

passed during our journey. However, if we walk on the same street to find one, our

attention is tuned to see the barbershops' signs. Cultural stereotypes work in the same

way: they focus our attention on certain features, and amplify them in our observation.

In this way, we see what we are taught to see, and at the same time our observations

also confirm the stereotypes.

In the article, the author mentions one facet of the myth of the Latin woman in the

United States is the menial, the domestic. The myth of the Hispanic menial – the

funny maid, mispronouncing words and cooking up a spicy storm in a shiny

California kitchen – has been perpetuated by the media in the same way that

“Mammy” from Gone with the Wind became America’s idea of the black woman for

generations. So when the author took her first public poetry reading at a restaurant in

Miami, she was mistreated as a waitress because she was a Latin girl, and Latin girl

are treated as uneducated.

The less we know about the other, the more we hang on stereotypes. If the

stereotype is well-grounded and justifiable it may help to orient oneself in a certain

situation. Stereotypes are only offensive when they are perceived as being negative.

For example: How many times have you ever heard a black man stand up and angrily

deny that all black men have huge penises? That statement is a stereotype, but I don't

hear anyone complaining about it. There are other stereotypes that are accepted and

even repeated by the very group being targeted. Chinese are hard workers, Swedish

women are beautiful, Italian women are excellent cooks, Black women are strong,

Bi-sexual women make better lovers and so on. But if it is unjust and loaded with

negative emotions, it will harm the interaction without question, and also often results

from, and leads to, prejudice. Some groups in society -- such as blacks, women, Jews,

gays and lesbians -- have all experienced the effects of negative stereotyping and lack

of positive images. The Americans looked down on the blacks. In the university

classroom, the professor said,” the Black men’s IQ is clearly lower than the

White’s…” Among the 250 person on the spot, Rice, the only black stood up

excitedly,” This is no scientific basis. The Black do as hard as the White. We can do

what the white can.” With father’s studious edification, Rice becomes the first black

female secretary of state in American, who is full of sense of calling to defend the

color self-esteem. Her success is so inspiring to the people who are striving to

eliminate the prejudice. When we break through the prejudice to love our own skin

color, gender and so on, we should improve ourselves more hard, and show our

ability to the world, to prove those stereotypes are so ridiculous.

Why we stereotype? The following three points are important. First, the field of

view. From the time that we are very young children, human beings are constantly

striving to process the world around us. We struggle to put things into some type of

order, and to see the world in a way that makes sense to us. Imagine a preschooler

playing with a set of blocks. He may put all of the blue blocks in one pile and the red

ones in another. He may also sort the blocks by their shape or size. Throughout our

lives, from the earliest years on, we classify people by these same sorts of criteria;

boys and girls, adults and kids, fat and thin, tall and short. As we go through life,

whether consciously or subconsciously, we are struggling to make sense of the people,

places and things around question is that most people’s views are limited. We

all know that the less variety of input that a person receives early in life, and the less

experience they have with any other people group, the more likely they will be to

develop a stereotype. Additionally, when a person with limited experience with any

other group of people has a negative experience with that group first, they are far

more likely to apply a stereotype to all people who fall into that group.

But why our views are so limited? As far as I am concerned, the education system

and ourselves should pay the great responsibility. As for education, there are still

some disadvantages in it. The main question is that people are always pursuing the

marks, and always pursue the knowledge utilitarian. Every teacher and parent would

say," do your basic education and go to the best university". But what will they do

after graduate from school? Seldom gives answers to this question. In Chinese high

schools, students study very crazily. They study more than twelve every day! They

live in the school and never watch TV, read the newspaper or play computer games.

Students never really have a hobby. If you ask them for what are their hobbies, 99%

of them will say, I like music, sports and reading. But most of them don't know the

difference between jazz and blues. On the other side, the content of education is

definitely imperfect, we should learn many things by own if we want to understand

the world deeply. In the history class, for instance, teacher taught us about the African

for its geographic position, climate condition, the poor conditions they face and so on.

A picture in the book describes many African children, some are as thin as rails, and

some are big-stomached, not because good eating but have no way to eat clean food.

They impress me the poverty only. The same as many others, for African, my initial

impression comes from the wild animal and the virgin forest and grassland they live

in <>. All things there seems linking with the original, barbarous, and

mysterious. Later, in my mind, Africa has become a war, riot, dirty and frightening

infectious diseases. Then, I know that the mysterious pyramids of Egypt, gold and

diamonds in South Africa and exotic tribal culture of Kan Bali…If I don’t read more

about African myself, I still stereotype a poor place.

Second, Media. The media is the biggest stereotype of the world. And we as a

nation we feed right into it. In the media it is common that a certain group is

attached with a stereotype. The industry is under pressure to attract readers and

viewers, which need as wide an audience as possible to quickly understand

information. In the article, through the media, advertisers in their special vocabulary

have designated “sizzling” and “smoldering” as the adjectives of choice for

describing not only the foods but also the women of the Latin America. Stereotypes

act like codes that give audiences a quick, common understanding of a person or

group of people—usually relating to their class, ethnicity or race, gender, sexual

orientation, social role or occupation. By using stereotypes, a complex issue involving

people with complex motives can be reduced to a simple conflict between "good

guys" and "bad guys." This can happen when the media try to make real events

appear more dramatic to appear audience.

Look at some of your movies that are out today. People believe what they see on

television. And that is far away from the truth. In many shows and movies the male is

the handsome hero and never makes mistakes, while the woman is the helpless,

beautiful blonde who can only flutter her eye lashes, scream, apply make-up and kiss.

In movies obese people are never seen without food in their hand or mouth and most

of the time are disgusting and will give up anything for food. This is definitely a

negative because weight isn't easily controlled for some people, sometimes it is

because of their genes. Super models represent a stereotype of beauty in magazines

that is super thin, this is negative because to be this type of beauty encourages young

girls to become diet and unhealthy. As far as I’ am concerned, they are obsessed with

wealth, and lack of pure cultural communication. In order to seize the market, they

tried everything to appear audience, including stereotyping, and the final purpose is

making money.

Third, culture differences. All societies have cultures, and all societies overlap

culture. Culture exists everywhere - in schools, in religious groups, in races, in

neighborhoods and states etc. Most people stereotype because they have failed to

evaluate a culture within that culture's scope. Misunderstanding is sure to result when

one culture evaluates another by a foreign set of ideals. As the differences of natural

environment, economic levels and national development history, each nation has its

own unique accustomed lifestyle. For example: Chinese and Japanese use chopsticks

to dine, Westerners use forks. Chinese people like to invite guests and give gifts, and

the Westerners rarely entertain guests at home; Chinese people like to wear red setting,

the color red is regarded as lucky. In the west, the red color is not ghillie.

I still remember the Arts Festival between Chinese and foreign students in our

university. The French students performanced the Chorus, they were good looking,

and their beautiful song was full of melody. Many audiences were charmed with it,

and confirmed their stereotype that French are nobly. Then another queue I forgot

where they came from started to dance. I am not sure whether I could call it dance.

They just wiggled their ass without any sense of beauty. So many people thought they

were so rude. In fact, they just have the different ways to express the good mood; we

should evaluate a culture within that culture's scope, not just another culture or our

own Preference. It just like doesn’t need to go about all day comparing apples to

oranges. Suppose I have squeezed both the apple and the orange. But instead of

judging the orange by the apple, I simply look at the orange and say, "This orange

squeezes extraordinarily well, as oranges go." I have appreciated the orange in its own

scope and not discredited it for its lack of apple-ness.

Except above main aspects, maybe, People stereotype other people because

stereotypes exist. Do all black people like fried chicken and watermelon? Of course

not. Are all white people horrible dancers? Of course not. But at one time or another

there were enough people in a group with the same behaviors for it to become a

defining characteristic of that group as a whole, which then trickled down to the

individuals within that group. My point is that negative stereotypes exist for reasons.

Only when we take the time to educate ourselves, to learn where these stereotypes

come from, what the history behind them is, can we overcome them and move

forward toward a progressively harmonious society.

While stereotypes will unfortunately continue to exist, the author signs that she is

one of the lucky ones. There are thousands of Latinas without the privilege of an

education or the entrees into society that she has. For them life is a constant struggle

against the misconceptions perpetuated by the myth of the Latina. Her goal is to try to

replace the old stereotypes with a much more interesting set of realities. And our goal

is to erasure some of these misconceived stereotyped preconceptions, by subjective;

we must focus on open minds and develop a tolerance for understanding differences.

Everything has many sides, we must understand things wholly, and keep an open

mind. In order to develop an open mind, we should read more about different cultures

and understand about different races, ethnicities, religions and other groups to help

know the truth about people who are different from us. We should make an effort to

get to know people different than you. Looking for things in common with other

people and celebrate the differences. We should learn from and appreciate something

about everyone. Also, we should learn about other people and their culture. By

learning about other people, our life will be greatly enriched and our appreciation for

our own culture will deepen. Then, we should explore the unfamiliar. Attend an

organization meeting, religious service or travel to a new region where you are in the

minority. Experiences teach us more than any other activity and the more a person

experiences and the more variety in those experiences, the more likely they will be to

have an open mind. Everyone knows someone or has some experience traveling to,

learning about or living in difficult cultures and it can be very revealing. Things can

be done differently by others and seeing this helps us to realize that we don’t have to

do everything the same way as may have learned it or developed habits with. Variety

in our experiences quickly teaches us to explore life, to seek out new exciting things

around us and to not limit to what is already ; we should develop a

tolerance for understanding differences. Humankind is made up of various cultures

and peoples, each of which has its own vision of life and a particular way of solving

its problems and fulfilling its possibilities. No matter how great their dominion, all

cultures have had to tolerate the existence of conceptions of life and the world that are

different from their own. This makes us realize that there has never been a single

worldview appropriate for everyone, and also that the differences among various

cultures pertain to the functions each performs in the whole of humankind. Today

close contact among the various peoples of the world and the capability of

contemplating the earth as a whole help us to understand that cultures are

interdependent. We also realize that if different visions of the world exist today, it is

because none of them is integral. In order for a universal vision—one suited to all

human beings—to evolve, each culture needs to consider not only its own

interpretation of life, but also the interpretations of other cultures. If we develop a

deep respect for what seems different to us, it will be easier for us to broaden our

vision and understand the function of each individual, group, people and culture in the

whole of humankind.

By objective, Media plays an important role. It not only entertains and offers news

to people, but also transfers the stereotypes, beliefs and values of the society to

reproduce the existing order of social life. It should pay responsible for all of us: the

news reports should be true and fair; the movies should not only emphasize the box

office and please us, it should spread the true culture.

Though the text The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria, I

have thought about it for a very long time, and look up many materials. I have a deep

understanding about stereotype. Stereotypes are pervasive in our society. We all

stereotype and are all subject to being stereotyped by others. The stereotypes we use

can be both positive and negative. We need to become aware of the stereotypes we

have so we can see people for who they really are and understand the world

objectively.