Stereotypes?

Question

I'm writing an editorial for school about sterotypes and labels, what are some good points I could put into my writing? Any ideas are welcome!! =] I just need some insight on my writing here. oh, and so far I have this:

Only recently did I realize how vast the expanse of sterotypes and labels are. I listened to many of my peers and how fluent they are with all these names. I think its rather sad to see steretypes used so often in daily language. But, what bothers me about this the most is that close to none of the people who use all these labels don’t know what they mean or how they originated. I myself will not define them for you in this because most of the names used are vulgar, and honestly, I don’t want to get in trouble for writing about them.

yeah, thats it. and im only in 8th grade so i CAN get suspended for writing the definitions of the words and the root of the words (the words are things like slu* , who*e , ho* then theres words like dork and geek and stuff like that.)

Answer 1

You write very well for only being in 8th Grade. I think that teens are just beginning to socially develop and they tend to all clump together in certain groups based on personality traits. The group then becomes stereotyped from their peers. Ex. If a group of really smart kids hangs out they are called nerds by other kids in different groups. I think its mostly a state of mind and people like to label other people but most of the time its done in a hypocritical way. I mean when I was in school teenage girls loved to call each other names like whores,sluts..ect. but in all actuality they did it out of Jealousy or spite because more times then not they were doing the same things. I think in school stereotypes are more common on a personal level because kids are always around each other. When people get out of school we read about stereotypes or we might stereotype a person that we know but for the most part its more broader after school.

Answer 2

I'm not going to answer your actual question, because I read the other answers posted and they seem pretty good. I did notice, however, that you have some spelling and grammar errors in your essay. I understand that it's not your final draft, but I thought I should point some things out. Re-read the first sentence...
The subject of the sentence is the word "expanse". It is singular. Your verb is the word "are". "Are" is plural, but "expanse" is singular. This type of error is commonly called "subject-verb agreement". Change "are" to "is". The phrase "of stereotypes and labels" is called a prepositional phrase. "Of" is a preposition. It opens the sentence so the writer can explain further, and clarify the idea. Now, in the third sentence, "its" should be "it's". The apostrophe means that it is a contraction of the words "it" and "is". Generally, starting a sentence with a conjunction ("But, what bothers me...") is considered improper. But, the rules are changing. If you do it sparingly and thoughtfully, you should be fine. In my personal opinion, I think it would sound better if you wrote "But, what bothers me most about this..." instead of "But, what bothers me about this the most...". But, that's your call. Neither one is more correct than the other. Next, you write "...close to none of the people who use all these labels don't know what they mean...". This is called a double-negative. If you remember from math class, a double-negative makes a positive, right? "...none of the people... don't know..." effectively means that all the people do know. To correct this, you have two options: eliminate "don't", or change "close to none" to "most". The latter might sound a little redundant, however, because then you'd be saying "...what bothers me most is that most people...". In the last sentence, you write "most... are vulgar, and honestly, I...". You need another comma in front of "honestly". This is called an interjection. You must place a comma before and after an interjection. Now we have "most... are vulgar, and, honestly, I...". Seems like too many commas, right? Well, technically this is correct, but another correct way to write it would be to take out the first comma. You don't really need it. Besides that, the essay looks fine. Good luck!

Answer 3

I really don't get it ,I believe that we rip our self's off of the most primal of feeling by stereotypes ,its so safe to talk to someone that looks the way that i do and talks the way that I do.May be people are lazy and take the safe way all the time.For me,I choose not to label,and for that I am a winner ,I have meant the most amazing people and I am truly a better person for all these other people who didn't fit the the so called rules of food chain ,Things chance ,maybe this Darwin way of Thinking will chance too.

Answer 4

I think a lot of people (adults and young adults) repeat what other people around them have said, without thinking about whether what they are saying is true or not, or whether it is hurtful or not. It's not just ignorance that causes this unthinking behavior either-if you close your mind, you can still be exposed to lots of different cultures and nationalities, but many still only see the stereotypes they've been taught, instead of seeing people as unique individuals. I've been to diversity trainings with adults who said from the beginning of the sessions that they had heard it all before and wouldn't change their mind about anyone or anything. Unfortunately, these were usually racist, sexist, homophobic, middle-aged, middle to upper-class white guys, who acted like childish a**holes. I tried not to care what they thought (since I couldn't do anything about it), but I was glad I didn't have to work with them, since they had so little respect for anyone, including themselves, in my opinion.

You're a very bright young person. Your school is lucky to have you-don't forget that!

Answer 5

DIsepending on the sterotypes some are,t too bad. I like good old fashion romance hope that part never changes.Wouldn,t it be a list of some you may like and the ones you don,t help? Do you think the world sould conform to a new every thing to suit you?

Answer 6

First, let me also say that you write very well, expecially for an 8th grader. Congratulations. its beter than kids who rite like this b4 they lern to rite good. Anyway, Stereotypes are not necessarly bad evil things. They are generalizations,based on long term observations of segments of society. Stereotypes are not only about race...but apparently, and unforunately shotsided, race is the only thing on the minds of the people on this site. Stereotypes can involve race - for instance - all black people eat fried chicken and watermelon. However, stereotypes can be be about nationality - for instance, all Irish are drunks or all puerto ricans are lazy or all Italians are in the mafia. Stereotypes can be about religion - all muslims are militant &/or terrorists or catholic girls are...well, you are a little young for that maybe. Stereotypes can also involve where in the US one is from - for instance - all southerners are rednecks, or like NASCAR or all people in California are hippie liberals. There are other kinds of stereotypes too. For instance all computer technicians (IT guys) are star trek or star wars fans. All accountants are dorky or wear glasses.

Stereotypes are just that, generalizations about a segment of society that have developed over time. Ususally, those generalizations (stereotypes) have some basis in truth, but it does not apply to each and every member of the segment. For instance, many Irish like to drink beer (ale). It is generally accepted in their society, like having a coke is here. However, many do not drink alot. So, there is some basis for the stereotype, but it is not 100 percent true. Most people in California are a little left of center, politically, but not everyone in California is.

Stereotypes can be funny, the comedian Carlos Mencia has made himself very rich playing on stereotypes, mostly racial stereotypes. I do not know anyone of any race that does not find Mencia absoutly gut busting funny, but he picks on all races equally. But, most stereotypes, for some reason or another, have become offensive to the segment in question, although, everyone knows there is some truth to the stereotype.

Lables? Labels are nothing more than a word or stigma applied to a person, it has nothing to do with generalization. If a person has multiple sexual partners, they are labeled a sl*t or hoe, deserved or not. Labels also apply to segments of population, and may change over time. In my grandparents day, blacks were refered to as ****** or colored, and it was not offensive, then they were refered to as blacks in my parents day, and it was not offensive, but colored was. Now, we refer to them as afro-american, and black is somewhat offensive, colored is very offensive. I am sure someday, they will be called something else, and afro-american will be offensive. The italians used to be called wops, the irish mics (because of the abundance of last names that began with Mc - like McClintock, McDonald etc.). However, no one really uses these anymore. In the army we applied lables to people who were not in the "Combat Arms" part of the military (combat arms are things like infantry, artillary etc.) We called people who had paper pushing, office jobs pogs - it stands for People Other than Grunts. Grunt is another name for an infantryman.

I hope this helps you out.

Answer 7

You can also research how governments use them, along with other methods of propaganda in order to position itself against something or some stance. Examples:
Hitler ran an extensive smear against Jews.
The U.S. ran smears against the Native Americans.
The preasent factional fighting between the Muslims.
The genocide in Burma against Christians.

Unfortunately, there's more than I can write about.

Answer 8

You can definetly talk about one HUGE stereotype that is:

People being taught that only people with blue eyes and blond hair are white...or theyre using that word to describe U.S.-born people
I wonder if people realize that there's other "whites" around the world.
White is a race ...not an ethnic background
Italian is an ethnic background....not a race...