Stereotyping on looks/clothes

[Ragen]

Whatever way you look at it, prejudice is wrong. Racism is seen as bad, sexism is seen as bad but people everywhere I go people think it's ok to prejudge people based soley on the clothes that they are wearing. The terms chav, mosher, emo, ect ect are all linked to a certain way of dressing and looking and with each label comes some unpleasant assumptions. For example Chavs are prejudged as being stupid morons, moshers are labelled as dirty and smelly and emos get fun made of them for being depressed and practising self harm.

 

If I were to go and point out the faults in each of these stereotypes this post would take me hours so I'll just focus on "moshers". The image of "moshers" is wearing a black hoody, baggy jeans and listening to heavy metal. Does dressing like this make me smell? No. Do most people who dress like that smell? No. Do some people dress like that smell bad? Yes some do but very few. Even though this is obvious who has taken time to think the subject through, if I walked down the local mainstreet dressed like that I would have people that I have never met yell, "You dirty mosher!" and "Take a bath!" at me.

 

This is un-doubtably wrong, people automatically hating me enough to scream abuse, just because of the clothes I wear. One arguement I often hear when I try to explain my theory to friends is "Well all chavs are morons!". They are not. I have met many people who wear berbarry(sp?, trackies and baseball caps yet are pleasant and truely wonderful people.

 

The other counter arguement I hear is "In order to qualify as a chav you have to be a moron". This is again wrong. If you act stupidly and treat others with no respect then you are a moron. Being a chav is all about what you wear, not who you are. Same with moshers, emos, skaters ect.

 

To conclude, treat people as individuals, not as a dress code.

 

 

 

 

 

Please discuss this and post anything you agree or disagree with.

[dusqi]

No one has time to get to know each person individually. Stereotypes are quick and simple. It's not going to change.

[Ragen]

I'm not asking you to get to know every single person you meet, what I'm asking you to do is not to judge people before even speaking to them. Be open minded and try speaking to people that you wouldn't normally. If you can't do that then at least don't lash out at them like many do.

 

Now remember what thumper said in Bambi

If ya can't say nothing nice, don't say nothing at all

[Phil]

Now remember what thumper said in Bambi

If ya can't say nothing nice, don't say nothing at all

 

Double negatives ftl. Thumper should learn how to talk.

[Bubsa]

There's a big, big, big difference between stereotyping and discriminating. Stereotypes are formed because the majority of them are true, perhaps even cliche, statements, generally accepted on the society. Discrimination, on the other hand, is insulting based on know solid pretences.

 

 

 

I really hope you can see the difference between calling someone a mosher and calling someone a...well, I'm not gonna say it.

[Ragen]

This could get a bit complicated but the point I was trying to make was about discriminating against stereotypes. For example Japanese people. The stereotype is that they are shy, so should they be denied an interveiw for a job, on the basis that they are Japanese?

 

Back on dress code, should a "mosher" be disliked by someone just because he is a "mosher"?

[Bubsa]

Right, I'm getting a grip of what you're talking about now. It's not OK to dislike someone just because of their 'social status', if you will. For example, I hate the emo scene (it just doesn't appeal to me), however, that doesn't necessarily mean I'll hate the person behind the emo...if you follow.

 

 

 

It's all too easy, though, to do so. Fuelled by a stereotype (I think I'm getting to what you're getting at here), a person can dislike another person, because they see them as emo/chav/whatever, and assume they're moody/roudy/whatever, when they may not be at all. That is wrong, no doubt, but it's almost impossible to spend your time to differentiate sometimes. That's in no way justifying it, yet that has to be understood. I suppose you could argue as well that if a person chooses to become that kind of social pariah, they are making themselves prepared to be stereotyped in that way, otherwise they wouldn't be in that scene. Although, ultimately, I think 'social cults/classes' are a pile of crap anyway.

 

 

 

Believe me, I'd love to hate everyone for who they really are, but I just don't have the time. There's only so many people I can hate! :P

[Ragen]

Yes you got it :D

[Anesthesia]

No one has time to get to know each person individually. Stereotypes are quick and simple. It's not going to change.

 

 

 

Indeed, humans are cognitive misers.

[Ragen]

I had to look up "cognitive misers" so to save others the effort here's an explanation.

 

Miserly cognition, according to Hilton and Von Hippel, is a result of a flawed but efficient thinking process that humans use. By generalizing similar things into more simplified groups, the brain takes shortcuts that lead bypass details in order to think more efficiently. When thinking of objects, this thinking process seems just fine, but when it is applied to human beings, stereotypes are often created. Stereotypes, unlike generalizations, include the role of emotion. When used in context of humans, often negative stereotypes are created.

 

This is the case with the Aborigines. The European settlers who first came to Australia saw the Aborigines not as individual people, but rather as a group of people. When looking at their physical characteristics, it was assumed that the Aborigines were somehow not as human as the Europeans. As the settlers began to see the differences between Aboriginal and European society, these differences were further exaggerated, as Tajfel's law would expect.

 

Tajfel claimed that when people identify with a group, they decrease the variations they see within groups, and at the same time increase the variations they see between groups. When the settlers landed in Australia, and saw what appeared to be "no towns, no cultivation, no religion, in short, no 'civilisation [sic]" (Bennett, 15), they identified only with European society, and therefore created in their minds huge differences between the societal group they knew and the Aboriginal society they landed upon.

 

These exaggerated differences were then applied to all Aboriginal groups as a part of the flawed thinking process. The European settlers created a prototype in their minds of what an Aboriginal was, and soon it was believed that all Aborigines were savages, and therefore should not be given the rights that are given to the European "civilized" settlers.

[JIMMIE]

If i wear tracky bottoms, im called a chav.

 

If i wear jeans, im a trendy.

 

If i skateboard, im immediately labelled as a grunger (i dont know how).

 

 

 

Also, i have gimp longish hair (not shoulder length, about 6 inches long) and my fringe goes across my face, and im apparently an emo.

 

 

 

Im none of these things, im just Jimmie :S

 

 

 

The people who sterotype people based on what they look like/wear are generally unintelligent fools anyway.

 

 

 

~Jimmie

[Ragen]

Jimmie you also got it :D

[Icingdeath]

Heh, I stereotype people all the time. I try hard to meet them first before judging them, but that's just too much work sometimes. Like today, I was in a video game store, and a guy with really baggy shorts, a backward baseball cap, and a basketball jersey comes in to the store. I turn to my brother and go 'I bet one of the first things he says is 'yo'.'

 

 

 

Sure enough, he goes 'Yo, you got NFS Underground 2?'.

 

 

 

Let me mention that he was in fact a Caucasian male of around the age of sixteen.

[Higothrekk]

yeah it wrong, if my friend start trying to get us to cross the road just cause some guy who has orange skin with blood dripping all over his hands I scream "RACIST!!" and punch him the face really hard I hope u all hate racists like i do

[knives669]

:lol: I wear what I want to. I don't care what other people think of me. If they want to take the time to get to know me personally, then I'll most likely prove any stereotyping wrong. If they don't want to take the time to get to know me personally, it's their loss, and they're just wasting time trying to categorize me.

[Ragen]

yeah it wrong, if my friend start trying to get us to cross the road just cause some guy who has orange skin with blood dripping all over his hands I scream "RACIST!!" and punch him the face really hard I hope u all hate racists like i do

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't really understand that post. Do you mean the "orange" skinned guy was injured or was he covered in someone elses blood? Or was it a hypothetical situation? And do you punch your friend or the "orange" guy? These types of questions arise when you don't use grammar. Please explain in a bit better english.

[yomom1919]

stereotypes are a bad attempt at philosophy.

[Lionheart_0]

I dont prejudge people, doing so is lazy, and can be bad for you.

 

 

 

The first time i meet any person i act ready for any situation, and what ever i make of that person, will come in time, not at first sight.

 

 

 

(except certain situations, such as the smokers at my school, they all stand out there, and basicly the same, will stare you down as you walk by, and make fun of random people, i try to avoid them when they in their smoking spot)

[Guest GhostRanger]

I dont prejudge people, doing so is lazy, and can be bad for you.

 

 

 

The first time i meet any person i act ready for any situation, and what ever i make of that person, will come in time, not at first sight.

 

 

 

(except certain situations, such as the smokers at my school, they all stand out there, and basicly the same, will stare you down as you walk by, and make fun of random people, i try to avoid them when they in their smoking spot)

 

 

 

So you don't prejudge people, unless it's a certain group? Then it's okay to prejudge them...it's not lazy or bad. Right?

[Faux]

My only stereotype would prolly be that if you look like a [bleep], you talk like a [bleep], you act like a [bleep], then you are a [bleep].

[Bubsa]

My only stereotype would prolly be that if you look like a good person, you talk like a good person, you act like a good person, then you are a good person.

 

You really don't know me at all then, do you? :P

[assassin_696]

I'm all for not judging people based on looks alone, but if i walked out of a bar because there were a load of people in it to me who just looked a bit rough, then i wouldn't think afterwards "oh snap i hope all the drunks weren't offended." Sometimes being wary or stereotypes can come in handy.

 

 

 

Other times it's not, i know some great people who many might walk away from based on looks alone, but if i don't like the "look" of someone, be it clothes, hair, makeup or just the way he's standing, i'll walk away. I trust my instincts, even if they are sometimes based on stereotype.

[imhomer]

Wanna know why stereotypes exist? Because they're frequently correct.

 

 

 

All of the world is divided into cultures. We (or at least I) am a part of Western culture. Further than that I am a part of American culture and then nerd culture 8-) . Each person has their own cultural "address" which can help others identify what kind of person they are.

 

 

 

I am willing to bet that you have stereotyped before and would even do it now despite what you've written and here's why:

 

 

 

You learn that the new person in your class is from Alabama. Would you be suprised if, once you met him, he talked in an Australian accent? I think you definatly would because you've just used a stereotype of people from Alabama.

 

 

 

Here's my position on stereotyping: it serves a useful purpose in society (yes, I said useful) but, like all things, can become offensive or even dangerous when taken to an extreme.

 

 

 

I'm not saying that all stereotypes are correct either. For example a person on my tennis team is what many people call a 'poser'. These are white people who act like they're black (Caucasian and African-American if you prefer). I admit I used a stereotype on this guy and was very surprised to learn that he had a 4.0 GPA (all A's) in school and lived in a 'good' section of town. Turns out he's really cool and good at tennis, two things I didn't expect. Did I stick to my guns and keep on believing in the stereotype after I knew the guy? No.

 

 

 

Stereotypes are quick ways to judge someone's character. Considering that many people you meet you only meet for a short time, stereotypes help you know how to interact with them. Take another example:

 

 

 

You go up to a black person and start talking to them. They see one of their friends and gets their attention by saying the 'n-word' (believe me this is a common occurance at my school). The next day you see the same friend in the hall and you try to get their attention by saying the 'n-word'. They are highly offended and many other people around you are as well. What happened? You failed to use a useful stereotype that tells you that most black people are very offended by the 'n-word'. You have also been stereotyped as being a racist by the people around you because they have used the stereotype that all people who use the 'n-word' and aren't black are racist.

 

 

 

Just a final thought which is actually kinda off topic. Is calling someone black wrong? In America they are African-Americans but are they called African-British in the UK? It seems to me that when you say things like black and hispanic and asian, everyone knows what you mean because they are universal and non-discriminatory (at least about a person's country of origin).

[mad4u689]

I'm not asking you to get to know every single person you meet, what I'm asking you to do is not to judge people before even speaking to them. Be open minded and try speaking to people that you wouldn't normally. If you can't do that then at least don't lash out at them like many do.

 

Now remember what thumper said in Bambi

If ya can't say nothing nice, don't say nothing at all

 

 

 

While I agree that you shouldn't lash out at someone you don't know, I don't think you should lash out at ANYONE. Chances are that there are very few people out there who if you REALLY got to know intimately, you would truly dislike. Everyone is human and interesting and likable, if you know them deeply, and I really believe that. Some have strayed and become warped through environmental experiences (i.e. Hitler), but that doesn't mean they're not a complex person who still has some good somewhere.

 

 

 

I just rambled a bit, but what I mean to say, is that even though everyone is complex if you get to know them - you can't get to know everybody. So as others have said, stereotypes are, essentially, convenient. You don't have to presume to know everything about a person to know some things about a person.

[MyPurpleCrayon]

While I agree that you shouldn't lash out at someone you don't know, I don't think you should lash out at ANYONE. Chances are that there are very few people out there who if you REALLY got to know intimately, you would truly dislike. Everyone is human and interesting and likable, if you know them deeply, and I really believe that. Some have strayed and become warped through environmental experiences (i.e. Hitler), but that doesn't mean they're not a complex person who still has some good somewhere.

 

 

 

I just rambled a bit, but what I mean to say, is that even though everyone is complex if you get to know them - you can't get to know everybody. So as others have said, stereotypes are, essentially, convenient. You don't have to presume to know everything about a person to know some things about a person.

 

 

 

Well, you definitely are a very open-minded person. :P