Stereotypes Stretching Across Cultures (HMS)

 Stereotypes are universally known as being a definitive form of a stigma attributed to someone or some group. But how can you define someone’s character without really getting to know them? This is a question that I think is deserving of a legitimate question because, quite simply, no one wants to be placed into a stereotype.  Grouping individuals by race, gender, religion and politics are often all huge victims of stereotyping.  But something that I want to focus on has to do with what I study in my major, Anthropology.  I can thank my teachers for what I have learned through the Anthropology department, because now I truly know what it means to be culturally sensitive.  Stereotyping different cultures is a huge problem all around the world, and it’s no different or less concerning than any other type of stigmatizing. If anything, I think it is a more detrimental type of stereotyping because it furthers the gap between cultures and individuals from different places.  As Walter Lippmann put it, "All strangers of another race proverbially look alike to the visiting stranger. Only gross differences of size or color are perceived by an outsider in a flock of sheep, each of which is perfectly individualized to the shepherd"(Lippmann).

I feel that it’s honestly difficult for the average person to recognize cultural stereotyping, mainly because it is just another form of national character.  And I don't just mean American culture, because cultural stereotyping happens to every single culture.  However, we are often raised with the idea that America is the greatest country, and it is sad to say that a lot of people stick to that idea as if every other culture in the world is inferior.  We can be so narrow as a culture in ways that harm us if we refuse to open our minds to what else is out there.  To extend that idea, we as Americans have a lot of negative stereotypes as well.  We are considered obese, lazy, and extremely materialistic.  And as an American I can easily say that that is absolutely true of many, and also absolutely untrue of many.  That is the problem with stereotypes; they dumb you down to one personification when there is so much more to see.

I can think of a TON of other huge stereotypes on different cultures, just to put this point into perspective that is hard to deny.

·      Arab and Muslim’s = terrorists

·      Italian = seductive, over the top

·      Southerners = rednecks and racist

·      Northerners = rich and snoody

·      African American = outside of the United, all are poor.

·      Asians = all good at math, all bad at driving.

·      Jews = cheap and greedy, big noses.

·      Irish = drunks or red headed

·      Mexican = all immigrants

·      German = likes beer, cheese and sausage

·      Amish = no fun and strange outfits

As offensive as that list is, you can apply it to so many people and their thoughts when they look at the average ‘non-American-looking’ person.  And when I say ‘non-American’, I just mean that many people don’t take into consideration that the United States is a huge melting pot and many American born citizens come from a different ethnicity.  Sure, it’s easy to generalize cultures into these categories because some of it can be considered true, but it doesn’t make it right to leave it at that.  It is completely unfair to take those stigmas and not even consider individual people in these cultures.  Obviously not every American is obese, lazy and all about materialistic items.  So it makes perfect sense that obviously not every Asian person is good at math and bad at driving.  It really should be pretty self explanatory, but I wanted to bluntly look at some of these huge (and false) stereotypes because it represents a lot more than we see.

I think Walter Lippmann phrased it well in his book "Public Opinion" as he says, "For the most part we do not first see, and then define. We define first and then see. In the great blooming, buzzing confusion of the outer world we pick out what our culture has already defined for us, and we tend to perceive that which we have picked out in the form stereotyped for us by our culture".  We literally do not know any better than what we see every day as mistakes in stereotyping others, because it happens constantly. It is in our up-bringing and schools, media and elsewhere. We have to be educated on what is wrong and right in this area and that starts in the home, I believe.

The media is a HUGE contributing factor to why we have such a high stigma placed on other cultures.  What we see on television is so insanely limited to what it’s really like in other cultures, or worse, what we see is often false.  The kinds of limited coverage we see on huge news in other cultures makes you realize how skewed the media is.  When I studied abroad in Italy last summer, there was hardly any news on any channels anywhere. Then again, it was during the Olympics, but I was shocked at how much news we watch here in America.  So my point with that is we are not the only culture that views other cultures differently by nature.  What we see on commercials about African people are that they are impoverished and helpless.  What we see in the media about Asians is that they are very technologically advanced.  What we see in the media is what molds our minds to understand what other cultures are like, when in reality there is so much more.

A big contribution to the woes of stereotyping cultures deals with stereotyping them in gender as well. It is known that we see women placed very low in value in many countries set apart from our own.  Cordelia Fine explains in her book "Delusions of Gender" what it is like to have a cultural outlook that is gender biased.  "Neurosexism reflects and reinforces cultural beliefs about gender- and it may do so in a particularly powerful way. Dubious 'brain facts' about the sexes become part of the cultural lore" (Intro).  In the same way that we are pretty much hard wired as babies on what it means to 'be' a girl or a boy, we have very skewed perspectives about how seriously some cultures view their women. In muslim societies, women have so little self expression that it sometimes drives them to extreme protest and danger. In China, little girls are so unwanted that the male population is disturbingly high, and women are auctioned off by their families for marriage.  However, there are still a lot of cultures out there that praise women very much, and whole societies live as matriarchal communities. 

We place these very limited attributes on entire cultures because of what we see through the media and little experience with interaction.  Although I spent 8 weeks in Italy this summer I didn't come home saying that all Italians are obsessed with food, loud, aggressive  etc.  I can definitely say that some of the stereotyping was true, such as they drive fast and have poor manners sometimes.  But that's sort of my point about stereotypes as well is that sometimes they really are true, and that's fine.  It just becomes a problem when that entire culture is forced into one kind of category to represent everyone involved.  I think that it is time to stop misrepresenting what is shown through the media about other cultures, but that's a huge fish to fry and an argument that has been happening for years.  I will end once more with a quote from Walter Lippmann that pretty much sums up this argument, "If we cannot fully understand the acts of other people, until we know what they think they know, then in order to do justice we have to appraise not only the information which has been at their disposal, but the minds through which they have filtered it".