Lost in Stereotyping^0
“Does my appearance reflect my personality?”
“What do [strangers] people think of me when they see me?”
What connotative difference do you notice between these two questions? The former one sounds like a healthier, more stably asked question of self-reflection whereas the latter sounds more anxious.
Now, it must be very easy to guess what the chick who said the second question. Maybe you think she looks a bit like the sought-after skinny teenage girl who is secretly totally insecure and all emo-depressed or maybe she is the little desperate witch who wants to be so popular she can say “We are the In Crowd”1 instead of “They are the in crowd and everyone loves them.” --- you know what? She probably has an eating disorder. What’s wrong with her?
Okay, this is an exaggeration. You probably were not thinking any of these things, but you were likely somewhat easily following my train of thought with “logical” backups. This is the problem. When it becomes so easy to make assumptions about people based on a statement without context --- especially based on someone’s else’s opinion --- down to someone’s mental or physical health state, you can tell that you are no better than this supposed “pop girl”.
However, stereotyping is not necessarily any one person’s fault. The problem lies in the plebeian interests that do not truly represent any one real human. After all, we are not all high on horny goat weed2.
The fact is that you probably thought I was a strange nerd-type until I made that joke --- unless you have been reading the subscripts, in which case you may have thought that I was obsessed with emo-punk music and therefore am also simultaneously a weird/depressed/emo cutter/troublemaker punk, which is a completely different kind of outcast. (News flash: the references I have listed are not hardcore. In fact, they are like a rotten apple core-soft. I could have listed some more hardcore references, but then you would really think I am crazy.)
The truth is that I like emo/punk/pop/alt/rock/electronica and my deviation: country. Yet I am (shock!) not currently a self-harmer. I want to make a change in the world rather than focusing on myself as I am simply a silent facet that not necessary yet existent and therefore potentially powerful. Even rounder characterization of me includes such “juxtaposed” personality elements as:
- liking to read and write and yet not regularly doing either for the last two years
- loving music yet wanting to learn sign language
- wanting to experience lots of things without
- PAST: becoming somewhat outgoing and social in the same year (2013) as gaining self-harming tendencies and getting anti-social
In reality, stereotypical people are much rarer than one may first presume. For example, I recently learned through a conversation that stereotypical nerds do exist --- but that their existence has to be a sheltered one in order to fit that terrible mold; however, these kinds of people may be book smart but are not truly intelligent because they have never been exposed to some of the constituents of life after that transition to adulthood. This is the danger not just of stereotypes but of stereotypical embodiments.
Therefore, harsh generalizing is problematic and hurtful not only to those wrongly categorized but to those who you will probably never meet who are aware of these degrading labels that describe them and make them realize that they will never be able to embed themselves into the society they must belong to in order to “succeed”.
Everyone is unique to approximately the same degree, but our degrees are also unique. We can rarely make an accurate generalization… so really, stop thinking people can be pigeonholed; if we are all perfectly grouped and same, we have finally arrived at the point in time where every purpose has been fulfilled and every goal of humanity that might have mattered has been obliterated. We have reached the end.
We do not want a useless universe, so why bother even pretending we are anywhere close to getting there?
(Ha ha ha… and I used a bit of a slippery slope fallacy; fallacies are very common when leading to stereotypes.)
0: I am referencing an All Time Low (emo/punk band) song “Lost in Stereo”.
1: This is the name of a pop-punk band; more on this and "punk" [music] stereotypes.
2: I promise that this a legitimate thing, regardless of how strange it may sound. However, it is an aphrodisiac (look it up; basic definition = turn-on drug) which diminishes the oddness of the name.
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