Stereotype Affects Our Life

All people, to some extent, hold stereotype which means fixed opinions on some specific people or things. After researching, reasons causing stereotype include the past existing phenomena, changes brought by time and personal environment. The existence of stereotype provides both advantages and disadvantages. Through stereotype, we can have a quick learn about the target people or things. However, attributed to incorrectness of stereotype, it also imperils the benefit of the target people or thing.

Reasons leading to the existence of stereotype include a lot. First, it should be admitted that phenomena reflected by stereotype do exist in some specific time or areas. As the article has mentioned, “traditional stereotypes about Asian students being geeky came about when the pupils tended to be ‘ABCs’, and there are photos of “Asian students sleeping in the library, usually slumped over their study materials”. The direct reason for the formation of this stereotype is that there really existed a period when ABC was popular and some of the Asian students did not work hard enough. The second reason giving rise to stereotype is that as time moves forward, some of the situation will change, which makes the stereotype not right any more. It is well known that the world is changing everyday. As China has gained remarkable economic and political success in the past decades, the domestic environment and the Chinese people’s quality also greatly improved. The article points out that “China produces vast numbers of highly qualified applicants whose families can afford to pay American fees” and Chinese students “have more on their minds than studies” and “have more confidence than American students in general”. Therefore, the change of the real situation also results in the emergence of stereotype. Third, although the situation changes, not all the people can realize it. In the article, Mahlon Meyer, a teacher of University of Washington, can directly get in touch with Chinese students and thus can recognize the bias of the stereotype. However, for those of rest who have not been to China and got in touch with Chinese students, it is very difficult for them to change their minds because they even do not realize they are wrong. As Buswell, Carol says, “many are constantly being reinforced by personal experiences, family discussions, and Hollywood productions as well”. Therefore, individual environment also has a direct link with the formation of stereotype. Once a person has no chance to face the real situation, it is easier for him to insist his stereotype. All the aspects mentioned above interact with each other and result in the coming up of stereotype.

The existence of stereotype brings us positive impacts as well as negative impacts. Reasons can be explained in the example of stereotype that women’s performance in mathematics, engineer and technology is poorer than men’s. It is always said at school by teachers that girls are not so good at science as boys. On one hand, it really can help us know more about the respective strength of girls and boys. We, therefore, will pay different attention to girls and boys in different subjects and promote better resources allocation. In a word, stereotype sometimes can give us a  quick learn about target people and thing, and facilitate preparations of higher quality. However, on the other hand, totally being directed by stereotype will cause many following problems. Although it seems like that boys are smarter than girls in science, there are always some exceptional girls who are far more intelligent than boys. If we totally insist the stereotype, it may result in the fact that we lose some talents. Moreover, girls at school generally are more diligent than boys, which to some extent offsets their insufficiency and thus they have the equal chance to success. In a word, stereotype may bring about the loss of students with potential. Moreover, from the perspective of women, it is really unfair to them. First, they cannot enjoy the same attention from teachers, which will indirectly influence their confidence and enthusiasm in studying science. Second, caused by stereotype, learning resources may not be equally available for women and men. Third, when being told that they are not as talented as men in science, women may bear greater pressure during the learning process. As the research of Good Catherine and her teammates points out, “negative stereotypes can undermine women's performance on mathematics tests” and “even among the most highly qualified and persistent women in college mathematics, stereotype threat suppresses test performance”. Furthermore, the influence of such gender stereotype not only exert itself in school life, but also spread into work area. Powell Abigail and his teammates reveal the phenomenon that in UK, the number of women joining jobs related to engineering and technology is far less than that of men. “It finds that women often maintain contradictory views; upholding gendered stereotypes about women's suitability for the so-called masculine work, yet also subscribing to ideals that the sector is accessible to all who wish to work in it”. It can be concluded from the result that gender stereotype has already influenced women’s career choices, and thus has an impact on the gender distribution of some specific fields. From this example, it is clear that stereotype imperils the benefits of many people, not only those who have misunderstandings, but also those who are misunderstood.

The reasons why stereotype exists involve many factors. First, there do exist some phenomena which are described by the stereotype. Second, these phenomena have changed as time flies. Third, limited by personal experience, some people cannot realize the mistake of the stereotype. The existence of stereotype brings us both benefits and adverse impacts. It can help us generally know the characteristics of a person or a thing. However, it will also distort the truth about the relevant things and people. Therefore, in daily life, we should pay attention to the drawbacks of stereotype and explore truth by ourselves.

Works Cited

Buswell, Carol.(2011).Confronting Stereotypes. Social Education, 75(6),310-313.

Good Catherine; Aronson Joshua and Harder Jayne Ann.(2008). Problems in the Pipeline: Stereotype Threat and Women's Achievement in High-Level Math Courses. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 29(1),17-28.