stereotype.

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ster-e-o-type; [ster-ee-uh-tahyp]

reot ype :

A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing: “sexual and racial stereotypes”.u n

ib View or represent as a stereotype: “the film is weakened by its stereotyped characters”.

“London Calling”

Jamal, 19, who is also a college student, says of U.K. media: “They portray us in a malicious manner and make out as if we carry out crime for the sake of it. I strongly believe that 90 percent of crime is to be rich because the media and the rest of society hold us back in other areas.”

Music producer Sean, aged 22, says the problem is that “black male” is automatically linked with crime in this country. “If someone is murdered on the streets, the first suspect is a Black man or a gang of Black men,” Sean says. “People always assume that a Black man wearing a hoodie is a criminal; it frustrates me because for all you know, my hood could be up because I’m cold and I left my winter coat at home or

maybe I could be having a bad hair day, you see my point?”

Ryan Daniels, 20, a graphic designer, be-lieves at the end of the day, only Black males can turn things around by taking matters into their hands.

“I believe education starts at home. If you respect your parents and they teach you the correct way to live your life, then you’re off to a good start,” Daniels says. “It’s almost impossible to change the perception of white people.

MEDIA STE

Do young males in the UK feel like they are constantly being stereotyped in a demeaning way in print and broadcast media? One young man offers an interest-ing take; that some Black males end up fulfilling the media’s stereotypical depictions.

“Of course, young Black males are being stereotyped because the media always say what we are not,” an 18 year old college student, Gerson, who provides only his first name, says. “If you keep saying someone is something; eventually they become it and believe it. For example, the media are always talking about us wearing hoodies so that’s only going to encour-age us to keep wearing them.” Another student, 18 year old Chris, who studies sociology, agrees with Gerson and adds that so long as White males con-trol major media, the stereotypes won’t diminish.

My hood could be up because I’m cold or may-be I’m having a bad hair day, you see my point?

“ “

“London Calling”

TEREOTYPES

Nowadays, through the increasing power of mass media, it is a fact that images have a strong effect in the promotion of certain gender roles. These hidden forces shape us and our world view, often with-out us being aware that they are doing so. Gender stereotypes occur when generic roles have been applied toward either gender and the results are apparent everywhere in our society. The process of subtle gender shaping is all too present, even in children’s TV programmes. 213 males and females participated in a questionnaire which gave the following results. Males are stronger. Females like pink. Males like blue. Females are nurses. Males are doctors. Females belong in the kitchen. Males should work. Females should be the house-wife. Males hare reading. Females are sensitive. Males are agressive.

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Statistical reasearch was done to find out the views of many peo-ple around the UK. A questionnaire was sent out to 500 random people where 213 people replied and gave the following answers.

76% say they exist. 85% say they effect society. 70.2% say they're negative. 60% say they do not stereotype others. 91.2% say they have been stereotyped. 90% say they know the definition. but 70% got the definition wrong. 64% have been effected by stereotypes. 80% think stereotypes will still exist in 10 years. 48% say they have a negative effect on life. 70% say they would rather there were none.

HIGH FASHION

ON EVERYFOOT?

WE ALL JUST

Would you wear something that hurts you? I mean, literally causes you physical pain … Day in and day out? Over and over? Would you recognize it’s because of peer pressure and curse all your colleagues and friends who suffer in silence, but still carry on? Are they just worn because it’s a gen-eral stereotype that all woman wear heels?

Would you heave a sigh of relief at the end of the day, but then with a stifled groan and false smile plastered across your face slip your feet into those darned heels again the next morning? Would you? Do you? She knows the long-term ramifications of wearing heels, too, yet she powers on.

One of my friends had said to me some-time last summer, “You must be thrilled that flats are in vogue this season!” It was a comment geared at my £19.99 Pay-less shoes — the same pair (in brown and black) that I’ve been wearing the past two years. I’m not one to follow trends, but I’m a big fan of common sense.

A male friend had once reacted to my disgust at a woman hobbling across the street, in obvious pain th thanks to her stilettos, “What’s wrong with you? Don’t you realize that women look more ap-pealing in heels? Their whole swagger changes. Men find it really appealing.”

vogue this season!” It was a comment geared at my £19.99 Payless shoes — the same pair (in brown and black) that I’ve been wear-ing the past two years. I’m not one to follow trends, but I’m a big fan of common sense.

A male friend had once reacted to my disgust at a woman hobbling across the street, in obvious pain th thanks to her stilettos, “What’s wrong with you? Don’t you realize that women look more ap-pealing in heels? Their whole swagger changes. Men find it really appealing.”

So, on behalf of the entire male communi-ty he had pronounced that women prized men’s attention over their own comfort. He might have been right, but I had responded with a big, “Whatever!” since I’d rather have a man fall for my wit than for the way my hips move on a stilted piece of footwear.

A study by the Telegraph released on Tues-day, however, suggests that “men cannot even tell if a woman is wearing high heels when they walk.” So much for im-pressing men Sidenote: I’m not a big fan of waste-ful studies either, but this one happened to present itself at an opportune time.

Coming back to the topic at hand, I con-tinue to be flummoxed by women’s capac-ity to endure pain just so their female form can appear more … ummm… attractive.But if men, supposedly, don’t even notice, who are you trying to be attractive for? Other women? But other women would surely empathize and then none of you would ever have to wear high heels again.

WANNA HAVE FUN

I mean... they lit-erally cause me physical pain so why would I wear them day in and day out, over and over?

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HIGH FASHION

ON EVERYFOOT?

WE ALL JUSTWANNA HAVE FUN

I mean... they lit-erally cause me physical pain so why would I wear them day in and day out, over and over?

““

stereotypes.SCHOOLAny stereotype cannot continue to persist if it does not have at least some truth in it. Two things contribute to school stereotypes - school culture and image. Both are inseparable. The influ-ence of one’s school culture and image can be seen even years after one has left school. The English school stereotype can be very different to the American ones. Below highlights some of the main English Secondary school stereotypes and the effects they have on an individual.

Popular...

Emo...

Chav...

A stereotype of a group of young people, that are usually good looking and have expensive clothes. Females in this group are usually very con-cerned with their appearance and their fashions.

A working-class youth, especially one associ-ated with aggression, poor education, and a perceived “common” taste in clothing and life-style. One who wears tracksuits, Fred Perry, Berghaus, and excessive amounts of faux Burberry.

A stereotypical label used to describe a person that is socially inadequate. A four letter word, but a six figure income. A person who gains pleasure from amass-ing large quantities of knowledge about subjects of-ten too detailed or complicated for most other peo-ple to be bothered with. Often are the teachers pet.

Nerd...

Stereotype of people who have a lower toler-ance for sad emotions, and feels inadiquet of their own personal worth. They have long dark hair and listen to a lot of loud heavy metal.

stereotypeseuropeanAs the European crisis ratch-

ets up antagonism between countries, there has been a rise in name-calling and finger-pointing: from lazy southerners to domineering northerners, with plenty in between. And that's before the football starts this summer. The six newspa-pers in the Europa project were asked to stereotype each other, and then asked cultural com-mentators in each country to assess how accurate they are.

Brits are portrayed as class-con-scious binge-drinkers utterly ob-sessed with the war. It’s a thumb-nail sketch, not the whole picture, writes Jonathan Freedland.

And, sure enough, drink, class and the second world war all crop up in the thumbnail sketch of the British (Europeans tend to use “British” as a synonym for “English”, rather forgetting the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish)provided by our colleagues across the Channel. It would be nice to say that our neighbourshave us all wrong – but, sadly, cli-ches only become cliches if they are built on a foundation of truth.

Start with the bottle. Sure, we can cling to the statistics that show we are far from Europe’s heaviest drinkers. In fact, the last round of OECD figures ranked us 11th in Europe for alcohol consumption, far behind France

europastereotypes.

in first place, followed by Por-tugal and Austria. But while the French, German, Spanish and Italians are drinking much less than they did in 1980, Brit-ons are drinking 9% more.

Still, it’s not the volume of pints (or litres) consumed that has led to our boozy reputation. It’s the way we drink that’s the problem.

The French figure may be high, but that’s driven up by a lot of people drinking moderately: the glass or two of red at din-ner.. The British disease has even entered the French language: le binge drinking is the preferred phrase for vast, rapid consump-tion aimed solely at getting hammered. It’s this falling-over, vomiting brand of drunkenness, visible in most city centres on a Friday night, that has become

part of our national image. One study found that 54% of Brit-ish 15- and 16-year-olds admit to binge drinking, compared to a European average of 43%. In other words, there is more than a little reality behind the image.

What, though, of this descrip-tion of us as “awfully class con-scious”? It’s tempting to say that that’s out of date, that most Britons now belong in the vast, sprawling middle class. But the figures are much less comfort-ing. The OECD put Britain at the bottom of the social mobil-ity league table, finding that children born into poor fami-lies here have a lower chance of getting on than they do in Italy, France, Spain or Germany.

Even if the figures were not against us, we could hardly com-plain if our fellow Europeans think we have a hang-up about class. What message do we Brits think we send when our signa-ture cultural export of 2011 was Downton Abbey, a show entirely about the intricacies of class and which apparently longs for a return to Edwardian notions of hierarchy? The smash West End play One Man, Two Gu-vnors similarly revolves around class. Unfortunately, it’s not just a foreigners’ myth that in Brit-ain how one speaks and what school one attended still counts.

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British stereotypes: do mention the war, please!

*www.stereotypical.co.uk