What is a Stereotype?

I'm sure we all have our own definition of what a stereotype is, but I thought having it on print would put more emphasis on the word/idea.


Wikipedia's Definition:

A stereotype is a thought that may be adopted about specific types of individuals or certain ways of doing things, but that belief may or may not accurately reflect reality.

Eleven Theses about Stereotypes by Charles Ramirez Berg:

1. Stereotypes Are Applied with Rigid Logic
In other words, traits applied to people in a group are inflexible. The idea goes: "If you are __________(fill in name of group), then you must _________ (fill in predictable traits, characteristics, behavior, etc). Berg suggests "people tend to find comfort in stereotypes because they can make rigid something that can only be fluid," since no one person is exactly the same to the next.

2. Stereotypes May Have a Basis in Fact
The idea of the trait/image that becomes a stereotype did come from somewhere. Someone, somewhere must have experienced this with a person from the group who is being stereotyped, perhaps even had similar experiences with more than one person of that group. However, this does not mean every single person of that group will have said trait.

3. Stereotypes Are Simplified Generalizations that Assume Out-group Homogeneity
Stereotypes "flatten, homogenize, and generalize" individuals within a group. People in a group are foremost, individuals, and therefore made up of their own different characteristics. They are heterogeneous not homogeneous.



4. Stereotypes Work at Far Too General a Level to be Worthwhile Predictors
The idea of categorizing a group of people under a handful of specific traits because you know their culture and history is absurd. When you actually get to know a person from that group (or preferably more than one person) and you listen to their individual experiences then you will begin to breakdown stereotypes.

5. Stereotypes are Uncontextualized and Ahistorical
Stereotypes usually assume a group has no social, political, or economic history. They use a trait or image and disregard the background information of how it was obtained. Unfortunately this leads to the stereotype erasing the reality, and the consistency of that stereotype to become what is considered "normal" for that group.

6. Repetition Tends to Normalize Stereotypes
The media is the #1 cause of this. "With repetition, narration becomes representation," and the media is constantly regurgitating stereotypical characters. Stereotypes become an expectation and cease to be superficial traits.

7. Stereotypes Are Believed
Stereotypes are connected to attitudes and beliefs; they go hand in hand. However, an attitude towards a group is harder to break, and therefore beliefs towards that group are resistant.

8. Stereotyping Goes Both Ways
Usually it is the dominant group that stereotypes the subordinate group. However, dominant group stereotypes also exist. Still, media is the #1 producer of stereotypes and they usually exaggerate the subordinate group. Therefore, those stereotypes are the most prevalent.

9. Stereotypes are Ideological
Stereotypes are one way the dominant group stays in control and keeps the subordinate group inferior. It "demonstrates why the in-group is in power, the the out-group is not, and why things need to stay just as they are."

10. The In-group Stereotypes Itself
Even the dominant group stereotypes within themselves. They grab the negative traits of their group and use them as examples of what they do not want to be.

11. The Antidote to Stereotyping is Knowledge
Being aware of the group being stereotyped and of the stereotyping process will help to break down these traits. Knowing the process will make it easier to detect stereotypes and understand where they come from and how they are irrelevant. "Experience, contact and maturity" are needed to erase traits and images used to describe a group.


Berg, Charles Ramirez. Latino Images in Film: Stereotypes, Subversion, and Resistance. University of Texas Press, 2002. Print

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Accumulation Theory (Defleur & Dennis 1998)

This theory suggests that the consistency, persistance, and corroboration of stereotypes in mass media will cause long-term effects difficult to erase.

Merskin, Debra."Three Faces of Eva: Perpetuation of the Hot-Latina Stereotype in Desperate Housewives." Howard Journal of Communications 18.2 (2007):133-51. Print