Sociology

A stereotype is a generalization which develops in peoples minds about a particular group of people. It is very common in the society and the basic cause is the ignorance. Stereotypes are usually used to convince and persuade people to a certain cause.

When talking about the stereotypes regarding politicians one can observe a number of them in our environment. The most common stereotype associated with the group Politicians is double-standard. This says that if a party does wrong it is now not wrong for you to do it. It is commonly believed among the people that politicians always practice wasteful spending they always are hypocrites and are liars and actually tell lie in order to get into power. It is also believed commonly that politicians develop wrong stereotypes about their opposition so to get through success. It is believed because people have experienced it a many times that politicians did not practice what they promise and did not accept what they did before. This doesnt mean that all politicians are actually acting on these stereotypes and we have experienced some that are not like that, but most of them followed the practice and so the stereotypes associated is believed true by the people. We should not always believe that every politician is a liar and hence every stereotype associated with the group should not be applied to all the politicians because we can recall the names of a number of politicians who were excellent leaders and persons of integrity and conscientiousness.

Conceptions about tattooed people can also be categorized in the examples of the stereotypes. People generally believe the person with a tattoo as a gangster. They think that a person who is tattooed is a violent one or he may be thought as a criminal, a rough bike-rider, a circus person and a military person. (Green, 2009). They are also thought to be a foolish person who is not happy with the body provided to him by the Almighty.

Many religious communities believe that this way to mark a persons body is a sinful act and it must not be done. It is also experienced that many of the mentioned attributed people used tattoos and so the stereotypes developed. This stereotype is not a true and it has been proved wrong. (Moore  Parker, 2007, p.21p).  Misconceptions are now changing with the passage of time and the stereotypes associated with the groups are diminishing as it has been seen that people who previously condemned the use of tattoos have used them afterwards. It is ridiculous to associate all the previously mentioned attributes with every tattooed person.

Another example which can be categorized in stereotyping is the stereotypes associated with feminists. When the name feminists comes people associate the word butch with them. ( HYPERLINK httpwww.triond.comusersChristopherDeRoche t _blank DeRoche, 2009).  Butch means those who usually have short hairs, they have relationships with women usually and do not like to be with men, and they do not shave their body hair. People believe that feminists are lesbians and they want this concept to be legalized. This concept is not at all true for all the feminists. We can say that this could be correct for some but this can not be associated with all the members of the group feminists. It is just a manipulation by the media unless media finds something else to target. Feminists are in real the women who want to stand up for their rights and they do not like to use men for their helping purpose. They want to be independent. They point here is that one should not associate the stereotypes with all the feminists as they are all wrong and do not prove correct with all feminists.

One other example which one can give while describing stereotypes is the stereotypes related to the senior citizens. Old age members of the society are generally believed to be ill-tempered, of drooped shoulders and slump postured. No one of them seems prominent. Other stereotypes can be the gray hairs and wrinkles on the faces of the senior ones which are true because it is medically true that when a person grows old his skin becomes wrinkled. Other stereotypes related to the senior citizens are that they drive too slowly and some people think that they are like a burden to the society just taking pensions and do not pay taxes. There is no law related to slow driving and it is not at all prohibited any where so the thinking that old people are wrong here, is simply no better than rubbish.

The belief that senior citizens are a burden to our society is again an example of rubbish. We must not forget that the senior citizens of our society have lived their whole life giving taxes and contributing towards the growth which made us what we are at this time. So this is the time at which they must not be charged taxes as they need our support now.

We can see that there are a number of stereotypes related to many groups of people. It is not at all necessary that the stereotypes apply to all members of the group and in some cases these stereotypes are even not applied to the majority and they are just being manipulated.