Stereotypes

The term stereotype is thrown around A LOT when discussing this movie, and i think it's good to bring it up as it's own topic. So here we go: Why We Stereotype, by me

First of all, why we stereotype other people: We are lazy, or more acuratly our brains our. We receive such vast amounts of sensory information that by the time we sort it all, it would be too late to act on it. This would be very bad in the case of say, a car suddenly is coming at us. We do not sit there and analyze every detail, we just see "car" our brains connect cars with "fast moving heavy metal" so we get the fudge out of the way. We see a dog and do not sit there and analyze it's physical anatomy in order to determine how to deal with it, instead we see an object that fits the classification of "dog" we then assign what we believe typically associates with everything of that classification: "dog's like to be patted on head" and then carry out our actions based on that information: we pate the dogs on the head. It's natural, in fact, it's a survival method (see aforementioned car example) So it's not bad to stereotype. However, it is bad to not be willing to shift some paradigms, alter your stereotype. It's when people develop stereotypes like "blondes are ditzy" that things start being a problem as when they meet a blonde who is not ditzy, they will still associate "ditzy" with "blonde" Maybe they'll add the subnote "except Girl XYZ" but the fact is they still maintain that original bias towards all blondes. Again, it's easier for our brains to just add little subnotes then to radically alter how it views the world. Why we stereotype: we are naturally lazy :D

Why people actively fit into stereotypes: Stereotypes are one of the best camoflauges our society has developed. People see a stereotype, and do not bother to see the details. The best spys and sabatuers would look like ordinary people, not flashy James Bond. I mean, if you see a redneck, does the thought "secret agent" immediatly flash to mind? Of course not. Who could honestly see Jeff Foxworthy as a master infiltartor? It is a social camoflauge that allows us to hide our true selves. Take a person: A man, Joe Schmoe. Give him a secret shame: He's emotional and cries at romantic comedies. He secretly watches them and dreams of finding true romance. Bad? Of course not, who doesn't want to be loved? Anyway, add some friends, some social peers: Stereotypical frat guys. These are Joe's friends. He stereotypes them as making fun of him if he cries. Therefore he will then try to appease them and gain acceptance by not only denying romantic "chick flicks" but also belittle them to further distance himself from the truth. Joe may go as far as to make fun of other people. This just perpetuates the stereotype. Other people will see "stereotypical frat guy" and will not notice the tears that well in his eyes when Humphrey Bogart denies Ingrid Bergman at the end of Casablanca. Social Camoflauge: by only allowing people to see certain parts of ourselves, we allow them to fill in the details, and thus not only keep our flaws hidden, but gain a social edge over them because they do not truly know who we are. To quote "If knowledge is power, then to be unknown is to be invincible"

Any thoughts. I would love to hear what people have to say about this, if anybody even gets around to reading it :D\


Finally, how this relates to this film. In the movie industry, stereotypes are used all the time because they can quickly paint a picture when time is the most valuable commodity. They can provide just a couple quick character points and let the audience do the rest. Look at movies, the audience does most of the work. The audience recognizes transitions from night to day, time, characters, plots all from mere snippets of info. Many movies that are under 2 hours cover years of time. Without tools like stereotypes, it'd take forever on just supporting characters wiht just a couple funny lines. Stereotypes are instruments to knowledge. They are not neccesarily bad, or good, they're just how we process information. It's when people forget that stereotypes are just that, crib notes for our brains that problems start to arrise. Which will lead to my next topic....