I apologize if I come across a little blunt in this entry, but I want to challenge each of us to really consider whether or not "stereotypes" are to blame for the negative attention our communities gets.
Consider this...
The word "stereotype" (ironically) is of Greek origin literally meaning "solid-kind." Its roots actually go back to the days of the Printing Press when newspapers began being printed from "metal printing plates by taking a mold of composed type or the like in papier-mache or other material and then taking from this mold a cast in type metal." (according to dictionary.com)
Now I'm no Printing Press expert, so that description is probably as confusing to you as it is to me, but the jist is this: that "mold" or what you and I would consider a "stamp" that is used to create the text on the newspaper is called a "stereotype." In printers term, a "stereotype" is that metal plate used to "stamp" the words on the page. According to Wikipedia, a "stereotype" (in printing terms) is a "duplicate impression of an orginial typographical element, used for printing instead of the original." So, an author would type her/his story on the typewriter, then would "duplicate" the story into a "stereotype" (or a stamp), that would be used to "stamp" the newspaper. Got it?
So, when the word was first coined, it was in essence, a duplicate reflection of an object - a stamp.
So where did the metpahor for "a conventional, formulaic, and oversimplied conception, opinion, or image" (dictionary.com's defintion of the modern usage of "stereotype") come from? Well, I'm really not sure. Because in response to the development of the printing stereotype, Walter Lippmann (an American journalist) created a metaphor for the stereotype by calling a stereotype a "picture in our heads" and that "whether right or wrong, imagination is shaped by the pictures seen..." In other words: the stereotype (remember: Greek translation = "solid-kind") that was used to print our newspapers, formed a picture in our heads... and those pictures formed in our heads lead us - as humans - to form an opinion.
Lets review:
- Greek translation = "solid-kind."
- The Stereotype printing tool = a stamp used to create "solid" (concrete) news.
- Walter Lippmann = creator of metaphor for how the stereotype used to create the newspapers leads to us forming a picture in our heads. Pictures in our heads, lead to our own imaginations.
History lesson complete.
Switch back to 2010...
Why has society and our collective generation, let the word "stereotype," come to mean something that it really wasn't meant to mean? Why do so many of us say stereotypes are unfair when every stereotype there is, is there for a reason? Why do so many of us complain that stereotypes are one-sided, when every man and women has the right to have his and hers own opinion (imagination) of something? Why do so many of us complain that stereotypes are to blame for negative attention, when a stereotype is simply a reflection of a "solid-kind?"
Yes, there are many "stereotypes" out there about our Sorority/Fraternity community. But please, please, please stop thinking that they are unfair, one-sided, and to blame for everything that goes wrong in our community, when all a stereotype is an opinion someone (or collective someones) form due to what they see.
A stereotype is nothing more than someone's perception of something. And what is MY perception? Sorry, but MY perception, is MY reality. What I percpieve, is reality for me. What YOU percieve, is reality for YOU. What Suzie Freshmen percieves about the sorority community, is being percieved in her mind for a reason. And who are we to say that her perception is wrong? We can try our hardest to change her perception, and to persuade her perception, but for as long as that perception remains in her mind, that is HER reality.
So now the question begs, where does her perception comes from? (hint: the answer is NOT the media). It comes from what she sees. It comes from OUR ACTIONS. If she perceives the sorority/fraternity community to be nothing more than"sex, drugs and fraterall", well, thats because she has seen/heard/witnessed that happening before.
Ok Tyler, but what if she heard that on the news? The news gave her that perception.
Ok fine. But who gave the news that perception? WE DID. And yes, yes, I know, "its just one or two chapters that are doing that bad stuff - its not all of us." But why should that matter? We are all one community, whether right or wrong, we are only as strong as our weakness link.
Ok, but, why doesn't the news talk about all the "sex, drugs and fraterall" that happens on the football team? Well, not to beat a dead horse after class yesterday, but, its simply because the Football team did not take a life-long oath tolive by the highest moral standards possible. So the football team not living by those highest moral standards possible is not news. Is the football team not playing football well "news"? Certainly. Is the Sorority/Fraternity community living by the highest moral standards "news"? Not at all. Why should the Sorority/Fraternity communitiy living by the highest moral standards possible be any more of "news" than Ohio State successfully completing another day of classes?
Instead of blaming stereotypes for keeping us from getting any positive attention, lets change our behavior to ensure that no one is able to have any negative perceptions to begin with. Because no matter how hard we try, a fraternity living by their values is NOT news.
But a fraternity NOT living by their values IS news, and gives every man and women the right to form a perception that becomes that person's reality.
So I know in class yesterday I said (in my opinion) "stereotypes don't exist." Let me recall that statement and instead say the following:
Stereotypes are perceptions of reality. Stereotypes are printings of what we write about ourselves. Stereotypes is imagination shaped by what is seen.
And until we change our collective behavior (note: not INDIVIDUAL behaviors), we will be continuing to author our own stereotypes. No one is responsible for our stereotypes other than ourselves.
So PLEASE lets stop blaming others, and start changing ourselves so the only thing people imagine is the same thing we imagine for ourselves.
"A stereotype is a picture in our heads. Whether right or
wrong, imagination is shaped by the pictures seen"
wrong, imagination is shaped by the pictures seen"
No comments:
Post a Comment