Stereotyping:A rant

[bossyjellyfish]

This is my first rant, I'm sorry.

One of the biggest problems. Especially for kids. Stereotyping.

For example, a new kid came to my school today. He was in two of my classes. He had a golf shirt, shorts, glasses and I believe he had a golf glove in his pocket (Which he put on once). He spoke aloud when he wasn't supposed to, he didn't have the best manners. Everyone (including me and the teacher) giggled. Then came lunch. He got eaten alive. The jocks tortured him, because he danced and golfed. I actually witnessed it once. One kid when in front of him and asked him how his twirl was, and spun around. The new kid pushed him, and the other kid got in trouble. Poor kid.

The problem is this. If you play a sport, (Football, Basketball, Baseball,Track) and good at it , you are considered a jock. Now, in my school, there are many jocks. Now, people that are either A.) Intelligent B.)Not the stereotyped pretty/handsome C.)Klutz D.)Goth, Athiest (sp) etc., or have strange beliefs/actions E.)All the above. You are bait for these sharks. (Sorry, I haven't had experience with girls being made fun of, so sorry)

They act as if you are nothing, trash that has no feelings. This is why they mess with us. To feel big. Why can't the math genius be the most popular kid in school? Just because sports may be "cool" or "hip" is not enough of an answer. But children always seem to accept that. Well the non-preps do not. As Kendra said earlier in her rant about what is and is not socially acceptable:

If in a private school, the prom queen / team quarterback was found hanging with a rope around his neck, it would be tragic and unexpected. There would be news coverage, family and friends would say things like “we never knew” or “how could this be? He / she wouldn't do something like this.” If a Goth / Nerd were found dead, people would just brush it off and say “**** kid was just depressed, oh well.”



It just isn't right. something has to be done.

Another thing.

People always make jokes about religion, stereotyping everything. "Jews are cheap" Is and example. (Absolutely no offense to Jewish people, just an example).

Then there is the annoying stereotype: "Gamers are slackers" WTF? I don't slack, I have high honors.
I just don't play competitive sports. Shoot me.

"Nerds/Geeks/Goths/Emos/*Insert name some other name here* has no friends." What? They have friends, just like jocks do.


Kids need to actually talk to others and actually get to know them, not judge them by their cover.


Hopefully my rant is ok, sorry if it isn't.

 

[Jammer]

I agree. Stereotyping is so obnoxious. The problem is that you need to consciously keep yourself from doing it, because pretty much everybody naturally stereotypes.

I am once again reminded how awesome my school is. For some reason, everybody is so nice at my school. Well, not everybody, but we generally get along great with each other, even including the non-typical kids. We don't really have "jocks"; we just have kids who play sports. At lunch, I sit at a table with 3 football players/wrestles, two soccer players, and two band geeks. That's how it is pretty much everywhere in my school.

 

[Marty]

I always hear about this ****, but I've never seen it anywhere I've been. Even in secondary school, I knew and hung around with a real mix. There were no real "groups". You rolled with everyone.

To be honest man, talk is cheap. If you want to make a change, then do something the next time you see it happen.

 

[Xanthyr]

I would imagine that it would vary depending on where you went. I know at my school there were some people being stupid and judgmental, but for the most part, I would not tolerate that behavior. Whenever I saw someone being bullied, I'd take the counter point and make the person back down. Whenever I did this nothing usually would happen ever again.

Stereotyping is ridiculous, it will never subside, but we can sure as hell try to slow it down.

As for the differences in social standings (the suicide argument) I agree that it is bogus and people have flawed connotations on just about everything.

 

[_milktea]

Interesting post, most of what you said is true. People like that are shallow-minded fools that don't deserve friends other than idiots like themselves. I hate people who aren't accepting. Ridiculous. Good stuff.

 

[Brightside6382]

Its funny how you complain about stereo-typing but in the first paragraph you explain how the "jocks" ate him alive. Kind of ironic but oh well.

 

[ender]

Its a lot easier to not be near *******s when you get out of public school. Just take it a while longer.

 

[Paranoid_Android]

I hate people who make whiney threads. They're all fat, annoying nerds with no friends and misguided sociopolitical views.

 

[notftomearth7]

I hang out with some pretty...um...socially awkward people but that doesn't mean I'm socially awkward too.




Big props to whoever started this, big props

 

[Bailey]

I honestly hang out with all people because they are my friends. Today I get this one white kid who is like convinced he is black and says to me "Your doo is totally sweet dude!'' I was like was he just trying to act white? Wait he is white. Or is he???\

IDK I hate stereotyping, but am guilty of it too with friends. That doesn't make it right but still.

 

[Children_of_Bodom]

Well I do agree with your rant, stereotyping is not neccesary and can hurt someone's feelings. And a good rant btw.

 

[Pluvia's other account]

Weirdly, my school is not like this.

I always thought school like that don't exist except in corny Teenage American Movies.

In my one, the smart kid is usually the one that's most respected. If you're a chav, then you get thrown out when you're 16, so everybody avoids them.

People just stay with their friends, there is no classes of popularity really.

 

[commonyoshi]

Thank goodnes my school is nothing like this. There are a couple of jerks here and there, but they're generally looked down on in return.

I think the hardest thing about people ganging up on others is that sometimes they people who are the jerks are your friends. I'd have no problem defending someone against a group of people who look like they'd beat me up, but when they're your friends it becomes an entirely different issue. The sad thing is they would probably listen to your criticism.

Stryker, the next time that happens just tell the attackers to piss off.
or do a Revenge of the Nerds thing. I've always thought that would be cool.

 

[Haruno Kotetsu]

I now love this guy.

Today in gym I was just walking around in the locker room, and everyone shuts up and says "LOok at that freak, he creeps me out." And everyone starts laughing their *** off, not even knowing my name. Why? They had the nerve to ask me.

Thats just an example. Same thing with people that dont like to fit in with the crowd and be unique. People like you mentioned harass them all the time for some reason. I hate todays society build on a mound of crap and rumors.

 

[BigRick]

I'm weird because I was an athlete (starting PG on a state champion basketball team) and I was also 2nd strongest student in my whole promotion.

So I was never considered a jock, or a nerd...

I didn't really liked basketball btw... got pushed into the team because I'm black, also joined because of the social benefits.

 

[Rapid_Assassin]

All you have to do is wait a few years. You'll never have to see any of these people again if you don't want to. That's the beauty of growing up.

Stereotypes exist for a reason. They aren't always true. But the reason they exist is because they are true often enough to make them exist. And don't tell me that you don't stereotype at all. Every single person I've ever met in my entire life does.

 

[BigRick]

Stereotypes exist for a reason. They aren't always true. But the reason they exist is because they are true often enough to make them exist. And don't tell me that you don't stereotype at all. Every single person I've ever met in my entire life does.

Haha I agree.

 

[MattDel]

yea, i agree with the people who say that you just have to wait a few years...

high school sucks... as i've learned these past 3 years plus the fraction of this one... i can't wait for college... it's supposed to be better

 

[Xanthyr]

It's a bit better because people actually want to be there. After all, they pay a large sum of money, and they're going for what they want as a career, so they'll be more opt to pay attention and respect others if they think at all.

 

[ender]

not necessarily. There will always be people you dont like and if you go to a community college EVERYONE will be there so you wont escape dumb people there, you just wont have to talk to them as much.

But the best way to get out of a bad situation is to change what you are doing. Senior year should be a great year for everyone, even if you were a loser or whatever you hopefully have a few friends by now to have fun the last year. If you have no friends then make some!

 

[Marty]

Its funny how you complain about stereo-typing but in the first paragraph you explain how the "jocks" ate him alive. Kind of ironic but oh well.

haha yeah I was going to point this out but I was hoping the OP would realise.

 

[bossyjellyfish]

Wow, thanks for the responses.

We are all victims of being stereotyped and stereotyping sometime in our lives. (EX: I stereotyped the jocks, but i should have divided them into Nice/Mean Jocks)Just most of the time we keep it to ourselves.

And Paranoid Android, I'm not whining, I'm ranting ; ).

 

[Yd0c]

I was there.
It isnt as bad now though.
The kid who did it, I just looked at him, said "yeah." And kept on walking. Now he doesnt even look at me.

 

[Keku]

Weird, there's not stuff like that here really. You can definitely be good in sports and be a "nerd", so to say, at the same time. No problem. I'm quite athletic myself, I play basketball and like to keep myself in good shape, yet I can do exceptionally well in school and be, well, not nerdy, but interested in computers and games, at the same time, and that doesn't really get in the way of my social connections. How much friends and what kind of friends you have around you is defined by how social you are yourself and what kind of friends you want to have.

I'm not sure at what age you are experiencing this, but the educational system here is a bit different, which might explain something. At the age of 15, teens have to choose whether to go for a high school or a profession-oriented school. If I'd have to explain it shortly and very crudely, it's the more sophisticated 50% (and most of the time, more intelligent) that go into a high school, whereas the rest goes for the professional school. Being with similiar types of people whets the conflicts out pretty well, and prevents stuff like the jock/no-one problem.

Just my two cents though.

Edit (seems like I always magically remember things after clicking the Post-button...):

Stereotypes are a very natural part of human behaviour. It's just how the human brain works, always looking for patterns. "Ok, he's good at sports, and he's good at sports aswell. What do they have in common?". After making empiristic notices on reality, we use induction and form stereotypes. Whether they are justified and true is an utterly different case however.

 

[Marty]

Really, stereotyping isn't the problem here.

*******s are, and always will be. If they can use stereotyping to streamline *******ry, so much the better for them.

edit: read ******* as: bottom hole