What stereotype bugs you the most?

@Khayam (346)
Romania
January 12, 2009 4:39am CST
Stereotypes are flooding our lifes on a daily basis. Either on your way back home, either at job or in traffic you have the chance to hear other people coming up with something like "All latinos are lazy", "All black people stay on welfare for their whole lives", "All Arabian/Middle Eastern People are terrorist", "All gay guys are promiscuous and have AIDS/HIV". I remember when travelling to Germany that the stereotype bugging me the most was "All Romanians are gipsy" while actually I was the only one with blonde hair, blue eyes in that neightbourhood. In your case, which stereotype would making you angry?
1 person likes this
1 response
• Argentina
12 Jan 09
First of all, let me tell you that I think this is one of the best questions I've seen on this site. Now, I'll say it all depends on the way the stereotype is presented. For instance, if it's presented in a humorous way, I don't mind them. I was watching a movie the other day, and at one point, two characters are engaged into a conversation about laziness, and one of them says "Once I was in Argentina, nobody seemed to want to do anything there". I'm paraphrasing here, but even as an Argentine, I found that line hilarious. Why?, well, because the context made it funny. That's a whole lot different than stereotyping out of ignorance. My personal favorite, is people going into imdb.com or similar places, and ask about a certain actor heritage. Lets use Cameron Diaz as an example, the question in her page would be something like: "Her last name is Diaz, which is latino, but she's blonde and has fair skin. Was she adopted or something?" I'm not kidding, I've actually seen a post that asked that question. But to be honest, I wouldn't say they make me angry. Sad? Maybe a little, it's sad to see people being so ignorant. But I choose to laugh about it, I don't win anything by getting angry at them. Rich
1 person likes this
@Khayam (346)
• Romania
14 Jan 09
Probably I would have marked your response as the best one, even if many others will have answered to this question. Unfortunatelly stereotypes aren't much of a topic for the community. Thanks Richard, amazing lesson of life you offered to the people
• Argentina
15 Jan 09
Why, thank you man. I think the reason why people don't answer to these types of discussions, is because they are afraid of making the wrong choice of words, or being taken out of context, and then, being labeled as racists or the like. Racism is a touchy subject, and people are easily offended these days. Mostly because they tend to read to much into what someone says. In a place like Mylot, where we all like to have a high number in our star, because it measures how helpful we've been, it's really obvious why people prefer discussions like "how do you prepare your eggs for breakfast" than something more controversial. Religion seems to be the exception to the rule, but it's certainly not as popular as the more mundane interests. Rich