Today in sociology, we learned about Joel Charon's distinction between generalizations and stereotypes. A generalization is taking information gained from sociological studies and research, and coming to a conclusion about a group of people. Take for example the generalization that Asian-Americans are more intellectually motivated than Caucasians. However, if one takes this broad generalization about a group of people, and assumes it applies to everyone in that group, they are creating a grave mistake, a stereotype.
Stereotypes, in addition to often being inacurate, can be exceedingly painful as well. At the risk of over-expounding on this one topic, I relate once again to the LGBT community. As a community that incapsulates a huge bredth of different people, this community is exceedingly prone to stereotyping. Gay Guys are effiminate, weak, and fashion oriented. Lesbians are manly, fat, and rude. Bisexuals and Pansexuals are promiscuous whores. The list goes on and on. These stereotypes not only cause immense pain and anguish to the people they attack, they are also almost wholely inacurate. As a member of our school's GSA, I am fortunate enough to know and be friends with many members in that community. I can tell you first hand, not only do these stereotypes not fit many of the people in the LGBT community, they barely fit anyone at all. They hardly even classify as generalizations! Yet the media expounds the stereotype of the effeminate gay guy, the butch lesbian, and the promiscuous bisexual. And as a result, society comes to view these lies as truths, causing pain and discomfort to many an innocent person.
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