Why do Stereotypes exist?

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Why do Stereotypes exist?

Stereotype is a common description about a group of people or an image of a person, which is done by observing some of the significant characteristic features in the behavior or appearance of that group. Stereotypes are age old as that of culture. Stereotype will reflect an opinion given by a group on another group who are different from them. A stereotype can collectively exist as a single phrase or word or as an image, or as collection of words. The idea or image developed for the sake of a group of people can be easily recognized by the other people who share the same opinion.
Some stereotypes are told positively on a group while some are told as negative. An example for the positive stereotype is black men are good at basketball” while the example for negative one is that women are bad drivers”. These statements indicate that basketball is played extremely well by all the blacks and all women are bad at driving. It is wrong to entrust any activity to a group of people in general. Every person has his or her own abilities, talents, behavior, understanding capacity and many more. Every person is unique in his or her behavior. Though the stereotypes say in general about a group in full, they cannot explain or describe the characteristics of every individual.
Stereotypes can be used mostly by the media or writers or directors or reporters or producers or editors when they like to tell about the general aspects of a group. The identity of a group or an individual can be easily given by saying that he belongs to such a group which can be understood by the public. Stereotypes can help the media to make a person or group to be identified or recognized by the audience. In a tight situation where you do not have an option to describe the individual, stereotypes can help to easily characterize an individual. Stereotypes can identify the characteristic feature of a situation and person easily rather than explaining the situation in a complex manner.

Author: Hari M

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