Honorable Mention

Stereotype: a fixed idea that many people have about a thing or a group and that may often be untrue or partially true [Merriam-Webster Children's Dictionary]. There are many different harmful stereotypes today that are expressed in the media. These stereotypes can result in name-calling, prejudice, and hurt feelings.

Stereotypes are found in different types of media including TV. magazines, newspapers, and music. Stereotypes also target different audiences. For example, when I asked my parents what stereotypes bother them, my Irish mother said, "All Irish people drink beer a lot", and my Italian father said, "All Italian people are connected to the mob". I had never heard of these stereotypes before probably because they are targeted at an older audience.

Some other examples of stereotypes are that people with blonde hair are "dumb blondes", cheerleaders are "airheads", people who like computers are "nerds", certain jobs are for certain genders, and that guys who wear bandanas, earrings, chains and/or baggy clothes are punks.

In my opinion, the stereotype that stands out the most is that people who wear glasses are more intelligent than people who do not where glasses. For example, in the television series Scooby Poo. Velma. the only character with glasses, is the smartest one out of her group of friends. This stereotype is repeated in the television series Boy Meets World. In Boy Meets World. Mincus, the class nerd and most intelligent student, wears glasses. Also, in the television series Dexter's Laboratory, the two boy geniuses, Mandark and Dexter, wear glasses.

I think that this particular stereotype influences children's attitudes the most because this stereotype is being shown on television shows that are watched by children. This may make children think that all people who wear glasses are smarter than people who don't. There are many negative consequences produced from this belief. Because of this, kids who wear glasses may be picked on by people who don't wear glasses because they're different. Also, children who wear glasses may have to work harder than others because society may expect more from them on an intellectual level.

To reduce the effect of this stereotype, the media should come up with television shows to show that glasses have nothing to do with intelligence. They can make shows about "average" people who wear glasses rather than people who are smart and wear glasses. Also, they could make the intelligent person in the show not wear glasses. They should make it more obvious to the audience that you wear glasses because you have bad eyes, not because you are smarter than everybody else.

In conclusion, one of the most common stereotypes in the media is that people who wear glasses are smarter than everybody else. this stereotype influences society's beliefs heavily, and it should be reduced. There are many other stereotypes expressed in the media that I have not written about. I think the media should try to eliminate some of these stereotypes so it can help society accept differences among ourselves. In the meantime, we shouldn't stereotype people because it can have a bad effect on many people.

We Are Not the Same

Stereotypes are found on television, in magazines and newspapers, and on the radio. To pre-judge someone based on his/her looks, culture, race, religion or gender is wrong.

One stereotype that you find is judging a person by their looks. For example, women with blond hair are considered "dumb blondes". I do not know how this started but all you hear are "dumb blonde" jokes. Just because a woman either has blond hair naturally or chooses to color her hair blonde, does not mean she is stupid. Hair color has nothing to do with intelligence. For example, Hillary Clinton, our senator, has blond hair and has proven her intelligence. Another example of prejudging someone based on their looks is to assume someone who gets good grades and wears glasses is a "nerd". Again brainpower and appearance do not go hand in hand.

Another stereotype found in our society is assuming all rappers are bad news or trouble. It is true that some artists have been arrested, and their songs contain curses, but they are the exception. People assume the worst of rappers because performers such as Fifty Cent, Eminem and Tu Pac have been either arrested, shot or worse, killed, and the newspapers and television report these stories over and over again. Believe it or not, some rappers actually sing songs of joy and hope. The type of music an artist chooses to perform has nothing to do with whether he will become a criminal or not.

An outstanding and dangerous stereotype found in today's society is slurring a person based on their ethnicity. For example, the following stereotypes are commonly heard in today's society: all Mexicans are lazy and dirty; all Irishmen are drunks; all Jews are cheap; all Polish people are dumb; and all Italians are greasy and belong to the mafia.

Based on these perceptions, people judge others quickly. Some people no longer try to make contact with other people different from themselves. Some people even learn to hate people because of the things they hear on television or the radio, or even at home. Fights break out because of racial comments. In the worse case scenario, it may go as far as causing a war.

To reduce the effect of these images, newspapers, television and radio should be more respectful of different cultures and ethnicity. They shouldn't always show bad things about individuals. They should show the opposite of what they do now. Instead of a rap artist shown in custody, he should be shown doing charity work, like P-Diddy running the Marathon. Instead of a Mexican being shown as out of work on a TV show, he should be shown as energetic and employed. Instead of a Jew being shown as a penny-pinching accountant, he should be shown donating money to a good cause, and so on. We should refuse to buy newspapers, watch televisions shows, or listen to radio stations that continue to show racism. People need to accept the differences in others. It would be a boring world if everyone were the same.

Secret Hate: Stereotypes

"Prejudices, it's well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education; they grow, firm as weed among rocks," - Charlotte Bronte. What that means is prejudice cannot be eliminated without knowledge or education. Stereotypes, preconceived negative ideas of another group or culture, can generate prejudice. Latinos, blacks and women are some of the nearly endless stereotypes seen worldwide. These negative unjustified images, especially against Latinos, have tarnished their image and must end.

In my opinion hatred toward Latinos is the most troublesome stereotype. Often, they cannot speak English, so they end up with less favorable jobs. People view them as "not good enough," then create stereotypes, such as, the only thing Latinos do is mow lawns and work at McDonalds. That is very untrue. There are Latino actors, teachers, astronauts, athletes, lawyers, and congressmen... You name it, there are Latinos doing it. There are so many Latinos (Spanish is the world's second largest spoken language), that when a group of them do something derogatory in the eyes of our society, a stereotype is created. You will see it advertised in newspapers, magazines, T.V. shows, etc. becoming a potent poison in not just America, but also the world.

Women are yet other victims of potentially deadly stereotypes. Prejudice against a sex is called sexism. Women are supposed to play with dolls as young girls and look after the children as wives. That may have been true... in the 1970's. Actually, women's behavior in the 1970's is where most of today's stereotypes are from. Today, women might get unfair treatment when it comes to getting jobs, equal pay and recognition for what they do. If a man and a woman had the same skills and were trying for the same occupation, the man would usually be chosen. In sports that is understandable, because men usually have a stronger physique, even at a young age, and a man is supposed to work "harder", which is not true. Female occupation requirements have opened up companies' eyes when it comes to hiring employees. They will hopefully get unbiased hiring in the future. But stereotypes still remain. Luckily, these stereotypes are slowly being removed under public scrutiny. In my opinion, when Susan B. Anthony fought for women's, respect for women improved drastically and is still improving today.

Now that we have identified two problematic stereotypes, how do we solve them? Movies, T.V, and other media are what particularly generate stereotypes. Many T.V. shows and movies promote these stereotypes. As evidence, "The George Lopez Show" (a show I enjoy), has many stereotypical jokes, such as, "Every time I mow my lawn, someone asks me how much I charge." I take them as jokes, but others might not. Small children may get the wrong impression, and may grow up thinking that is true. These producers must edit their programs and think more about there outcomes.

Also, in some companies the male to female job ratio is extremely unbalanced. Sports casting is a good example. Radio and television sports have many more men than women. The reason for that is because of the stereotype that women are not suppose to like sports, only men. That stereotype might be denying some women a career they would love. Monday Night Football, a highly successful football game broadcast, has a female broadcaster. That is the right step to eradicating stereotypes, not just for women, but also for all ethnicities.

In conclusion, stereotypes are slowly killing our beautiful culture with secret hate. We must vanquish this deadly disease with the antidote called knowledge.

Harmful Stereotypes in the Media

In a lot of movies, and TV shows, there is often discrimination against people, based on their physical appearance, there socioeconomic status, or what gender they are.

One of the ways that the media discriminates against what gender you are, is sport reports. If you look in the sports section in most newspapers, or listen to a radio station talk about the scores. There are hardly ever reports about women sports. This really jumped out at me because almost every day in the baseball/softball season, there is a front page about who won the baseball game, but never anything about ladies softball. It just isn't fair to those softball fans that didn't get to see the game.

An example about how TV shows discriminate about what your socioeconomic status is, is when reporters broadcast kidnaps. When reporters decide whether or not to do a report on a stolen child, one of the things they look at is how much money the family has. They think that it's important when a wealthy person's son or daughter is kidnapped, but not as important when the same thing happened, but the person who it happened to doesn't have very much money.

But I think that mostly people discriminate against people's looks, and they don't care about their personality. A lot of people, right when they meet someone, decide right then if they want to be their friend by what they look like. Also, if you are looking for the job of an actress or a model, one of the main things you need is to be pretty.

One of the shows that I think really discriminate against people based on their appearance is, Hot or Not, a reality show on MTV. This show is about deciding whether people are hot enough to go on to the next level. People who watch this show get the idea that it's OK to make fun of someone because of how they look.

After watching Hot or Not a couple of times, they might start acting like the people who produce that show, which is not good. The producers of this show are saying that good looks are very important in a person. They are also ignoring a quality that most people should have, a nice personality. This show might also give influence to how the viewers think of them selves. They might start to think badly about their looks, and start to think that they are not pretty enough to do something.

There are a lot of things that can be done to lower the effect of what happens to people who believe the things that are done and said on shows like Hot or Not. I think that the most powerful thing to do (especially if you are eleven,) is to not think badly about your looks or someone else's looks. And to get to know someone before you decide to not be their friend. If you keep that up, other people might start following your example, and stop thinking like the producers of Hot or Not.

Even though you can't change how other people think about people's physical appearance, you can control how you think about yourself and other people, which is just as important.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal;" you probably know that this quote comes from the Declaration of Independence, but some people do not believe this to be true because of prejudice. Prejudice comes in many different forms; one of those forms is stereotypes. The media has been making stereotypes of people for a long time. Stereotypes are a bad judgment or mean classification of a group of people or a race or religion. Stereotypes can be made on many different people. Some stereotypes are against religions like Jews, or Muslims. Others are on races of people such as blacks and Asians. Stereotypes are wrong and should not be happening. Some people think that we can never get rid of stereotypes, but I believe we can.

Stereotypes can appear anywhere but they are most commonly found in the media. One stereotype that stands out to me is how the media makes all black people out to be dangerous or criminal. This stereotype sickens me. It's not right to classify an entire race of people of being dangerous, just because a few are. After the disaster of September eleventh, 2001,many people in the media made it appear that Afghanistan and everyone in that country is bad. They made it look like anyone who wore a turban or looked Indian or Muslim was a terrorist. This stereotype disgusts me incredibly. I've unfortunately had to experience this first hand. One night, when I was at the movies with some of my friends a girl made a very rude comment to one of my friends just because he wore a turban. He wasn't even Muslim, all he did was wear a turban for his religion. Finally a third stereotype I have witnessed is the stereotype of Jews. TV stations have made many rude comments about Jews. One time in the city of Jerusalem a terrorist walked into a cafe and suicide bombed the entire place killing sixteen people. On the news this wasn't given much attention. Then Israel retaliated by bombing three abandoned hospital buildings, killing no one. On the news, though, the media left out the detail of the buildings being abandoned and made Jews' look like terrorists.

To me the most disturbing of those three stereotypes is the stereotype that anyone who wears a turban or looks Muslim must be a terrorist. This stereotype disgusts me so much it's incredible. To get rid of these stereotypes from the media will take some work. Possibly someone could produce a show or documentary showing how stereotypes only hold true to a very small percentage of the people who are in the stereotypes. Maybe someone could show all the good the people the stereotypes are made about can do. I believe if we can educate the people of America on these stereotypes I believe we could stop these stereotypes from occurring on the media.

Stereotypes are still everywhere, but they can be stopped. I hope these stereotypes will end soon. The way the people in these stereotypes are treated is disgusting. "I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood." One day, and hopefully one day soon there will be no more stereotypes. No one will be classified by looks, religion, or color. People will be judged by who they are inside.

Stereotypes

Stereotypes are harmful to all Americans. People have stereotypes that are bad towards groups of women, over weight people, and different races. Media shows stereotypes, not thinking that eventually someone is going to discriminate against them. People never take into consideration the negative effect of a bad stereotype. On our TV shows, movies, newspapers, and magazines, bad stereotypes are constantly being shown. I am a preteen at Dolan middle school speaking out, saying that the stereotypes need to be put to rest.

The first stereotype I will be writing about is women. They think they should have thin and beautiful bodies like super models. Magazines that have women modeling bathing suits are very convincing. Women and preteens often have eating disorders, like anorexia, trying to make themselves look like the models. Women also have a harmful stereotype that they are sex objects. The stereotype that is most harmful and I hate the most is that men are better than women. Even if I am a guy I know plenty of girls that are better athletes than me.

The next harmful stereotype is against over weight people. The movies and T.V. shows show that overweight people are lazy, sit around the house, and overeat. Preteens think that being over weight is bad. People that are over weight may just be big boned, but preteens see through that and call the kids fat and other disrespecting names. People say over weight people can't find a romantic partner. There are many over weight people with a romantic partner.

Last, and which I hate the most, is the media's portrayal of black people. Why do white people think black people are lower than them?

The answer is because they have a different skin color. The only reason for this is because their ancestors got more sun and needed more skin pigmentation. Why are they shown as drug dealers with guns? The same answer because of their skin color. The effect on preteens is that many whites stay away from black people out of fear. They shouldn't be called "black people" they should just be called people. In conclusion, those are the media's stereotypes that I hate. One way I know to stop racism is to show white men as criminals, drug dealers, and have guns as often as blacks in movies. Positive movies are Blade and Blade II because a black man is the hero. Preteens call other blacks the "N" word. I will tell them to stop saying it. Preteens stay away from black men on the street and I don't like it.