Stereotypes

[KayleeSaeihr]

Source: Laconic Reply: Stereotypes are stupid

I see this crap all the time and it never ceases to make me angry. (They’ve changed the title now, it used to be Women and Money, and this used to be the image beside it.) For me, it’s not a feminism issue, it’s a logic and reason issue. Do you think it’s even remotely accurate to judge a full 50% of the population (male or female) based on one massive generalization or another?

It’s everywhere all the time, in all forms of media, and many conversations. The poster for The Ugly Truth is a great example. It’s a visual distillation of one type of BS that’s constantly spouted by those devotees of gender stereotypes. Women are morally elevated above petty concerns with sexual desire and follow their heart, while men are brutish, crude and follow their crotch.

I don’t see why they didn’t take the extra step of making their message even more obvious and just have Katherine Heigel bathed in white light and suspended in the air by her own smug sense of superiority as Gerard Butler grovelled on all fours drooling, trying desperately to sniff her butt with his unshaven face.

Anyone who has had open conversations with their friends and partners about current and past relationships knows that there are orders of magnitude more difference between any two people than there are between the sexes in general. Yet for some reason most people feel the need to seek out and attribute certain qualities to the gender as whole rather than the individual specifically, while conveniently ignoring the exceptions that disprove the rule. It’s classic example of confirmation bias.

You say anything you can think of being true for men in general, and I’m sure I could personally name half a dozen guys that would disprove that stereotype. How about a bit of a reality check? Write down the relationship histories of 100 men and 100 women under 30, complete with details such as cited breakup reasons, real breakup reasons, opinions of sexual chemistry, any commitment issues, and so on. I would bet real money that you couldn’t accurately guess the gender of each history with more than a 50% accuracy.

Fully 50% of the women I’ve dated have have had a higher libido than me and I’d consider myself an average person. Sometimes I’m more into the relationship, sometimes they are. The only detail that’s reasonably consistent is that I’m generally the more emotionally stable person in the relationship, but that’s because I’m borderline empathically inert as an individual, not because I have a penis.

I read this article in the Globe and Mail, and while there is a hint of historical accuracy to it, that’s clouded over by the smog of ignorance and casual sexism, re-enforcing traditional gender roles as it goes. Without citing any studies, statistics, or even a crappy internet survey, Zosia Bielski proceeds to make all sorts generalizations about the role of women in home finance for the last 50 years.

The fact that women may have had disadvantages forced on them by societal pressures not to pursue post-secondary education is never mentioned. And forget that encouraging women to be housewives and never letting them handle money may impact their ability to balance a check book 30 years later. Those are minor insignificant details. What’s important is to continue the perception that somehow the women of today have just recently gained the genetic ability to use currency. Hurray! They’ve finally evolved!

Gender stereotypes may have had a place in our society 100 years ago when there were huge differences between the life choices available to a man and a woman. Making sex-based assumptions then may have been occasionally accurate, not because of chromosomally imposed differences in ability, but because of socially imposed ones.

But suffrage, the women’s movement, WWII, the pill, and anti-discrimination laws have changed all that. Not just for women, but for men too. We may not have equality yet, but at this point any assumptions based on gender roles are more likely to be wrong than right. Continuing to reuse, reenact, and generally re-enforce these myths only serves to belittle both sexes, and should be beneath any modern member of our society.

[FallenAngel]

I agree. Stereotypes are stupid and they are wayyy too general. I know girls who would be OBSESSED with having sex, especially around my age (the high school years) And guys who are trying to find love without having sex.

On a side note, I saw that bag before! A visitor at the aquarium (where I work) had it. It's really cute.

[ProdeFemme]

That bag is great :lol:

And yes stereotyping is stupid. That movie looks cringe-worthy.

[Prefers Pie]

That bag doesn't even make sense.

Also, this thread is now about the seahorse bag.

[KayleeSaeihr]

That bag doesn't even make sense.

Yeah it does. The male seahorse carries and raises the seafoals (if that is even a word :P ).

[Prefers Pie]

. . .per his traditional seahorse gender role.

[KayleeSaeihr]

. . .per his traditional seahorse gender role.

Yes I did ponder that... But considering it's an unusual case when the majority of the animal kingdom is taken in account I think it's makes enough sense to get the point across.

[ProdeFemme]

While this may be typical behavior for a seahorse, carrying and rearing offspring is not a conventional role for males.

[Guest fridayoak]

I've never heard of this film, I'm sure it's awful but.....that poster could be viewed differently; The guy is scared of the overtly sexual woman and is defending his own sexuality (by hiding the heart over his crotch), whilst the woman is brazenly waving her heart in the air, hoping to attract the shy male.

Though like I say I don't know this film.

On gender stereotypes; I worked in a primary school a couple of years back, quite a progressive one (it promoted healthy food, had generally non-religious based ethics etc) but in the toy box for reception there was a doctors and nurse cape/uniform thing for the children to wear. The doctors was blue and the nurse's pink, and it really troubled me as women in the uk actually make up over 50% of the medical students intake but these kids were still being subjected to stupid gender/career stereotypes.

[Sally]

Back to the movie.

I don't understand what's so horrible about that movie poster. It's supposed to be a joke, for god's sake. And the woman doesn't look like she's "above" sex; she's wearing a sexy dress and posing in a sexy fashion.

Geez.

[KayleeSaeihr]

It's not about the film. But rather the stereotypes that seem to permeate human society from which the poster was created. The trailer of the film made it seem like an enjoyable film, but the article still has a point...That point not being about the film.

[Guest fridayoak]

It's not about the film. But rather the stereotypes that seem to permeate human society from which the poster was created. The trailer of the film made it seem like an enjoyable film, but the article still has a point...That point not being about the film.

Um yeah I get that but the article is using that film poster as an example of the point it's trying to make. And I don't think it's a very good example at all really, so it immediately made me question the writer and their views.

[Guest fridayoak]

double post

[Charlieee]

Yeah. I agree with the article, but maybe a better example would've been better?

[thylacine]

I just saw a really stereotypical film: Julie & Julia. All this silly broad Julie does is burn dinner and have tantrums and cry and needs her husband to rescue her from a scary pot of lobsters. She acts like a spoiled 12 year old playing with her mommy's pots and pans. Don't see it. I hated it.

[Charlieee]

I just saw a really stereotypical film: Julie & Julia. All this silly broad Julie does is burn dinner and have tantrums and cry and needs her husband to rescue her from a scary pot of lobsters. She acts like a spoiled 12 year old playing with her mommy's pots and pans. Don't see it. I hated it.

I wanted to see that movie, actually. 'cause I'm just learning to cook and want to watch other (fictional) people have more trouble than I am. XD

[Pandoren]

I don’t see why they didn’t take the extra step of making their message even more obvious and just have Katherine Heigel bathed in white light and suspended in the air by her own smug sense of superiority as Gerard Butler grovelled on all fours drooling, trying desperately to sniff her butt with his unshaven face.

*chokes laughing*