Stereotyping and Discrimination

Recently, one of my friends has been crabbing about her boyfriend to me. The things that pissed her off are likely because of her boyfriend can’t hit her expectation. She mumbled about how weak and stupid is her boyfriend who doesn't know how to change a light bulb or got lost during drive. Hmm….I understands why she pissed off these small stuffs and where are the displeasures from. Well as Asian girls, or maybe not only asian, we have the stereotype of men, or gender. We treat men as our ‘backbone’, think that men are strong and able to do all hard work. So, her complain make sense now.
Stereotype is basically a thought or belief of certain type of people, individual or social group. We heard about ‘stereotype’ for a long time ago. And most of the people criticized that stereotype is bad to society. Stereotype happens when people have not enough time to understand certain thing, individual or group. Once the stereotype has been created, it is hard to be changed and may cause distress to that type of people who will be judged by stereotype. It is easy to find some stereotype and cases in our daily life. For example, people might think that ‘guys with tattoo and cigar are gangsters’, ‘girls who wear little are sluts’, ‘Korean have small eyes’, ‘boys like blue and girls like pink’, ‘old people are stubborn’, ‘Singaporean like to complain’, ‘gays are easier to get AIDS’, ‘student who always skip class is lazy’ and etc. See, look around and you will find stereotype is everywhere. However, are they incorrect? Is the problem really from stereotype itself? In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with stereotype but it is fault TO BE stereotype.
Can we say that discrimination is led by stereotype? Both of them seems alike, however, the biggest difference within both are, discrimination is sanctioned by law but stereotype is not.
I get some research from the website that discrimination is when you treat someone less favourably that others, in the same or similar circumstances (direct discrimination) or when you impose a requirement or condition with which most people can comply but with which is difficult for people in particular groups. If the requirement is unreasonable in the circumstances, you may be guilty of indirect discrimination.Of course, not all stereotypes are covered by the Anti-Discrimination Act. It is unlawful to discriminate against people because of their sex, race, marital status, pregnancy, age, disability, homosexuality, transgender or carers responsibilities. It is also unlawful to discriminate against someone because they are a relative or associate of a person in one of those groups.Public acts designed to cause serious contempt, hatred or ridicule of a racial group, people with HIV/Aids homosexuals or transgender people, is vilification and that too is unlawful, as is victimizing someone because they have complained about discrimination. While in the job field, you think you know that men are better at the job you are seeking to fill. Or that older people are more mature and responsible than younger ones. These are stereotypes and it may be true that more men than women or more older people than young one’s have the attributes you are looking for.You could never say, however, that all women or all older people are better than men and young people for the job. If you use a stereotype to decide who to employ, not only could you be discriminating against the others, you could be losing the best person for the job. Non-discriminatory selection practices involve deciding what the job requirements are, and what attributes a person will need to meet the job requirements. Sometimes, race or sex or whatever will be a necessary job requirement and, if so, you can apply to the Anti-Discrimination Board for an exemption. In most cases, however, these things are not relevant.You might find that a 25 year old applicant is more mature than a 55 year old. It is the quality you are looking for, not the age, sex, race, disability etc. of the applicants.It’s in everyone’s interests to try to look past stereotypical beliefs and to assess people as individuals with individual strengths and weaknesses. While all stereotypes are generalizations, not all generalizations are stereotypes. People used to judges a person by using stereotype and sometimes it can be very harmful. Just like my friend’s boyfriend, because of he is a man, so, naturally he must know how to change a light bulk or have to familiar with the road? It is just so stereotype and unfair to him. What is the necessity of a man should do all the work especially when people are fighting for gender equality. Stereotype is generalization and most of the time it is based on truth. Even so, not everyone is same. People are different even they have same nationality, race, gender, age, interest, job and etc. Don’t judge people by cover. You won’t be happy if someone judges you without knowing you, it is same to other as well. 

Well, this is my very ever first blog, thanks for spending your time for reading. 

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