Stereotyping and Individuality Discussion

Stereotyping and Individuality

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Stereotyping and Individuality

Gender-based stereotyping is an age old thing and has largely been accepted by many people across different cultures. In the paper selective self-stereotyping and women’s self-esteem maintenance, the author Debra Oswald and Kristine Chapleau state that the gender-based self-stereotyping has such far reaching implication on women (their performance, self-esteem and personality.

According to Lun et al (2009) women by nature self-stereotype on positive and negative attributes even when they are not consciously aware of it. Self-stereotyping on positive traits has a way of improving the self-image of a woman while negative traits on the other hand lower the self-esteem of women. ‘On page 3, Bierna et al.,(1996) makes a very interesting point by saying that one best method of dealing with negative gender-based stereotypes is to selectively self-stereotype and group positive traits while at the same time distancing oneself from the negative stereotypes’. It is interesting because it suggest that people are able to protect their identities and maintain a positive self-image by only letting in the positive stereotypes.

Gender-based stereotypes can have such a crippling implication on people when they are constantly rammed down their throats. Since I was a young boy I have expected to toughen up and act like a man and my old man was so keen on that. Growing up in such an environment with gender-based stereotypes about men being macho and strong made me to be a bit different from my age mates. I always behaved older than my age.

Reference

Biernat, M., Vescio, T., & Green, M. (1996). Selective self-stereotyping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 1194–1209.

Lun, J., Sinclair, S., & Cogburn, C. (2009). Cultural stereotypes and the self: A closer examination of implicit self-stereotyping. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 31, 117–127.