Student Athlete Stereotypes Essay

1751 Words8 Pages

Men are strong and do all the work, all teenagers are rebellious, all blondes are unintelligent. These are just some of the common stereotypes and misconceptions often used in our world today. This is society's way of judging and grouping individuals, without ever having a conversation with them. In high school this grouping is often referred to as cliques, but these closed off parties of people appear in all walks of life. The brain wants to group people automatically, it is a natural, almost unavoidable, instinct to place a person in a certain group. Some have said the brain does this in every interaction someone has throughout the day, regardless of its intention to do so. Do people intentionally judge others, or is this something that is wired into one's being? A specific stereotype many people believe is that student …show more content…

Although most stereotypes are embellished, all stereotypes are partly based on facts. One example of a stereotype is that only boys can play sports. This is a stereotype because of the inaccuracy of the statement due to the many famous female athletes, such as; Chloe Kim, Kerri Walsh Jennings, and Gabby Douglas, just to name a few. Misconceptions are an assumption a person or group has towards a certain characteristic of a class. They are typically formed from stereotypes and usually have an unfounded basis. An example of a misconception would be that turkey makes people tired on Thanksgiving. Yet, there has never been a connection between turkey and people being tired, therefore this is misconception. Stereotyping is often negative because its leads to social categorization, which can cause people to be stuck living within the confines of what people think of them. But, there are many advantages to stereotyping, for example, it allows women to utilize previous experiences and stereotyping to efficiently break the mold and prove their