Stereotypes

A few weeks ago I attended an even at the Wharton Center with the women of the Greek community and other women from different organizations around campus. Jessica Weiner came to speak to us about body image and respecting ourselves as women. I was extremely moved by the whole experience, however when I read the paper a few days later I was completely appalled by what was said regarding the event and the attendance of over 1500 Greek women. Now, you are probably wondering how this relates to multicultural literature. Although there is not a direct relation, the sequence of events really caught my attention in regards to stereotypes and why the happen. In the news paper article the author wrote about how the sorority women were dressed, how we walked and how we acted during the speaker. There was a large generalization made that none of the sorority women were paying attention to the speaker but instead were texting and flipping through magazines. Yes there may have been a few disrespectful individuals but they should in no way be the basis for a description of an entire community. This really frustrated me because the main point the speaker was making was that we bring down each other to make ourselves feel better and in my opinion the author really missed that point. But why, even after hearing how people should group other people, or cut other people down, do some still do it? This is where I began to think about the stereotypes that we often see in multicultural literature. We are always talking in classes about how we shouldn't use stereotypes and that we should try to pick literature that avoids the use of negative stereotype but how are we supposed to do that and know the difference between a generalization and a stereotype when that is all we see in the media? It makes it really difficult to think about incorporating multicultural literature into the classroom knowing the hurtles that will need to be overcome to break the stereotypical images that students are exposed to day in and day out on TV, on bill board adds, in magazines. I just wish that the efforts to accurately represent a group of people were being exercised by every individual. But at the same time, magazines, advertising companies and news papers use what sells and unfortunately stereotypes are what sell and the individuals within the community are buying into those money making stereotypes. I know I am guilty of this but doing that is so easy. Negative stereotypes are not going to be broken over night. It is going to take groups of individuals making a commitment and coming together to bring awareness to the issue.