Monday, May 6, 2013

Stereotypes in Society (Introduction)

Every morning I wake up asking myself the same question, "What am I going to wear today?" A lot of the time I just end up picking out a pair of leggings and some sort of top because leggings serve as a multi-functional piece of clothing that I can wear to school, to exercise, or even to just hang out.  When putting on these clothes, I had never thought of being judged or being placed into a certain stereotype...until now.  In my English class, our first project was to pick an article of clothing and explain the cultural or societal issues that this type of clothing brings when people wear it.  I had a few points, but the main topic I wanted to focus on was the stereotyping that comes with wearing leggings.  I began to wonder about why there are so many different stereotypes that come with wearing leggings.  Almost every woman owns a pair or has worn them once in her life, so why does it matter if one pair has floral print, cheetah print, or are just plain black?  The circumstance that really brought this to my attention was when I was standing at a bus stop, and I was wearing a pair of floral print leggings.  I heard two girls talking behind me saying how much they loved my leggings, but also were actually trying to figure out what my major was, just by the leggings I was wearing.  I heard them discuss the topic of how maybe I was a dancer, or an artist.  This really got me wondering how a person can tell so much about another person just because they are wearing a certain article of clothing.  To me, this kind, and all other kinds of stereotyping really need to be eliminated because they produce judgement towards different social groups of people, build a barrier between social classes, and give people a reason to have a fixed view on people they have never met. In today's society, stereotyping is a huge issue and by blogging about it, I really hope to change people's views and opinions so we can eliminate stereotypes altogether.

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