Tessa Perkins - Stereotypes (Representation)

A stereotype is a certain group of people who conform to a particular style and are recognisable mainly because of how they choose to represent themselves. Stereotypes are often negative however they have only come about because there is some truth behind them and they are based on prior knowledge, however they are also based on assumptions people have before getting to know the group of people they are stereotyping. Stereotypes are hard to break because people 'hold' assumptions which leads to the unfair treatment of members of society.
An example of when this is done is when somebody is walking down the street and see a group of 'chavs' approaching, they will cross the road because they are afraid of them because of they are known for being anti-social and violent, however the person crossing the road has no guarantee that these people are out to cause trouble and are basing their opinions of them solely on the label they give to them because of how they are dressed.

Tessa Perkins identified 5 assumptions that people make based on stereotypes:
1. Stereotypes aren't always negative. E.g. French people are good at cooking.
2. They are not always about lower class people or lower class groups E.g. Upper class people are snobby and stuck up.
3. They can be held in ones own groups.
4. They are not rigid or unchanging.
5. They aren't untrue.

Dominant stereotypes tend to be negative, for example, an incident involving the stereotypical 'troublesome youth' can be seen in the media, however young people graduate from university every single year which is a highly positive achievement but because this is only shown annually society dismiss it and allow the negative stereotype to dominate.
Once a stereotype or image of someone or a group of people is created, it can be very hard to change societies opinion although it can be done.
An example of this is when Miley Cyrus re-branded herself in order to break out of the Disney mould and lose the image that people had of her as a teen pop star. In doing this she made some very controversial decisions but as I established whilst studying Laura Mulvey's theory of 'The Male Gaze', this makes artists more profitable because it gets more media attention which makes us, as an audience, consume this kind of content more than others.

In conclusion:

• They are erroneous (usually wrong)
• They are (negative) concepts
• They are about groups who we have little or no social contact with - they are not held about ones own group - therefore how are they believable?
• When people 'hold' assumptions it makes stereotypes much harder to break, leading to unfair treatment of other members of society.