STEREOTYPES THAT NEED TO GO.

#27

 Hey fam, welcome back to my blog. And if it’s your first time here, you are also welcome and I hope you come back.

So today’s blog post as the title suggests, is on a bunch of stereotypes that, in my opinion, need to go.

What’s a stereotype? A Stereotype is a preconceived notion, usually about a specific group of people. It is the prejudicial believe that because a person belongs to a particular group, then such person behaves and has the same character trait as the people in that group.

Are all stereotypes negative? No, not all stereotypes are negative, some are actually positive and complimentary but people still take offense when complimented with a positive stereotype. An example of a positive stereotype is 'Asian people do better in school'. I don’t know any Asian personally but from all the movies I’ve watched over the years, whenever the assumption is voiced that because a person is Asian then he or she must be doing well in school, the Asian person always takes offense at such a statement even though it is true.  

One of the many problems with stereotypes is that even if it's true in some cases, it's certainly not true in all cases. Most of the time, when a stereotypical sentence is made, the maker of such sentence is usually unaware of the fact that the sentence is a stereotype.

These are some of the stereotypes that I think it’s about time they stop being said or thought about because times have changed and such stereotypes don’t apply anymore. 

• Women who smoke and drink do not have good moral: A woman can smoke, drink, go to clubs and still have good morals the same way a man can. We are in the 21^st century, this shouldn’t even be up for debate. Women can do anything. I have this aunt who smokes and she is working is a reputable firm and earns a six figure salary. Smoking and drinking doesn’t determine your morals.

•   Guys are messy and unclean: I have male friends who are by far cleaner than most of my female friends. Guys are now really tidy, thanks to our mothers who thought both the male and female child how to clean and take care of the house. So this stereotype needs to leave us now!!

• All Muslims are terrorists: This is what the media is always trying to portray. We only hear of the terrorist attacks that were carried out by Muslims, Studies have shown that terror attacks carried out by Muslims receive more than five times as much media coverage than those carried out by non-Muslims in the United States. Analysis of coverage of all terrorist attacks in the US between 2011 and 2015 found there was a 449 per cent increase in media attention when the perpetrator was Muslim. Muslims committed just 12.4 per cent of attacks during the period studied but received 41.4 per cent of news coverage, the survey found.

• All Yoruba’s are loud and dirty: All I can say is that not ALL of them are loud and dirty. Some are. So please don’t judge us because when you visited Lagos, you met some really dirty and loud Yoruba people. First of all what part of Lagos did you go to? You can go to Ajegunle or Mushin and expect to see tarred roads and clean streets. In every state, there are dirty parts and then there are clean parts. Next time before you think of saying ‘All Yoruba people are dirty’ visit places like Lekki or Banana Island in Lagos and see my Yoruba people thriving,

• People who wear glasses are smart:  I remember back in secondary school, I lied to my parents that I couldn’t see properly and I needed glasses, meanwhile I could see very clearly, I only needed glasses because I wanted to be seen as smart. When they didn’t get me one because I guess they could tell that I was lying (I am a VERY BAD liar), I bought a cheap one for myself that wasn’t medicated but looked medicated. Needless to say, teachers started asking me questions in class more than they usually did. After about two weeks I stopped wearing it and started sitting at the back seat. The questions were just too much, I couldn’t deal. 

•  Every rich young boy in Nigeria is a Yahoo boy (Internet fraudster): I am not proud to say this but I am one of the people who believe this. Whenever I see a young boy with an IPhone, dreads, and driving the latest car (Yahoo boy starter pack), I immediately assume that he is a yahoo boy. How come we never assume that a girl is a yahoo girl even when she has all the similar traits of a yahoo boy?  

•   Women like make up: well I am a woman and I feel more comfortable without makeup than with makeup. This stereotype needs to go. Not all women like makeup.

• All women like the colour pink and men love blue: This stereotype is a bit unreasonable, that’s why it comes as a shocker when a guy says that his best colour is pink, or when a guy is seen putting on a pink shirt, the natural assumption would be that he is gay. Can’t a person love a particular colour without being judged?

  

• Football is a man’s sport: Times have changed; women now play football so I guess it’s about time we say goodbye to this stereotype.

•  Women take more time in the shower than men: Ask yourself before you make this statement again, Is this still true? Men nowadays are all about personal hygiene and all, so they spend the same amount of time, if not more time than women in the shower.

• All lawyers are liars: of course you knew I was coming to this. Guys, listen to me when I say NOT ALL LAWYERS ARE LIARS. Its about time we get over this saying, it’s not fun to say anymore neither is it fun to hear. Lawyers are skilled with the art of telling the truth in ways only we can do. Whatever a lawyer does is always within the law, we (yes we, I will soon become a lawyer so I have to defend OUR honour) have found a way to use the law to favour our case. I am not saying that there are no lawyers who lie, trust me, they are, but we should not use the character of one to judge the group. There are Doctors, Architects, Actors, Engineers etc. who lie, how come we don’t hear about them. What’s with the beef?

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 Do you have any stereotype that you think it's about time people stop saying them, let me know in the comment section. 

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