Should Gender Stereotypes be challenged?

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

Actively challenging a stereotype imposes the same restriction on a person in exploring their persona the same way stereotype supposedly imposes restrictions on a person.

Nonsense. I'm challenging the stereotype, not individuals' personalities.

I'd also like to point out that stereotypes in and of of itself causes absolutely no harm.

Why would you want to point that out when it's not true? Stereotypes are (by definition) crass, public generalisations used to represent broad populations. You can't misrepresent people that way without causing harm.

Stupid people that don't understand that stereotyping is just a broad generalization is what causes harm...

It's the existence of the stereotype which causes the harm. That's as ridiculous as saying "Guns don't kill people, people kill people". The only reason for stereotypes to exist is to portray a crass generalisation of a group. When people use stereotypes for the exact purpose for which they've been derived, the root cause isn't the person, it's the derivation of the stereotype.

...because instead of realizing that since a lot of people have been this way does not imply that all the people will be this way, idiots go around forgetting the part where stereotypes are only a broad generalization - I'm sure you agree.

Not entirely because I don't think it's just 'idiots' who believe stereotypes: uniformed people or the indoctrinated can also believe these things while being considered 'intelligent' by most measures. That's part of the problem; simply saying "Oh, it's just stupid people..." misrepresents the harm & imbalance caused by stereotypes and shows a distinct lack of understanding as to their impacts.

If you think silence is a form of tactical acceptance then perhaps instead of advocating for challenging these stereotypes perhaps you should go out and educate people that are harming others because of these stereotyping that these stereotypes are nothing more than a broooooad generalization - nothing more.

What makes you think that isn't exactly one of the actions I take? What do you think I'm doing right now in this very thread?

I repeat - challenging stereotypes imposes the same kind of restriction a stereotype indirectly imposes, which is restricting a person to explore their persona - think fast but ALWAYS act smart.

No it doesn't. Perhaps you missed it when I wrote this:

When I want to do something, I consider the issue as comprehensively as I can in the time available before deciding on the action I'll take.

Do you think that my activity is unthinking or regardless of context? Maybe you think that my response is to tell people that their personalities are 'wrong' and they're 'bad people'. I don't act against people, I act against the stereotypes. It's like the difference between attacking the religion and attacking the believer.

So it seems you're strong for challenging stereotypes.
How exactly would you advice someone to go about this? To challenge these stereotypes, that is.