A rant on gender stereotypes

[Dystopia]

One thing I learned at my mandated sensitivity course, is that stereotypes exist for a reason; there is an element of truth to them, and sometimes more than an element, even much more than an element. Stereotypes are not always negative. Sometimes they're just a way to generally identify ways in which many individuals happen to be very similiar.

For example. I am a gothic dude. And, stereotypically, I like to wander graveyards and cemeteries, I wear black, I have an affinity for fishnets and dark Victorian style. I listen to Voltaire, The Cure, and Sisters of Mercy. I like skulls and skeletons, and deathly motifs in general. I like vampire lore and vampire fiction, I have a black trench-coat, and I tend to have a morbid sense of humor.

Stereotypes of all kinds, but they're all true, and they just happened to be; I wasn't even aware I was being a part of them. Are they negative? Not at all.

So...I guess what I'm saying is, stereotypes are not always offensive, and quite frankly, they actually rarely ever are. So, don't let 'em get to you so much.

When I had these psychology classes we concluded that stereotypes are not bad or good, they just are - They exist - However I'd like to ask, how many of those have a reason? I mean, I understand that you fit the stereotype about being goth, perhaps those are all things goth people like doing, dunno because I've never met one, but if we bring negative stereotypes like "gay people contract AIDS more frequently" it becomes a problem. It's very easy to use the typical argument that "stereotypes are statistically true" but I'm yet to see proof of that.. There's also many historical stereotypes that still exist, a good example is that "people with tattoos are criminals", perhaps sometime it was common for criminals to have tattoos, but nowadays it's so popular that many people have them and don't commit crimes. Being goth, compared to being part of a race, gender or sexual orientation, etc, is much smaller and limited IMO and not comparable to justify your point. But I'd like to discuss this further, tell me more why do you think stereotypes are true.

Specifically when we're talking about gender stereotypes, we're talking about concepts of masculinity and femininity that are not recent but have a cultural and historic origin, still prevail today, and mostly do not fit the norm by 100%. I'm a male, I fit maybe 50% of male stereotypes, but I probably don't fit another 50% - Conversely, the reason I fit those 50% is because of my personality and the way I like to do things, not because I happen to be a male - From the moment people consider those things right just because I'm a male and not because I actually like doing them then we have a problem.