A rant on gender stereotypes

[bennyboy]

And yes, the idea of a stereotype is to gather a number of characteristics that are supposed to describe a specific group without exceptions.

I disagree that stereotyping is what you say it is.

Stereotypes are an important part of the way we process information. It's the bullheaded refusal to let GO of stereotypes when they're revealed false, or to discard stereotypes when you come across a specific exception, that's wrong.

Let me give an example. If I had to pick a team for an Ice Hockey Death Match, and I was provided with only a list of male and female names, I'd pick the butchest-sounding male names, or the names that sound the most white Canadian. I'd be stereotyping not only by gender but by name as well. I don't think anyone on this thread would pick a "Sally" over a "Brad" in this situation, or an "Inderjeet Balliwall" over a "Jake Davidson." However, out there somewhere are the Canadian Women's hockey team, who will kick the living shit out of almost any national men's team (literally, if you get them angry enough). And if I discover that one of my female names comes from that team-- bye bye stereotype. There are also some Indian Canadian men, in my experience, who are superior athletes, and some guys with names like "Jake Davidson" who are small and delicate, or who are too obese too engage in sports.

Now let me put on my pig hat and talk about a more realistic situation-- deciding whether in wartime women should be drafted as soldiers. I'd say not, because I wouldn't expect a woman just dragged off the street to adapt well to the life of a frontline grunt, and I wouldn't expect men, in general, to be able to handle working along side them. However, when asked if women should be ALLOWED to register, I'd say fuck yeah-- because any woman who meets the strength and endurance requirements of a volunteer army, and who also brings the positive attributes more associated with females (like the ability to work under pressure or in severe pain), is going to be a force to be reckoned with. You'd be a total moran to refuse women from joining a fighting force just because they're women.

So I don't think the problem is with stereotyping-- it's with people who do it badly, and for the wrong reasons. Gits are gits, no matter what ideas are going through their gitty little heads.