Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/how-to-create-an-environment-that-counteracts-stereotyping/5015637/
“Stereotyping” means having fixed, unchanging ideas about the characteristics of individuals in different groups. The ideas could be about almost anything in a person’s world, for example, that “boys should never play with dolls or they will become sissies,” or that “girls are too delicate to climb a tree.” Gender is biologically based, but gender roles are constantly constructed, and by about age 2 or 3 children’s play reveals gender differences.A year-old baby looks up at the smiling, looming face of the stranger approaching and cries mightily, because all faces different from a parent’s face seem alien and frightening. The baby’s brain tries to make sense of the world by pigeonholing experiences as safe or unsafe, familiar or unfamiliar. People from some cultures are taught, for example, that the right hand is to be used for eating and the left hand for toilet functions. If they see someone from a different culture group using both hands freely for eating, they may become shocked and even revolted and disparage and shun that person. People of one particular religious persuasion may “demonize” folks who have totally different beliefs as “heathens” or “pagans” and be willing even to torture and kill those who ...