Do all stereotypes carry some truth?
To continue an argument on another thread.
I think, for the most part, stereotypes are developed as an excuse to belittle, or look down on, another group of people
Some stereotypes about women that I don’t think have a nugget of truth in them are:
Women are worse drivers than men.
Well, the fact is, men pay more for car insurance because they tend to drive faster and take greater risks than women. Men and women get into about the same amount of accidents, but women are usually involved most often in minor accidents, and men are more often involved in high speed accidents.
Men are smarter than women.
Pfffft.
Women are not as frugal with money as men are. They just spend, spend, spend on frivolous things.
I agree that most women will buy more accessories and be more concerned about their appearance than men (see Beauty Products) but historically it’s the woman who stretch the budget. Historically it’s women who stretch the food.
Also, men tend to buy more expensive things in order to increase their stature. High end sports cars, boats, whatever.
So what sterotypes out there do have a nugget of truth in them?
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
29 Answers
I believe all stereotypes do contain an element of truth, taken to extremes of course, but were it not so then the stereotype would not be successfully associated the persons, places or things.
Saying all stereotypes carry some truth is stereotyping stereotypes. I will say though all stereotypes carry more untruths than truths.
So @rojo what is the element of truth in the stereotype that men are better drivers than women?
What a surprise, people learn certain customs and behaviors from their environment.
@Cruiser stereotyping the stereotyping of stereotyping is so stereotypical.
Stereophonic sound, stereophonic sound, for..ff…ffor…for daaahnce music.
Of course not. Stereotypes are catch-phrases. They get passed on like jokes or memes, which pretty much guarantees a wide-spread audience. At some point, confirmation bias will make us look for those grains of truth – and seemingly find them, too!
Refuting a stereotype about women while declaring the same stereotype true for men is ironic.
The kernel of of truth behind men are better drivers than women?
Practice.
Traditionally men traveled on business, women stayed home. It wasn’t uncommon for a woman in the 1950’s America to not even possess a drivers license. Few women worked outside the home prior to WWII.
Perhaps you are thinking of generalizations. It can be accurate to generalize in some contexts even while acknowledging that not everyone meets the criteria. We’ve had challenges in the past here when we get overly worried about policing every statement to include “some”. If I were to state that humans are bipedal, there have been times here where someone would immediately follow that comment with, ”Some humans are bipedal. Are you saying that amputees are not human?”
This type of generalization is useful in that it allows us to converse without having to spend 99% of our conversation in parenthetical comments. But stereotypes don’t seem to serve as a useful language device. I could be wrong, but we use the term “stereotype” to indicate generalizations that are either greatly-inaccurate or simply lazy.
I only posted that men pay higher car insurance, and posted a link that explains why. It’s based on statistics. If you choose to see that as a stereotype you can @longgone, but it doesn’t fit the definition of a stereotype.
I always thought the stereotype was that women were more frugal than men.
Males still dominate society. We will be smarter until toppled. Pecking order.
Guess I don’t see what one has to do with the other @ibstubro.
Huh? @Dutchess_III
“Somebody’s gotta be the one to cry”
“Somebody’s gotta let him drive”
“Give him a reason to hold that door so God made girls”
All stereotypes carry some baggage.
I still don’t understand why Hugo Chavez being dead for over a year, but still influencing the nation has to do with women.
Women are worse drivers than men.
Men are smarter than women.
Women are not as frugal with money as men are. They just spend, spend, spend on frivolous things.
As with most generalizations, these don’t hold much water.
@gailcalled Funny….those were the only 3 stereotypes I could find that were 100% factual! ~ not waterproof
That song just makes me crazy!
People always say I’m the “whitest black guy”, but for the life of me, I will never not be attracted to plus size white women hahaha. They are the greatest.
Well, _the darker the berry, the sweeter the juice.
Skin color or attitude, @Blackberry?
I have often been criticized (not here but in real life) for not having what I call, “The Gossip Gene.” I’ll recount something I heard and be peppered with questions. ”Hell, I dunno! I’m just repeating what I heard.” Admittedly some good and interesting questions. That I didn’t think of, at the time. I’m particularly bad at medical tales of woe. It’s not that I don’t care, but cut to the chase! Upside is that you can filter my past interaction with you through the lens of, “I didn’t have knowledge of either your sex or race.”
@ibstubro Their bodies, haha. I probably didn’t have much exposure to the black community as the average. I didn’t grow up around a lot of black people besides my family, which already has a lot of mixed people in it already.
I’ve just been with a lot of white chicks by default of where I grew up.
HUMAN GET TO KNOW THE WHOLE WORLD BY STEREOTYPE EVERYTHING FROM THE MOMENT WE WERE BORN.
But we fight some stereotype either because it’s not true or because breaking the stereotypes is good for US.
Just that simple.
Did you know that “Once you go black you never go back,” is not true? (I feel like a Geiko commercial!)
Answer this question 
Composing members:
0
