Stereotypes are a widely held, but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. Most of the time, stereotypes are seen negatively because they are used to dismiss people’s personalities so that they can be put into a certain box such as all jocks being mean and popular girls being pretentious.
Some of the most common stereotypes in the student body are nerds, jocks, gamers, “popular kids,” or the newer stereotypes which have come from social media such as edgars who have bowl cuts and sag their pants, bops who look for relationships without commitment, and band kids who are seen as “annoying” and meme obsessed. It’s time to stop pretending like they don’t exist and appreciate them. To view them as opportunities to widen personal perspectives, make new friends, and abolish the traditional view of stereotypes.
Though stereotypes are usually seen negatively by most people, they have pros and cons. They can bring people with similar interests or hobbies together, but they also create false images of people based solely on appearances. This phenomenon is not only seen within high school students, stereotypes can be seen everywhere and come from societal expectations.
Typically, the people who belong in these specific groups only hang out with other people in the same group as them. For example, athletes tend to hangout with other athletes and the popular kids hangout with other popular kids. Despite these classifications, some students such as junior Ryan Nguyen, have decided to ignore them as he doesn’t see the importance of only hanging out with people because of stereotypes.
“I think I’m the type of person to hang out with all of them, because I’m not designated to one single group,” said Nguyen.
If anything, students such as Nguyen help foster the concept that the variation of students on campus is what makes campus so special. Students are able to relate to others without feeling weird or different despite labels that are projected onto them. Sharing unique or broad interests help form connections and bonds between these groups, parting away from the stereotype that different groups cannot be together.
Stereotypes form an invisible border within students’ minds when thinking about certain groups of people. Edgars have been given a negative reputation as they are commonly associated with school fights, cursing and the use of substances. This creates a negative image that causes people to disassociate themselves from these students which can be isolating. Freshman Victoria Huerta expressed that the stereotypes, although harmful, can have charm as she enjoys thinking about all the unique groups of people present on campus.
“I think it’s cool everyone has their own group and like everyone’s so different,” said Huerta.
Although stereotypes have changed drastically throughout the years and can affect people differently, they still impact society today, especially in high school students. Being scared of people due to a lack of knowledge or judging them off of the way they dress is a close minded way of thinking.
