Tessa Perkin's Steretypes

1. Tessa Perkin’s Stereotypes
STEREO TYPES ARE ASSUMPTIONS WE MAKE
ON GROUPS OF PEOPLE BASED ON
PRECONCEIVED IDEAS WE HAVE ABOUT
HOW A PERSONS LOOK REPRESENTS WHAT
KIND OF PERSON THEY ARE.

2. Examples
Geek Jock
 The stereotype we use of
identify someone we perceive
as a geek is someone who
wears glasses, smart shirts,
ties etc… They also appear to
have a goofy look and are
smart and good with
technology.
 The stereotype we use of
identify someone we
believe is a jock is
someone who is good at
sports and attractive. We
also believe they are not
very smart.

3. Tessa Perkins
She states that stereotyping is not as
simple as placing someone into a
category based on the way they look.
It contains a number of assumptions
that can be challenged.
Perkins identifies 5 such assumptions;
 Stereotypes are not always
negative.
 They are not always about minority
groups or the less powerful.
 They can be held about one’s own
group.
 They are not rigid or unchanging.
 They are not always false.

4. Not Always Negative
 Stereotypes are not always
negative, they can be positive
representations of a certain
person or group. An example
would be the representation
of geeks on ‘The Big Bang
Theory’ which shows them as
extremely smart and good
with electronics. This is a
commonly accepted
stereotype of geeks. However,
there is also stereotypes that
can be perceived as negative
here such as the social
awkwardness of the
characters.

5. Not Always About the Less Powerful
 Stereotypes are not always
about the poor or less
powerful as there are many
examples of stereotyping of
the rich or more powerful. An
example of this is on
‘Downton Abbey’ in which the
rich people are portrayed as
snobby and degrading to the
lower class. This is a negative
stereotype associated with the
more powerful with another
one being them believing they
are better than those of a
lower power.

6. Can Be Held About Ones Own Group
 A stereotype is not made
solely by people on the
outside of a group of people,
people in those groups will
also make stereotypes about
each other. An example of this
is in a school, people are
stereotyped into groups such
as jocks, geeks, mean girls
etc… In this case there is a
large group of people that are
stereotyped through going to
a certain college that are then
stereotyped into smaller
groups by the overall larger
group.

7. Not Rigid or Unchanging.
 Once a stereotype has been
created, it is hard for it to
change but Perkin’s states
that over a long period of
time, a change can be seen.
Again the stereotype of a
geek or a nerd can be used
as an example. Whereas
you used to be looked down
on if you were in this
group, it has become cool
to be put under this
stereotype with t-shirts
being created with the
word ‘geek’ written over
them.

8. Not Always False
 Stereotypes are not always
false and have to have at
least a little truth behind
them for them to be created
in the first place. The
media is a good place for
stereotypes to be crated as
once something has been
represented in one way in
the media, other media
texts will represent the
stereotype in the same way.

9. My Opinion
I believe that stereotypes are unfair bias we place against people
be we have the chance to get to know them. We do this because
it makes the world easier to understand as we are able to place
people into boxes, there are no surprises unless we interact with
the people. Stereotypes have been created because of the way
the media has represented people of the stereotypes, leading
others to represent the people the same way. All of this has been
translated to the audience who use what the media has said to
place the people into the box. I believe it is impossible for
stereotypes to ever be removed completely because of how
society uses them in so many ways. Without stereotypes we
would not be able to understand why one person does not talk to
another in the media. It helps us to identify the people we would
best relate to through the way the person appears to the world
around us.