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Stereotypes

Term Paper Title Stereotypes
# of Words 680
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced) 2.72

stereotypes

[Category]:

Social Issues

[Paper Title]:

stereotypes

[Text]:

-- "Dumb jocks!", "Women don't belong there, doing
that!", "He must be a

criminal, just look at his clothes." How often have we heard somebody
mention

these things, yet, how often have we said something similar? Our society is
based

on face values where we categorize people because of the actions of a few.
All of

the above statements are prejudicial notions used to define members of a
social or

an ethnic group, and are called stereotypes. Unfortunately, stereotypes
negatively

affect our ability to understand members of a different group or ethnicicity,
and

are we usually resistant to change because of them. We stereotype various
groups

of people, but none like professional athletes, women, and different ethnic
groups

in our country.

Professional Basketball, Football, and Baseball players have been the

victims of many stereotypes. Hearing people call them dumb is common. A

misconception by many people is that pro athletes aren't educated. This is
such a

farce since the vast majority of them have attended prestigious colleges and

universities, and received degrees in different fields of study. A popular

misconception is that the educations they did earn were in areas like Liberal
Arts,

or other general fields of study which didn't challenge their mental
capabilities.

Another stereotype is that pro athletes received preferential treatment while
in

college. Many believe that if an athlete needs a certain grade to remain
eligible to

play sports, then the faculty would grade him or her lighter than the rest of
the

class. We have also stereotyped athletes as "above" the law. There
have been, on

occasion, incidents where a pro- athlete is treated better by the justice
system than

an average citizen wo! uld be in the same situation. We are satisfied to say
it's

because of the athletes fame and wealth, but fail to realize that it was
probably a

first offense, or to follow the story up and see that punishment was dealt

accordingly.

Additionally, we have frequently stereotyped women, especially at the

workplace. Women are always associated in business with jobs such as
secretaries,

nurses, customer service, and anything that needs a "womans" touch.
They are

rarely thought of as the CEO of a corporation, or as the Vice President. Whe

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