Thread: Stereo-types/Labels

i think its more societies fault than nething else.

you say you have been called goth because you like to wear black... im asuming these people dont know you right? so ... can you blame them? black clothes is how mass media portray "goths", on tv shows, on music videos, on the internet... people start automatically associating black with being "gothic". generally this is how all western stereotypes are created, and is not so much about segregation or discrimination, but rather the way our society puts labels (at times unintentional) on certain groups of people.

Originally Posted by Vampyre

It seems no matter what, everyone feels the need to label everyone else, creating all these groups that despise one another.

i think i have to disagree there, it is not that humans create groups to dispise each other, it is because humans dispise each other that we form groups

Yeah I agree with Henzor thats pretty much it, and I hate it, I am not like at the bottom of the chain, but I still think that its not fair to have this system.

Lables cannot be helped, humans, as sentient as we are, feel the need to classify things in order to identify them more accurately and effeciently. For instance if someone said "that kid with brown skin got a drink of water". Now, there are loads of people and different races that have the characteristic of brown skin, however if we say "that asian kid got a drink of water" we can now narrow it down to better identify who's being discussed. It's just our way of describing people and things better, and stereotypes are a kind of side effect of this. Usually labels are accompanied with common characterisitics, for instance "goth". It can be assumed, through much observation and interaction, that gothics tend to be a little on the right wing of things and have a negative life style and like baggy jeans with chains. Sure that's a "stereotype", but it tends be true more often than not (but of course there are the stereotypes that tend to be exagerated or simply not true). But if you don't like being called gothic dress differently until you acquire an agreeable label, otherwise stop bitching.

Labels/stereo type is normal, a everyday thing. *Sign* I don't like it, I get called emo or spoiled. I hate it because people just judge others without even knowing them. If they say they are, then go ahead call them that.But thats not going to happen anytime soon, but I wish it did.

I like labeling people emo lol... its such a funny word emo otherwise I don't do it ;/

Everyone labels everyone from the moment we see eachother.
It's an automatic function we all have.

But you're probably talking about putting people into certain groups.
It is true that this happens way too much but on the other side most of us also try to be members of a certain group.

I'm Asian and I can drive better than my friends... hey are American also so that isn't really the truth...