A WORLD WITHOUT STEREOTYPES?

I read a poem along the lines of: “At 10, my parents painted my room pink, years later I realized it was never my favorite color. Nobody asked because that’s how it has been through the years. At 15, on a Sunday morning, I am in the kitchen learning how to cook while my brother watched television and when I ask my brother to help, he refuses and no one says anything to him because that’s how it has been through the years. At 19, I am scolded for returning home at 10 pm while my brother comes home at 12 and no one says anything. Why? Because that’s how it’s been through the years.”

Stereotypes have become so common these days because it is easier to judge people and assume things about them than to put in the effort to understand them. They are many-a-times passed on from generation to generation like jewelry. Or maybe not jewelry and more like genetic diseases. They are passed on to the child when he is born and before he grows up enough to understand it, he accepts what he is taught. He grows up believing in them and passing this genetic disease to future generations. Unless and until you can make a conscious effort to remove that bias, you are pretty much stuck with it for the rest of your life. As much as you want to deny it, most of us have been through a situation where we have judged others and been judged for our externalities or things beyond our control rather than on our skills and competencies.

Also, People prefer it because it is less demanding intellectually, or maybe it saves them the time and labor to process more information to be able to picture a less prejudiced image. However, there has to be a point we stop passing this disease or find a cure for it.

Imagine waking up one morning, opening the window, and being able to inhale the fresh air, air that is not covered with a thick layer of stereotypes. Imagine waking up to a world where no longer are women judged by the length of their skirt, men are not called weak for wearing their hearts on their sleeves, especially for crying and transgenders, gender non-conforming people are not looked down upon, because of their gender identity, where being a Muslim doesn’t automatically make you a terrorist and where having a dark skin tone doesn’t mean you are not attractive. A world where people are not labeled based on their gender, religion, race, etc. However, is feeling ecstatic about a dream enough when it has not even been achieved yet? No. It is high time that we rise above the prejudices and build a world we think we deserve to live in. Wake up, make people around you more aware of the importance of combating stereotypes and use the internet for spreading this message rather than scrolling aimlessly.

Let’s create a world where no one is bullied or made to act in a specific way because others refuse to understand that stereotypes are hollow and quintessential ignorance fallacy.

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By~ Aditi Thakkar