Today’s society is the breeding ground for many things, the world we live in certainly has enough people in it to make sure things stay interesting between one another. However, one of the biggest problems between people, I believe, is stereotyping. Incidentally, stereotypes happen to be one of my biggest pet peeves. Then again, stereotypes are probably pretty annoying to everyone.
Over the summer, I went to a camp for forensic science, wherein we had several teachers and people who work in the Criminal Justice who came in to talk to us. One of the teachers who came in, worked with polygraph tests, and he was teaching us how to use people’s own instincts, reactions and characteristics to figure out information about a person and then apply that to making an educated guess at whether said person was lying or not. All of it was very fascinating, up until he began to rattle off on a new tangent. He said that girls who wear three or more rings, play with their hair, wear multi-colored finger nail polish, talk a little too loud, or not talk enough, were girls who had problems with insecurity, and had a desperate need to impress. Almost every girl in the room, myself included, fit some of these descriptions perfectly.  It perturbed me a little bit more than it should have maybe, but it was frustrating. I was wearing several rings, because I like wearing them, and that’s my style. The girl with multi-colored nails painted them that way because each color was significant to her in some way. And the more I thought about it, the more miffed I became, because stereotypes really are annoying.
There may be some statistic or research that has been done that proves that if girls or even guys do certain things, they are insecure, but that doesn’t mean everyone is. Many people seem to think that if you label yourself with something, you also are this, this, and this. It occurs in many places, and it happens a lot in the political world. If you’re a republican/democrat then you must believe in this, or that. When people make claims such as this, and stereotype others to fit in what they feel is the requirements for a specific role, it only make people upset and causes problems between individuals that could have otherwise been avoided. People can have a political party or a faith or religion that defines a part of who they are, but it doesn’t always mean that they meet every aspect of what some people believe defines that particular part of their lives.  People can take different ideas and beliefs, and combine them together to make their own identity, which is what defines them.
There are those certain people who have these nice, neat little boxes that they use to put people in because that’s easier to do than open their minds a little and learn to except people for who and what they are. But here’s a newsflash: people don’t fit in boxes. People are different and that’s okay, because if everyone was the same, the world would be a pretty boring place. There is no way of knowing who a person is or what they believe in  based on one or two things they tell you about themselves, and if you’re the type to speculate and assume, then pardon me, but you’ve got some problems. Don’t just start judging people because you don’t want to understand or learn about what makes a person who they are. If everyone took the time to get to know a person, or learn about a cause or idea, and just stop stereotyping, then relations between people could become greatly improved, and the world could become a bit of a better place.