Stereotypes: False Views and The Effects of Internalizing Them

Throughout the course of my life, I have been forced to face the cruel reality of the world around me.

People find it necessary to create categories in which they feel others will fit in. They then feel the need to use those categories to label people, put the ones who they think “fit together” in a box, and close the lid as if it would somehow help society be more “organized”.

Society has done this since humans have roamed the earth and it has become an endless, viscous cycle that has developed an unspoken acceptance to righteous behavior.

This type of behavior has woven its way through every group of people that has ever been created and has now been internalized. People use the exact same stereotypes that have been used on them against others in their so called community.

Using these categories and the stereotypes that go with them, often have a very negative impact on people. That impact can lead to placement of the same stereotypes onto themselves and ultimately others. This blinds society into making them the “norm” causing great harm to those whom the stereotypes are being placed upon.

One of the main issues with having stereotypes is that we get so wrapped up in them that we forget that not a single human being on this earth is exactly the same, it’s impossible. People can be extremely similar, but even then they are not going to be exact copies of each other. Therefore, every stereotype that exists is automatically false.

For example, as a person who has Cerebral Palsy, there have been countless times where people have made the assumption that I’m just like everyone else who has CP. First of all, what does that even mean? Secondly, CP is a very wide spectrum with people who can have a range of symptoms that can be vary and affect a person’s cognitive and physical abilities depending on how the brain was affected at birth.

The stereotypes that come with having CP, that even come with having a disability do not fit me in any way, shape, or form. I have come to realize that every stereotype that people have placed on me.

One of the things that cause people to use stereotypes is that some people have a habit of wanting to relate to others. For some reason, they feel the need to use them as a way find a deeper connection.

The question now is: Why use boxes and stereotypes if they only cause problems?

People are inevitably afraid of the unknown and it is human instinct to want to think we know everything. We think we solve this issue by labeling others as if somehow that label(s) tell us who they are.

Labels do nothing except cause more trouble, especially when we get them wrong. They do not help us “figure out” who a person is or why they do what they do.

We use labels, boxes, and stereotypes as an excuse to not get to know exactly who a person is. Even if we “know” a person, we still insist on using these three things in order to be closed-minded and not accept people as who they are, whoever that may be.

Humans also have a history of having issues with those who are different than themselves because they’re either threaten, jealous, or hold some type of other prejudice against them.


It’s probably the source of a lot of the hatred in the world, which is why these things make no sense.

So I’ll leave you with this: why have stereotypes? What good do they really do? Can we get rid of them?