Media and Education in Fixing Stereotypes

A stereotype is the narrow and biased, possibly unfair treatment or opinion regarding a

person based on specific characteristics they have. Stereotypes can be about anything but

most common stereotypes are about race, gender or body image. In this essay, possible

solutions to overcome the ‘’stereotype threat’’ in our everyday lives will be discussed.

Stereotypes are a part of our life and the fear of stereotypes greatly limits individuals

from experimenting with new ideas. As Robert Gil states ‘’Members of stereotyped groups

worry about what they are doing, and this makes them stressed because they think that they

have to be perfect, in all aspects of their lives’’ (2017). Due to human nature and the way our

society is shaped, we are greatly terrified of what other people think about us or things that we

do, wear, eat, speak, or think. Since removing all the stereotypes -some of which are hundreds

of years old- is almost impossible, the best we can do to cope with stereotypes is to reduce

stereotypes where it is seen the most: Media. ‘’Mass media has greatly become a culture in a

society and also it plays a major role in transferring the beliefs and values regarding the race,

cast and gender stereotypes and no one are doing anything to stop it.’’ (UKEssays, 2018). For

example, ‘’woman with perfectly curved body’’ stereotype creates unrealistic and possibly

unhealthy expectations regarding body image among young girls, and to remove -or at the

very least fix- this alongside other stereotypes created, diversity should be a part of mass

media to challenge all the stereotypical characters created before. To give an example, a

contrast of ‘’Asians are good at maths’’ stereotype portrayed in most TV series can be

something to begin with.

 Secondly, to raise individuals that are less scared of judgement and therefore less

judgemental themselves, education is arguably the best way. To summarize the research done

by Ruth Galia Levtov in 2013, current education system reinforces gender stereotypes and

creates inequality between boy and girl students in most of the school elements. Boys are

asked more questions, girls do the cleaning tasks, etc. and this is presumably the first

stereotype they face. Removing these stereotypes could pave the way for a future that is free

of stereotypes.

To summarize, stereotypes created by our society with the help of tools such as mass

media greatly limit individuals from being who they want to be. Since it is nearly impossible

to remove current stereotypes, the most effective and possible solutions for future generations

are introducing non-stereotypical diversity in media and removing gender stereotypes from

education.
 REFERENCES

Gill, R. (June 2016), StereoTypes,

Retrieved from https://writepass.com/journal/2017/06/stereotypes-essay/

UKEssays, (November 2018), The Most Common Stereotypes Media Essay.

Retrieved from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/media/the-most-common-stereotypes-

media-essay.php?vref=1

Levtov, R. G. (2013), Promoting gender equity through schools: Three papers on schooling,

gender attitudes, and interventions to promote gender equity in Egypt and India,

Retrived from https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/98035/rlevtov_1.pdf?

sequence=1&isAllowed=y