Language, Gender, and Race 12.31.2016

           Have you ever tried to defy a stereotype because you didn't want to be the typical person of your gender and race? In the article "I spent my life trying to defy race and gender stereotypes. Here's why I stopped." by Erica Williams Simon, she describes the many gender and racial stereotypes of a person. For example, she mentions the stereotype that Asians love math and women are sensitive. Simon also gives an anecdote of her own personal experience about a teacher who thought that she, a black woman, was uneducated and unintelligent. In reality, stereotypes do exist, and they are words that are placed on a group of people to separate them by race and gender. These words greatly impact how we view one another. The language used in stereotypes creates an image of how a person of a particular gender and/or race would look like. For instance, if someone were to ask you to picture a woman, you would most likely imagine a person who is frail and delicate, and not a muscular person. These types of stereotypes tend to limit people and cause them to not be themselves. Some would try to meet the stereotype, while others would want to be different from the typical image and defy their stereotype. Simon ends her article by saying that we shouldn't try to follow a stereotype or purposely defy and just be ourselves. I agree with her statement because stereotype does not define an individual person.