Tessa Perkins - Stereotypes

Stereotyping is the automatic assumption or opinion of a person, normally based of their social group.

Tessa Perking states that "Stereotyping is not a simple process and contains a number of assumptions that can be challenged" She also points out some of the following areas:

• Stereotypes are not always negative
• They are not always about minority groups or the less powerful, an examples of this is the stereotype of "upper class twits"
• Stereotypes can also be held by ones own group
• They are not rigid or unchanging
• They are not always false

"People assume that stereotypes are always negative, for example young troublesome youths however youth can also be seen as a positive."

"We assume that stereotypes are targeted towards the less powerful, but we can make assumptions and stereotypes about the upper class minorities in the same way they would make some towards them"

There are also stereotypes within groups, even famous people are stereotyped. Stereotypes are normally about groups with whom we have had little or no social contact with, meaning they can not always be reliable or believable. However, stereotypes need to have some truth in them or where else would we get this representation from? We may witness first or second hand the reasons these originate from, because of the correct assumptions it makes us continue to make the same assumptions and results in them being wrong or simply just negative behavior.

Summary:
Tessa Perkins stereotype theory is said to contain a number of assumptions that can be challenged. Stereotypes are almost always negative and are used constantly around us, going back to the stereotype of "troublesome youths" is an example of this.