Stereotypes

First of all, apologies for the lack of blogging lately. You will not believe how long it can take me to write these posts; I have four different ideas going but I can't figure out how to write about them. Double apologies that I'm writing about a topic that I have touched on already, but I am going to look at stereotypes this time.

Stereotypes are everywhere. They are used on TV without the producers knowing; They can be harmless references in a conversation that we don't even know are wrong. I've used plenty of stereotypes before, because believe me when I was that I'm certainly not flawless. For example, about a week or so ago I was watching The Bachelor Australia with my mum. Sam Wood (the bachelor) was taking one of the girls out on a date. They had a helicopter ride over the Blue Mountains and then went to a small creek, where a boat was waiting for them. As they got in the boat, Sam said to the girl "I decided to do this because, like every other girl on the planet, your favourite movie's probably The Notebook."

Now, there is actually a scene in The Notebook where the couple do go out on a boat ride, and that was the reference Sam was making. But to just say that ALL girls favourite film's The Notebook-It's wrong! And I don't condone it at all. But Sam probably didn't realise that. It isn't really something that you can absolutely hate him for, but it does prove that we need to think before we speak. Oh, and for the record Sam, my favourite movie's Saving Mr Banks.

An even worse case of stereotyping was one that our Prime Minister Tony Abbott made. When asked last year about the best thing he'd done for women in his time in parliment, Tony said that it was taking away the carbon tax. Why did Tony mention this? I quote Mr. Abbott directly...

"Taking away the carbon tax was an enormous bonus for women because it is now cheaper for women to do the washing, dishes and much more"...

Ummm, is that not the most sexist thing I've ever heard on the news? And I'm not gonna give Tony Abbott leeway for this one. What about all the work he's done for domestic violence (take that that one with a BUCKET of salt)? He could've mentioned that!

And we go even further. There was that Muslim boy in America. He took in a clock that he'd made in his spare time-not because the teacher asked him to-into school. Five seconds later he'd been arrested because the teacher thought it was a bomb. The only reason he was accused of this was because he was a Muslim. Muslims aren't all gun carrying, gang raping extremists, people! For every bad Muslim, there are ten more who are nice, kind people who are blamed for half of the worlds problems today! It's wrong!

So I hope people can actually think before they speak next time. Stereotypes are everywhere and most of them need to stop.

~El.

PS: I've decided to change my blog name, but I can't think of any. Any advice? And I'm gonna do my next blog post on a topic you guys choose. Please comment with a topic that you would like me to write about and I'll consider it. Thanks guys!