{"id":30237,"date":"2020-06-07T12:34:21","date_gmt":"2020-06-07T10:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/?p=30237"},"modified":"2020-07-29T11:11:23","modified_gmt":"2020-07-29T09:11:23","slug":"how-gender-stereotyping-hurts-us-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/how-gender-stereotyping-hurts-us-all\/","title":{"rendered":"How Gender Stereotyping Hurts Us All"},"content":{"rendered":"

Humans aren\u2019t good at interpreting big numbers and large datasets. What we do, with everything, is group things together, and segment them, to make them easier to process on larger scales. We do it all the time, it\u2019s how we\u2019ve evolved to be able to understand large commodities of things.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Think about math. If I ask you what five plus five is, you\u2019ll be able to consider each of those numbers individually and reply that the answer is ten, because these are low numbers that don\u2019t require segmentation, because we\u2019re inherently comfortable, and able to visualise, that amount. Now, if I ask you what five hundred and six plus five hundred and four is, you\u2019ll likely add five hundred to itself, and then add the four and the six together, then add it to the thousand for the total. Without any conscious input whatsoever, your mind has broken down a multitude of individuals and recategorized it to make it manageable. That\u2019s what stereotyping is.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"How<\/p>\n

Now imagine I take you to a car showroom, in which all of the cars are red. It\u2019s the first time you\u2019ve ever seen cars. Without enough data, you would be forgiven for believing that a car is a red, metal thing with an engine and four wheels. That\u2019s a very limited stereotype of cars in general. Over time, and with refinement, you\u2019ll learn that cars can be other colours, but your identification of cars will slowly amend itself to cover, more simply, a metal thing with an engine and four wheels. That might still not be completely accurate in every case. But, it\u2019s not possible to consider <\/span>every<\/span><\/i> case all at once. Our brains aren\u2019t networked that way. We develop a stereotype and tend to stick with it, allowing only for minor variations. That\u2019s how we\u2019re able to engage with the world without it being overwhelming: we simplify, and generalise.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stereotyping is generally harmless, and automatic. It\u2019s a coping mechanism, a way of processing an otherwise infinite amount of information. When you\u2019re dealing with something like cars, few people are going to be offended by your stereotype. But when you\u2019re dealing with something as personal and intrinsic as gender, stereotyping can become dangerous.<\/span><\/p>\n

Binary gender stereotypes, that is to say \u201cconventional\u201d or \u201ctraditional\u201d gender stereotypes, are generalised beliefs about the qualities of female humans as a group and males as a group. Most often, these stereotypes involve the personalities, behaviour, and abilities of one group versus the other.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gender stereotypes are generalized beliefs about the qualities of women\/girls as a group and men\/boys as a group. They often take the form of beliefs about gender differences in personality and abilities. For example, we tend to think of women, particularly heterosexual women, with \u201ccommunal\u201d traits, such as being helpful, nurturing, compassionate, and emotional. Heterosexual men are seen as \u201cagentic\u201d \u2013 assertive, dominant, competitive, decisive. Any time an individual from either of these groups steps outside the stereotype, it challenges the stereotype itself. We don’t respond well to that.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Research indicates that gender stereotypes are inextricably linked to gender inequalities in power and work. This is demonstrably true. When people associate the qualities associated with leadership more with men than women, then it\u2019s less likely women will be chosen for positions of power. Where do nonbinary genders fall onto this framework? For many decision-makers, the simple fact that nonbinary genders exist is hard to comprehend, being entirely new to their existence, and therefore they\u2019re likely unable to even form a stereotype. This difficulty in classifying nonbinary gendered people in a way that they understand, that conforms to their existing social conception, is probably quite scary.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gender stereotypes often become prescriptions for what we\u2019re supposed to like, be good at, and be attracted to. That\u2019s when gender stereotypes stop being stereotypes and become gender norms. Many of us conform to these norms without thinking, because they affirm and reinforce the way we identify without contradiction or complication. But for many others, conforming to gender norms comes at a price. For instance, conforming to traditional masculine gender norms without necessarily identifying with them can cause an internal dissonance with negative mental health outcomes. When these gender norms are violated, so the individual conforms externally to how they identify internally, but that external projection conflicts with traditional gender stereotypes, those individuals can be subject to social rejection and ostracization, simply because they threaten our ability to easily categorise and segment the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

People who transcend gender stereotypes commonly experience anxiety and depression as a result of their inability to conform to a perception of \u201cfemininity\u201d or \u201cmasculinity\u201d, and because they don\u2019t fall comfortably into one segment or another, and since society as a whole is unwilling to add another segment to their categorical understanding, these people fall through the gaps. When race is added to the equation, the traditional categories strain even harder against their ability to comprehend individual variations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Everyone is damaged in this situation. Those that don\u2019t easily conform to conventional gender stereotypes suffer the most, and those from that group that are members of ethnic minorities perhaps suffer particularly. But those that impose and perpetuate the existing stereotypes \u2013 those that ascribe to heteronormative binary genders \u2013 also suffer from their inflexibility. They grow increasingly hostile to the changing landscape, and as a result of their perceived sense of growing powerless, they\u2019re equally susceptible to the damage wrought by mental health issues.<\/span><\/p>\n

In short, no one is winning. As long as stereotypes remain rigid, and until room is permitted to understand the subtleties and complexities of gender, we\u2019re all hurt victims of our own frameworks.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Humans aren\u2019t good at interpreting big numbers and large datasets. What we do, with everything, is group things together, and segment them, to make them easier to process on larger scales. We do it all the time, it\u2019s how we\u2019ve evolved to be able to understand large commodities of things.\u00a0 Think about math. If I ask you what five plus five is, you\u2019ll be able to consider each of those numbers individually and reply that the answer is ten, because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":30238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,929],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-30237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sexual-health","category-sexual-wellness"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow Gender Stereotyping Hurts Us All<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/how-gender-stereotyping-hurts-us-all\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Gender Stereotyping Hurts Us All\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Humans aren\u2019t good at interpreting big numbers and large datasets. What we do, with everything, is group things together, and segment them, to make them easier to process on larger scales. We do it all the time, it\u2019s how we\u2019ve evolved to be able to understand large commodities of things.\u00a0 Think about math. 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