Stereotype

Whenever you see, hear, or taste something, you can only tell so much about it based on what you sensed. This often isn't enough, so we make assumptions about what the rest of the thing is like -- when people hear "bird", they probably think of something that is fist-sized, flies, and sings, even though none of these things are true about every single bird. See prototype theory.

When a set of such assumptions about something become "common knowledge," they form a stereotype. Most of the time, nobody notices, as in the case of birds. This is very useful when you're writing fiction, because it lets you save a lot of space and time that you'd otherwise have to spend describing something in detail, when it isn't really important to your story.

Sometimes the assumptions that come with a stereotype cause people to behave strangely and callously towards one another; sometimes people resist changing their assumptions even when they are given very good reasons to do so. These are features of the Stereotypical Stereotype. This is the kind of stereotype that people talk about the most, which might be why it's stereotypical.

A Trope is a stereotype that writers find useful in communicating with readers. Some stereotypes that originally developed outside of fiction lend themselves readily to use as tropes, and some tropes turn into stereotypes outside of fiction. Some such tropes are:


 * Accent Tropes
 * Acceptable Targets
 * Once Acceptable Targets
 * All Amazons Want Hercules
 * All Anime Is Naughty Tentacles
 * All Gays Are Pedophiles
 * All Gays Are Promiscuous
 * All Gays Love Theater
 * All Girls Want Bad Boys
 * All Girls Like Ponies
 * All Guys Want Cheerleaders
 * All Guys Want Sorority Women
 * All Men Are Perverts
 * All Women Are Lustful
 * All Women Are Prudes
 * All Women Love Shoes
 * A Man Is Not a Virgin
 * A Man Is Always Eager
 * Ambiguous Disorder
 * Animal Stereotype
 * Anti-Intellectualism
 * Asian Gal With White Guy
 * Asian Hooker Stereotype
 * Asian Speekee Engrish
 * Black Gal On White Guy Drama
 * Bondage Is Bad
 * Clarke's Law for Girls Toys
 * Cultural Stereotypes
 * Depraved Homosexual
 * Depraved Bisexual
 * Disability Tropes
 * Does Not Like Men
 * Double Standard
 * Dumb Blonde
 * Entitled to Have You
 * Equal Opportunity Offender
 * Everyone Hates Mimes
 * Feminine Women Can Cook
 * Girls Are Really Scared of Horror Movies
 * He-Man Woman Hater
 * Malcolm Xerox
 * Men Are Strong, Women Are Pretty
 * Men Buy From Mars, Women Buy From Venus
 * Men Don't Cry
 * More Than Meets the Eye - when the stereotypes in question are subverted
 * My Girl Is Not a Slut
 * National Stereotypes
 * National Stereotyping Tropes
 * No Guy Wants to Be Chased
 * Phenotype Stereotype
 * Political Stereotype
 * Queer As Tropes
 * Rape Is Ok When It Is Female On Male
 * The Rainman
 * Religious Stereotype
 * Sour Prudes
 * Standard Fifties Father
 * Stereotype Flip
 * Stop Being Stereotypical
 * Stereotype Reaction Gag
 * The Unfair Sex
 * The War On Straw
 * Where Da White Women At?
 * Women Prefer Strong Men