Stop Being Stereotypical: Difference between revisions

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A member of a social/racial/sexual/political/recreational group criticizes other members of their group for perpetuating behavior that mainstream society [[Acceptable Targets|deems negative]]. The reproach may be anything from [[Sarcasm Mode|gentle needling]] to a [[Tap On the Head|knockout punch]] to a [[What the Hell, Hero?|high-profile rant]] against the transgressors. Whatever the form, the Stop Being Stereotypical message is usually one against those actions that are embarrassing the group and hinder their efforts for wider acceptance.

Typically, this may reflect divisions of class (such as quieter black people complaining about the [[Gang Bangers|"ghetto" behavior of unruly blacks]]), gender expression (such as [[Straight Gay|gender-conforming gays]] complaining about [[Camp Gay|"flaming" gays]]), ideology (such as religious people railing against [[The Fundamentalist|"fundamentalists"]]), or conformity to mainstream social rules (such as [[Fan Boy|fanboys]] complaining about peers [[Otaku|who won't even bother with personal hygiene]]). Whatever the group involved, the criticism is generally not of the behavior in itself, but of the way it "makes us look bad."

Typically, this may reflect divisions of class (such as quieter black people complaining about the [[Gang-Bangers|"ghetto" behavior of unruly blacks]]), gender expression (such as [[Straight Gay|gender-conforming gays]] complaining about [[Camp Gay|"flaming" gays]]), ideology (such as religious people railing against [[The Fundamentalist|"fundamentalists"]]), or conformity to mainstream social rules (such as [[Fan Boy|fanboys]] complaining about peers [[Otaku|who won't even bother with personal hygiene]]). Whatever the group involved, the criticism is generally not of the behavior in itself, but of the way it "makes us look bad."

If the criticism is leveled by a character in a work, it may be a [[Very Special Episode]] or an [[Anvilicious]] [[Author Tract]]. Might also be done by a [[Real Life]] creator as an attempt at reforming the group.

Telling others to Stop Being Stereotypical is not always presented in a positive light. The person making the criticism might be presented as being overly submissive to the norms of mainstream culture. A common response to "Stop Being Stereotypical" is "I don't care what they think." Both sides may end up calling each other [[Category Traitor|Category Traitors]]. The recipient of the criticism will be accused of hurting the group by making them look bad while the one who gives the criticism might be accused of being a [[Boomerang Bigot]] or an [~~http://en.~~wikipedia~~.org/wiki/Uncle_tom~~ Uncle Tom].

Telling others to Stop Being Stereotypical is not always presented in a positive light. The person making the criticism might be presented as being overly submissive to the norms of mainstream culture. A common response to "Stop Being Stereotypical" is "I don't care what they think." Both sides may end up calling each other [[Category Traitor|Category Traitors]]. The recipient of the criticism will be accused of hurting the group by making them look bad while the one who gives the criticism might be accused of being a [[Boomerang Bigot]] or an [[wikipedia:Uncle tom|Uncle Tom]].

Note that there is nothing limiting a [[Stop Being Stereotypical]] message to any particular type of assembly. Mathematically speaking, ''any'' sufficiently large crowd will have outliers who act against the group's interests and serve as the target of such a message. For example, most sports fans are simply enthusiastic supporters of their team, but ''all'' fans get a black eye when a few [[Fan Dumb]] members [[Soccer Hooligans|go overboard and start riots]] if their team loses (or wins).

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* ''[[Dork Tower]]'' has done several strips where the characters and/or the artist (who are all avid [[Tabletop Games]] players) call out other gamers for their lack of social skills (civility, personal hygiene, inappropriate clothing, etc.), especially at conventions.

* From the DC Elseworlds series ''[[Kingdom Come]]'':

** [[Superman]] goes to an underground bar to convince the [[Nineties Anti Hero|rowdy new generation of metabeings]] to join the reformed [[Super Team|Justice League]] and become [[The Cape|selfless heroes]]. Before he can begin, a drunk (who looks suspiciously like [[Super Friends|Marvin]]) jeers at him for being out-of-touch, and is immediately punched out by Atom Smasher.

** [[Superman]] goes to an underground bar to convince the [[Nineties Anti-Hero|rowdy new generation of metabeings]] to join the reformed [[Super Team|Justice League]] and become [[The Cape|selfless heroes]]. Before he can begin, a drunk (who looks suspiciously like [[Super Friends|Marvin]]) jeers at him for being out-of-touch, and is immediately punched out by Atom Smasher.

** There is also a [[Funny Background Event|background gag]] in the last issue where Swastika, one of the reformed metabeings on Themyscyra, spits during [[Wonder Woman]]'s crowning ceremony, and gets an immediate [[Dope Slap]] from Magog.

* In ''[[Maus]]'', Art Spiegelman calls out his father for behaving in a very stereotypical miserly fashion since he worries how this will affect people's opinions of Jews. [[Justified Trope]]: his father explains it as a result of being in the Holocaust, rather than a normal part of his personality. It's also [[Averted Trope|averted]]: His father's wife comments that she, and a number of Holocaust survivors they know, didn't react that way.

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== Western Animation ==

* ''[[The Boondocks]]'': An episode has MLK Jr. surviving his gunshot wound in a comatose state for thirty years before awakening. He is [[Strawman Political|branded as anti-American]] for suggesting non-violence in the wake of September 11th, causing a large drop in popularity, and holds a conference at a local church that devolves into a stereotype-fest. Irritated, he uses the word "nigga" (admitting it is the "ugliest word in the English language") and indicts the audience in an angrier, more formal version of Chris Rock's original rant. This is a recurring theme in Aaron McGruder's work" One controversial set of the original ''Boondocks'' newspaper comic strips had black contestants compete on a reality TV show to work for [~~http://en.~~wikipedia~~.org/wiki/Russell_Simmons~~ Russell Simmons], only to discover all the contestants were rude and lazy.

* ''[[The Boondocks]]'': An episode has MLK Jr. surviving his gunshot wound in a comatose state for thirty years before awakening. He is [[Strawman Political|branded as anti-American]] for suggesting non-violence in the wake of September 11th, causing a large drop in popularity, and holds a conference at a local church that devolves into a stereotype-fest. Irritated, he uses the word "nigga" (admitting it is the "ugliest word in the English language") and indicts the audience in an angrier, more formal version of Chris Rock's original rant. This is a recurring theme in Aaron McGruder's work" One controversial set of the original ''Boondocks'' newspaper comic strips had black contestants compete on a reality TV show to work for [[wikipedia:Russell Simmons|Russell Simmons]], only to discover all the contestants were rude and lazy.

** In another episode, R. Kelly is brought to trial over accusations of urinating on an underaged girl (mimicking the real-life sex scandal). The prosecutor has mountains of evidence against him, including a [[Played for Laughs|video]] of R. Kelly committing the act, turning to face the camera, and answering a phone call where he promptly states his full birth name, profession, and social security number. Despite this, R. Kelly's lawyer distracts the jury from the fact that he's guilty and convinces them that the whole trial is ''really'' about racism, and that the system just wants to keep R. Kelly down because he's black. A boom box is revealed, an R. Kelly song begins to play, and everyone in the courtroom cheers and bursts into dance. [[Only Sane Man|Huey]] shuts off the boom box, walks to the front of the courtroom, and delivers '''this''' [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]:

{{quote| ''What the hell is wrong with you people?!'' Every famous nigga that gets arrested is '''not''' Nelson Mandela! Sure, the government conspires to put a lot of innocent black men in jail on fallacious charges. But R. Kelly is ''not'' one of those men. We all know the nigga can sing, but what happened to ''standards''? What happened to ''bare minimums''? You a fan of R. Kelly? You wanna help R. Kelly? Then get some ''counseling'' for R. Kelly! Introduce him to some older women! Hide his camcorder! But '''don't''' pretend like the man is a hero.<br />

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* In many Islamic communities, especially in the West, there is a cultural movement to avoid outwardly protesting things that offend Muslim sensibilities. This mostly stems from wanting to avoid the idea of all Muslims being fiercely religious, easily angered, and prone to violence.

** Likewise, several studies have shown that women who list Islam as their religion, performed better than virtually all other students on questions engineered to require extensive, rote memorization. The post-test interviews revealed that many of these women studied aggressively for the test for fear of doing poorly and reinforcing the "all Muslim women are uneducated" stereotype.

** In the midst of the [~~http://en.~~wikipedia~~.org/wiki/~~Jyllands-~~Posten_Muhammad_cartoons_controversy~~ 2005 Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy], the Muslim community was [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/4677976.stm divided between those] who felt the cartoons were [[This Is Unforgivable!|deeply offensive]]<ref>The later allegation that some ''actually'' racist caricatures were mixed in before showing them to religious leaders, if true, probably didn't help</ref>, and those who said the protesters were overreacting and made the whole Muslim community look like a bunch of dangerous fanatics.

** In the midst of the [[wikipedia:Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy|2005 Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy]], the Muslim community was [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/4677976.stm divided between those] who felt the cartoons were [[This Is Unforgivable!|deeply offensive]]<ref>The later allegation that some ''actually'' racist caricatures were mixed in before showing them to religious leaders, if true, probably didn't help</ref>, and those who said the protesters were overreacting and made the whole Muslim community look like a bunch of dangerous fanatics.

** They did another one where an Arab angrily decries Western movies as depicting Arabs as violent psychos, and [[I Resemble That Remark|threatens to blow something up if Hollywood doesn't change its tune]].

* [http://newhumanist.org.uk/2085 Some atheists despair] that Richard Dawkins is perceived by the public as an unofficial spokesperson for atheism. He's often viewed as needlessly antagonistic and condescending towards people of faith, and as occasionally over-emphasizing the virtues of science.

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* [[Useful Notes/Mixed Martial Arts|Mixed Martial Arts]] fighter Rashad Evans used this against Quinton "Rampage" Jackson during the hype going into their fight.

* One interesting example of this was BET's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgcZNpmOKuk&feature=related Read A Book](semi-NSFW version linked) music video, advising the network's viewers to read books, buy land, and drink water. One news network, for their segment, gathered a group of non-Stereotypical black people for a focus group who said the content of the video worried them. Specifically, [[Animation Age Ghetto|they were worried that kids might see it]]. The network apparently didn't inform them that it aired on a programming block kids shouldn't be watching anyway.

* Many [[Rated M for Manly|manly men]] are proud of the male stereotype and are baffled by other men who try to deny the stereotype or view it as being negative. They'll even take offense to women who give men the "benefit of the doubt" and ''don't'' assume that the stereotype applies to all men. "So, in other words, you don't like men to be men?" The increasingly common phrase this group use is the "pussification of men".

* Many [[Rated "M" for Manly|manly men]] are proud of the male stereotype and are baffled by other men who try to deny the stereotype or view it as being negative. They'll even take offense to women who give men the "benefit of the doubt" and ''don't'' assume that the stereotype applies to all men. "So, in other words, you don't like men to be men?" The increasingly common phrase this group use is the "pussification of men".

** ''The Terror Dream'', Susan Faludi explores how the media used the September 11, 2001 attacks to promote this stereotype.

* Women have gender-wide stereotypes as well, but are often more divided over what those stereotypes are and whether or not they're good or bad.

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** Same goes for yaoi fans in general regarding the parts of the fandom who embody the Frothing [[Yaoi Fangirl]] stereotype.

* This was common during the Civil Rights Movement in the late 1960s, and to a point continues today. [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment|And that's all we will say about it]].

* Many Child Free people feel this way about [[Child Hater|Child Haters]] because of the stereotype that all Child Free people hate children.

* Many Child Free people feel this way about [[Child-Hater|Child Haters]] because of the stereotype that all Child Free people hate children.

* Many instances of [[Fan Dumb]] can turn into this, particularly when it comes to shipping: "Reasonable" shippers feel uncomfortable about being lumped with rabid shippers, often casually mentioning that they ''do'' like the character who often gets [[Die for Our Ship|killed]] in order to set distance themselves from the irrational fans.

* Gingers hate [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY39fkmqKBM this guy].

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[[Category:Unexpected Reactions to This Index]]

[[Category:Stop Being Stereotypical]]

[[Category:Trope]]