stereotype
What is Stereotype? Definition, Usage, and Literary Examples
Stereotype Definition
A stereotype (STEH-ree-oh-tiep) is a generalized belief about a group of people. These generalizations are assumed to be true about every person within the group and typically revolve around traits, beliefs, behaviors, and skills.
Stereotypes play a significant role in social categorization, or the way people organize themselves and others into groups. For example, cats are widely considered aloof and independent, while dogs are judged to be sociable and affectionate. These generalizations are stereotypes.
Characteristics of Stereotypes
Stereotypes can be explicit or implicit. People are aware of explicit stereotypes and acknowledge that they use them to judge or categorize others. One example is the way that different generations perceive and discuss each other. For older generations, the common stereotype is that they are out of touch and technologically inept. Younger generations, on the other hand, are characterized as cynical or unmotivated.
Implicit stereotypes are unconscious, meaning people are not aware of making or using these generalizations. Consider this common riddle: A father and son are in a car accident, and they are rushed to the hospital. The boy is taken into surgery, where the doctor sees him and proclaims “I can’t operate on him. This is my son.” Many people don’t come to the right answer—that the boy’s mother is the surgeon—because unconscious stereotyping has them envision the doctor as a man.
Stereotypes can also be positive or negative. Take these examples:
- Americans are loud and arrogant.
- Women are warm and maternal.
The first example is clearly derogatory and rude. The second example evaluates women in a positive light, associating them with favorable traits. However, while the generalizations in that example seem complimentary, they can be just as inaccurate or harmful as any other stereotype. This is because stereotypes hold an entire group to one standard or expectation, dismissing the diversity within groups. In fact, positive stereotypes often correspond with negative ones. For example, the notion that women are warm and maternal corresponds with the idea that women are overly emotional and weak.
How Stereotypes Affect Readers
Authors should be careful about writing with stereotypes, as characterization based on stereotypes can seem lazy. People are largely aware of cultural and social generalizations, and using them can play into expectations, which is unimaginative and cliché. It can also imply a lack of effort or empathy.
Stereotypes are often flawed or flat-out wrong, and these inaccuracies can reinforce prejudiced ideas about a group. Because stereotypes are commonly based on sexism, racism, ableism, xenophobia, and other forms of discrimination, they can be hurtful and offensive. In addition to boring readers, stereotypes can alienate them too.
Consider older books written in historical periods with different cultural values and scientific understandings. Ideas that were once commonly accepted now seem ignorant or prejudiced, causing modern audiences to read these texts more critically. Readers of Rudyard Kipling must confront his staunch imperialism, for example, as his works often glorify British colonialism and uses ethnic stereotypes that minimize the diversity and complexity of Asian cultures.
Why Writers Use Stereotypes
Though there are many pitfalls to using stereotypes, they can be a powerful literary tool.
Generalizations are a fact of life. They exist in people, and so they affect our cultures and social systems, from government to education. Writers can use stereotypes in the process of worldbuilding to create a more complex, authentic setting, or they can use them to provide conflict that the protagonist must confront.
Some genres, particularly science fiction and fantasy, use stereotypes to establish new worlds, cultures, and communities. While this quickly familiarizes readers with a wholly unfamiliar setting, it often results in homogenization that some criticize as bland, uncreative, and unrealistic. The elves in J.R.R. Tolkien’s novels are one such example.
Stereotypes can also figure into characterization. We all carry preconceived notions, and these assumptions can be incorporated into a character’s beliefs or worldview, giving them greater nuance. These stereotypes may exist within the protagonist as something they must overcome, or they may exist in the antagonist to showcase how they act as a foil to the main character
There’s also the matter of stock characters. These stereotypical characters appear in stories so frequently that readers immediately recognize their personality traits and narrative purpose. Authors use them to avoid writing unnecessary backstory or character development and to evoke a certain effect, usually comedy.
Writers can also subvert stereotypes to make a point or provide social commentary. Breaking a stereotype can criticize damaging or dismissive generalizations by providing a more accurate and nuanced alternative. Also, a character with highly exaggerated prejudices can emphasize the absurdity or injustice of a certain stereotype.
Examples of Stereotypes in Literature
1. Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
The Handmaid’s Tale is a feminist dystopian novel about a world in crisis. The planet has been devastated by some environmental catastrophe, and an authoritarian regime has overthrown the US government to establish a theocratic state called Gilead. This new government enforces a highly stratified society that subjugates women while placing men at the top of the hierarchy. Women are stripped of their rights, including physical autonomy and self-determination. The text follows protagonist Offred as she grapples with this new world order founded on misogyny and gender inequality, providing critical commentary on the sexism that perpetuates gender roles and stereotypes in our own society.
2. Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House on the Prairie
This classic children’s book demonstrates how literature is a product of its time—and can age poorly as a consequence. This series of semiautobiographical novels depicts Laura Ingalls’s childhood in the American Midwest. The third book, Little House on the Prairie, follows the Ingalls family as they move from Wisconsin to Kansas, near the Osage tribe. The characters express a range of opinions about Native Americans: Ma is scared of them, while other settlers are outright hostile, with one asserting, “The only good Indian is a dead Indian.”
These reactions reflect attitudes at the time, but the novel has been also criticized for problematic language in the prose. In the original text, for example, Pa wants to move somewhere “there were no people. Only Indians.” This implies that Native Americans are not people, a sentiment that dehumanizes them and reinforces white superiority. Ingalls’s publisher later changed the line to read “no settlers.”
3. Amy Waldman, The Submission
Set two years after the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, this novel follows a controversy that unfolds after a Muslim American wins a blind Ground Zero memorial design competition. The novel delves into the characters’ personal lives to challenge the stereotypes about gender, ethnicity, and immigration that prevailed during this period of increased racism and xenophobia. This is best exemplified by Mohammad “Mo” Kahn, the main protagonist and winner of the contest.
Once his ethnic heritage hits the tabloids, Mo is subjected to a range of ethnic stereotypes. For example, a news article uses a photo of an Arabic man in a balaclava, rather than a picture of Mo, to play on stereotypes about radical Islamic terrorists. This is just one of many incorrect generalizations applied to Mo, and the novel explores how these stereotypes conflict with Mo’s true identity and complicate his life.
4. J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
The Harry Potter series is mostly set at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The student body is divided into four houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Hogwarts students are said to embody virtues that reflect their house; Gryffindors are brave, daring, and chivalrous, for example, while Slytherins are cunning, ambitious, and shrewd. These generalizations fuel house rivalries, particularly between Gryffindors and Slytherins, whose stereotypical traits are structured as foils in the text.
Further Resources on Stereotypes
Looking for stories that break pervasive stereotypes? Check out this list of 13 books compiled by Atlassian.
This lesson plan provides tips for teaching students about stereotypes in literature.