Stereotype

Stereotype- this is one word I have been trying to explaining a major part of my life since I come from a State, the culture and customs of which are entirely different and new to people from rest of the country. That added to a recent chat I had with one of my colleagues from North who happens to be in Tamil Nadu currently, gave the push I needed to let it out on the blog.

It is not just personal to me but I am tired of people judging every possible guy based on their region, language, and so on. The judgement is hardly driven by understanding and majorly swung by the perceived notions about stereotypes with the same background. The funny part is, in most cases the assumed stereotype is itself a myth and the stereotypes are mixed up. Again, it is not personal but just so it is easy to understand for the many Indians who have heard it a zillion times by now, Tamil and Telugu are not the same. First, you judge a person without even trying to know him. Next, most of your perceptions are made up or illogical. Finally you mix up the notions too and expect the other person to fit the bill. That doesn't appear to be personal at all.!

Well, this thinking is not regional. For a stereotypical Tamilian, everyone from India except the four peninsular states is a North Indian (my bad, it is actually five now, and it is not long when Telangana also might become northern), who eat nothing but rotis and speak only Hindi.

Enough about pointing fingers, when I actually tried to understand the cause behind such preconceived notions, my thoughts on idioms were instigated. Stereotyping is similar to the usage of idioms. One uses it with the conviction that he/she has in its usage rather than the true meaning of the phrase or the actual genesis of the idiom. That is indeed why they are called idioms and similarly that is exactly why the baseless concepts are called stereotypes. It is in the usage and thoughts passed around instead of an actual understanding.

For instance, the idiom ‘black sheep’ gives a negative colour to someone in a group whose views and actions are different if not opposite to that of the collective viewpoint of the group. When you trace the origins of the phrase, it was given a negative colour because the black wool couldn’t be dyed and was useless. I don’t know about the rest of you but sure as hell I didn’t know that actual black sheep existed. So, the people who were negatively impacted by the birth of a black sheep laid the seeds for this idiom. Likewise, people who don’t understand and find it difficult to accept a different view or thought try to stereotype it amongst a group of thoughts they can’t digest.

The next time you have time to read upon Russian idioms, please do check out the phrase ‘white crow’. :P