Personal Philosophy

Stereotypes and Prejudices Everywhere

News stories propagate these stereotypes and prejudices — but really, they are everywhere. You may not even be aware of those within yourself.

Image by Christian Dorn from Pixabay. Text added by author.

Synopsis

• They’re not limited to race, age and gender which get the most publicity. Stereotypes and prejudices start at a very young age with very subtle training via surrounding conversations by parents and friends, TV ads and movie situations, such as The Little Rascals “He-Man Woman Haters” club. More recent children’s books have attempted to overcome that, but I am not sure how successful they are.

Starting with Comic Books — few heroines

When I was in grade school, I read lots of comics and Nancy Drew mysteries. I had over 1,200 comics when I finally sold them for 25 dollars. I had mostly Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge, war and sci-fi comics. I never read romance or Archie stories.

Females were rarely strong or heroic, except for Nancy Drew. Comics even influenced my ad on Match.com. My future wife’s ad said “Intelligence is important” and mine said “Bugs Bunny is my Hero”. Well, he was always successful and had fun doing everything. She married me anyway.