The stereotype means the people tend to make their assumptions to some particular individuals. In Harris and Sherbolm’s text who say, “Stereotyping as a form of categorization is part of the human condition" (Harris/Sherbolm 92). In this statement, the authors express that the stereotyping is a category which particularly describes a group of individuals. Literally, I agree with Harris and Sherbolm’s idea mentioned in the paragraph. In our Chinese community, most of the parents want to send their children to Ivy League schools for the university. In addition, if their children become a doctor, an accountant, an engineer, and a lawyer after graduation, these successes are the desires to the parents. Undoubtedly, this particular group of Chinese parents and their desires to their children are stereotyped by other individuals.
In year 2004, my daughter studied in the University California, Irvine and majored in performing arts and dancing that brought the echoes and astonishment to most of the parents in the Chinese community. In terms of their opinions, they do not expect that my daughter, who has a strong ability in science subjects and does not major in science for the path to attain the professional careers in future. Harris and Sherbolm also state, "If the person behaves in a way noticeably different from our stereotype, we may attribute that to the person's being an exception, rather than to the stereotype's being inaccurate or inappropriate for gauging our responses to members of that group" (Harris/Sherbolm 92). In these sentences, both authors reveal that if a person is different to the stereotype, he or she may belong to the exceptional individual rather than the members of the group. Under my daughter's issue, I always faced lots of scorns by most of the Chinese parents in the community in the past years. Clearly, I understand my identity is the exceptional individual in their groups at that time.
Today, my daughter works in the dancing company as a professional dancer and a teacher in a dance studio. Sometimes, she acts as a choreographer in the dance programs in some particular events. For me as her mother, I am very proud of her little success. More importantly, I should give her the great support and I also believe that she applies her interests to her career.
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Kam,
ReplyDeleteThe stereotyping concept from the book had a really good read to it. I agree on what you said about parents seeing success from their children on being a doctor, accountant,or etc. I think that happens a lot in every culture, like for Filipinos, most of them want their kids to become doctors or nurses. My parents nag me about being a teacher or counselor because they see their friends' kids being successful in the nursing field. I even hear it when Filipino parents ask me what I want to be, and you can hear the disgust in their voice. I am glad your daughter is doing something she loves and is successful, and you are doing great job of being a mother. Great job