Cultural Studies Terms/Stereotypes

1. Definition

A Stereotype is when you reduce a person to a few features and stating that they're fixed by nature. We reduce somebody completely to their striking characteristics and just exaggerate or simplify them. Another aspect of stereotypes is exclusion. By making clear who lives a normal life within boundaries and who doesn't, we expel people. We even want to get rid of them so as to reestablish 'purity'. Stereotypes exclude everything which is different and create two groups: The normal,acceptable ones and the "Others"(those who do not fit) A stereotype is a sum up of characteristics and ways of attitudes related to a certain group of people expressing a partly actual public meaning through education or background.

2. Related Terms

power/knowledge, otherness, race

3. Theorists

Bogle, Cripps, Dyer

4. Sources

Hall, Stuart (2003). Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London, Thousand Oaks, New Deli: The Sage Publications.