One stereotype which springs to my mind immediately is the "he keeps/kept himself to himself" (or herself) which is sometimes very unfairly used in the media to label someone as odd or even sinister. Being an introvert is no crime, not yet anyway.
I have a friend who sometimes avoids contact with others, ignores greetings or maybe just gives a grunt, and whom some other people call (behind her back) miserable and stand-offish. I know she doesn't mean it, it's something beyond her control. And it's something I can understand to some extent, I love being with people, but sometimes I've just had enough and can be desperate to be on my own, although I'm a less extreme example than she is.
Recently I found an article which explains these things very well to those who find this behaviour difficult to understand. It's written in 2003, but still gets quoted and linked to quite a lot.
' being left on the shelf'
People think cos I never married there must be something wrong with me!
ffs I'm just greedy,
so many people ,so little time lol
I think I'm at risk of falling into the category of being 'left on the shelf' very soon, or maybe even already. Yet I am very happy about my situation, indeed, too many people, not enough time
From a psychological point of view stereotypes help us in making quick judgments. We have a lot of information coming into our brains all the time, and we do not have enough time to process it all. So stereotypes are one way of kind of short cutting this process. But ultimately they can be very damaging
"Left on the shelf" is full of social assumptions. Including the anachronistic (out of date by about 50 years) idea that women are there to be picked like a piece of fruit on a market stall. Rather, we should be saying that unmarried women are choosing not to do any picking themselves.
I have no idea what social stereotype I may be. "Disgusted of Tpnbridge Wells" probably. LOL
I think we are all stereotyped by some people, at work, at home, socially and even when out shopping.
We are human and one of our traits is to stereotype, it might not always be a good thing and sometimes we are wrong about it, sometimes it is harmless but we do all do it.
Walk towards a bunch of hoodies on the street corner and try not to stereotype them, most of the time our fears or thoughts about them are wrong but we still do it and think it.
I think it is part of our natural defence and our natural curiosity traits, labels are essential in the human lifestyle.
In many forms of life, labeling is unecessary, a Panda probably never thinks, "hmmm I am hungry" it just eats or looks for bamboo without a concious thought about it. A human on the other hand has to have a label for the condition because we will consider pros and cons of eating when hungry, "should I eat now before I go swimming" "should I wait until after corrie finishes", "should I wait till the kids get home and eat with them" and then there are the food labels, "do I fancy beans on toast or a roast dinner"
We simply cannot exist without labeling everything we do and everything around us.
You know me too well foxy' xx
OMG I only have ten years or so left?!?
Better really get shagging now..........
line yourself up guys, Pam's on a mission!!! :twisted: xx
never worry about being left on the shelf.
i realised that happened to me a few years ago and decided to invest the time in myself.
may sound a little selfish but if you got no one to share the time with you can only please yourself.
so i went and bought another motorbike, took up some studies and getting back into competition again.
i dont look for anything now and have the odd meet here and there when its right for me.
no ties, no worries.
my life.
