Observation of Stereotyping

I was at a gathering recently and was able to observe stereotyping at work in a number of exchanges between others at the gathering. The particular gathering was related to a political issue. One of the three speakers at the gathering was named Chris. In fact, Chris was scheduled to be the first speaker. I happen to know Chris on a casual basis. Chris is a beautiful blonde woman who most definitely does not fit into the "dumb blonde" stereotype. She is a brilliant woman with several degrees. However, because she is not yet well-known in her field, and, because her first name can be taken as either male or female, few in the audience were aware of who she was. Because she and I know each other casually, we were sitting next to one another before the night of speakers began.

This situation allowed me to hear the exchange between Chris and a handsome young man who found his way over to her to show his interest. Of course, his interest was based on the "dumb blonde" stereotype.

The young man--Tony, as he introduced himself--began the conversation with Chris with a brief comment about the evening of speakers: "Hi. Looking forward to the speakers?" With a quick glance at me and a wink, Chris said, "Oh, yes, very much. I'm especially looking

. . .
keep it straight." Despite all the playful clues, it apparently did not click in Tony's head that sitting before him was not only a beautiful blonde, but a brilliant woman who was just about to give a dazzling and subtle speech on a political issue of great importance and complexity. He was blinded by the stereotype of the "dumb blonde" and by his own inability to go beyond that stereotype and see sitting before him an individual human being of various talents who was far more than her external appearance, far more than her beauty and blondness. For a minute or two, Tony tried to impress Chris with his knowledge of the subject of the evening's gathering. He acted like quite an expert, even when he made a reference to a leading authority in the field and badly mispronounced his name, so badly I suspected he had never even heard it pronounced before. I expected Chris to correct him, and certainly hoped that she would, but she did not. She merely smiled and nodded at his pontification, which probably only added to the stereotyping which was probably going on in Tony's mind: "I have thus dumb blonde eating right out of my hand." In fact, what was happening was that Tony was making a fool of himself because of the illusions of the pr
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Tony Tony, Oh Tony, Chris Tony, Chris Chris, Tony Chris, Trenholm Jesen, , Chris Oh, Hi Looking, beautiful blonde, dumb blonde, dumb hunk, human mind, ND NP, beautiful blonde woman, married speakers, chris speaker, blonde woman, chris tony, stereotype dumb, dumb blonde stereotype, blonde stereotype,
Approximate Word count = 1379
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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