Breakfast Club

“Jock”, “prep”, “gangster”, “loser”, “geek”, “criminal”, “ popular”, are just a few labels of teenagers that are used everyday by outsiders who judge them without looking skin deep. In the matter of stereotyping, some may perceive it as being the base of an identity in the view of society. Eric Berne, an author and psychologist, wrote an article, “Can People Be Judged by Their Appearance?”, where stereotyping is categorized and used as a positive view. As opposed to the film The Breakfast Club, written by John Hughes, that creates a more negative input on stereotyping. Berne’s uses a theory of basic human types as an example of a scientific subject made for nonscientists, where in the article he breaks down categories of people’s appearances to help them reflect on their own personalities. On the other hand, Hughes engages in a different theory of how to let people recognize stereotyping by giving a different perspective of it. In The Breakfast Club Berne’s lets viewers realize that stereotyping between children and parents is a natural difference, while a group of misrepresented teens are put in detention for eight hours on a Saturday, all realize that regardless of what each are looked upon as, all are one of the same. Stereotyping in our society can be viewed in two ways, one being a means by which people judge one another, and the other as a way of unfairly categorizing people in society simply by the way they look or act.

Using his knowledge from psychology to develop a scientific theory of basic human types made readable for non-scientists, author Eric Berne created an article containing categories and descriptions of men that illustrated an idea of being a positive value if one is stereotyping another. In his article “Can People Be Judged by Their Appearance?” Berne classifies three different types of “morphs,” that describe ones body build, whether an endomorph, (inside,) a mesomorph (middle,) or an ectomorph (outside,) which portrays individuals in a descriptive “type” of person they are. Berne presents a Viscerotonic Endomorph, which describes a rather short, thick, smooth, bald, easy going man, who for enjoyment attends banquets, takes baths, and sleeps. The Somatotonic Mesomorph is described as being a muscular, rugged, tan, firm, adventurous man, who for enjoyment loves to exercise and master those around him for a good time. Lastly the Cerebrotonic Ectomorph, a man who is a long, thin, pale, dry, absent minded man, who doesn’t fancy moving around much and would rather sit quietly by themselves and keep out of difficulties.