Appearance Vs Reality

Appearance vs. Reality

Things are not always as they appear. You may think someone is a certain way because of how they dress and carry themselves this is called stereotyping. Many people stereotype without even noticing that they are doing it. Everyone has his or her right to first impressions, but stereotyping is wrong. There are many examples of this topic in literature as well as in our society today.

The main population accused of stereotyping is teenagers; they are seen as rude and judgmental. For example, in high school the people are divided into groups by how they dress and whom they hang out with. There are the skaters, freaks, preps, snobs, cheerleaders, jocks and nerds. No one person set up these different groups, they came along as the years went by. It is not fair to automatically say someone is a prep or freak by just looking at them; the people in different groups have many of the same characteristics and the same friends. So, how can they be stereotyped if all the groups mingle anyways? Although the teenagers are usually accused of stereotyping, it occurs no matter what age you are. For example, if an adult sees another one dressed in cheaper clothes, they might assume they are poor. Or if someone sees another with real expensive clothes, they assume they are rich. This is a false accusation, because one cannot tell if another is rich or poor by how they dress or what kind of house they live in. Some people like to save money and others like to spend it too much, it is hard to tell by looks.

Stereotyping is also used in literature and films, sometimes to teach people a lesson or sometimes that is just the way the author feels about things. An example of this is the play "Cyrano de Bergerac". In the play Cyrano is in love with his cousin Roxane, but no body thinks that she will like him because he has a huge nose. They all judge him on his appearance and forget all about his well-rounded personality. So, he writes poetry and puts someone else's name on it, at the end when Roxane finds out, she falls in love with him. That goes to show that appearance is not everything, regardless of what some may think. Stereotyping is also shown in a recent movie put out by Disney, called "You Wish". This boy wants to be popular and cool, but his friends