Please what is the meaning of stereotype in a simple way? can you give me examples? can you give me synonyms?
yes, but I didn't understand.
A fixed general image that is considered to represent a particular type of person or thing.
It's hard to understand. Can anybody help?
Stereotypes are a depiction of a group of people, often based on some truths, but exaggerated. They are usually considered offensive because not every member of any group is the same and relying on stereotypes instead of judging people as individuals can be damaging to all involved.
Common ones include that French people are rude and eat frogs. Britons have poor teeth. Americans are obese and disinterested in other nations. Arabs only enjoy blowing things up. Italians are all oily and eat spaghetti.
NOT A TEACHER
(1) Your question is a hot potato, as we say in the United States. (Well. at least some of us older people do.) Hot potato = a super controversial subject that people do not want to discuss.
(2) The word stereotype is used in a negative sense, as one of the posters explained
in his excellent post. If you come to the United States, never repeat in public any of
those stereotypes that were mentioned in his post. If you do, you will hurt some
people's feelings. There are some stereotypes that are so powerful that you will
lose your job if you say them out loud; and if you say them to certain people, those
people may physically attack you!
(3) Of course, a few people feel that a stereotype is nothing more than a
generalization. If 75% of Group X eats only vanilla ice cream, can we say that
most Group Xers eat only vanilla ice cream? If you do, many people will accuse you
of stereotyping Group X!
(4) Thus you should do what most people do: keep your opinions to yourself. If you
think that a certain group does. indeed, have a large percentage of members who
act in a similar way (especially in a bad way), do not say anything.
Thanks TheParser. I understood it.