What comes to your mind when you hear the word stereotype? The google definition of this word is
“a stereotype is an over-generalized belief about a particular category of people. Stereotypes are generalized because one assumes that the stereotype is true for each individual person in the category. While such generalizations may be useful when making quick decisions, they may be erroneous when applied to particular individuals. Stereotypes encourage prejudice and may arise for a number of reasons“
We live in a society that claims to be a progressive society and open to western ideas, some of us seem to be adapting the western lifestyle as well while half of the society is still following the old traditions. It's has become a haphazard. People have developed certain stereotypes that’s are affecting us in more ways we don’t even know.
The most common stereotype that most of the girls can relate to is “if a girl is wearing jeans then her character must be bad” I'm sure most of us have been a victim of the statement. A statement that has no base, there is literally no connection between your character and what you wear. Well, maybe there is but a piece of cloth cannot decide if our character is good or bad, maybe the girl who is wearing jeans in closer to Allah than the girl who wears a hijab. Wearing a hijab does not validate that you’re closer to God and also doesn’t give you the right to question another people’s relation with God. A girl whose wearing jeans can be better than a girl who wear hijab in all possible ways.
Then there is a stereotype that “the person who cannot speak in English is paindu” haha well, first of all, English is not our mother tongue, so what if someone’s English is weak? When a foreigner speaks horrendous urdu we are all like “awww so cute” but when a Pakistani fails to speak English like a pro, we roast that person to a point that they lock themselves in a room, we starting making memes and make fun of that person in every possible way, why such double standards? Maybe you’ll get surprised to know that there are so many countries like, Turkey and Germany where people are not forced to learn English, and they focus and learn their own native language, Learning English is a choice, not a compulsion.
Another stereotype that have ruined so many live and has affected the girls all around the nation is “the whiter the prettier” unfortunately we have set a standard for beauty. Only the girl who is fair, slim and has long hair is considered pretty. This standard of beauty has ruined so many girls and their self-esteems. Every aunty wants a fair, slim and tall girl for their son. A tan girl (no matter how amazing she is) gets rejected by everyone because of her complexion, it’s been fed to our minds that we need to become fair and lovely otherwise no one would like us. Our mothers have been pressurized by the society hence they try every totka to make their daughters acceptable for the society.
It’s not only the women who get judged over their appearance, but men also get judged as well! If a guy has beard we call him a terrorist or a maulvi. Why do we associate beard with terrorism? This is precisely the reason why the west is blames us for everything bad that happens there because we have shown them that maybe there is a relation between terrorism and bread. Think about it for a second. Maybe we are giving them reasons to question us!
These were just a few stereotypes that we come across on daily basis, there is a gazillion more. All I can say is, we seriously need to stop judging other over their appearance or how fair they are, there is so much more to a person, Stop judging!
