From: pepke@ds1.scri.fsu.edu (Eric Pepke)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: stereotypes
Date: 9 Apr 92 03:14:41 GMT
Reply-To: pepke@ds1.scri.fsu.edu (Eric Pepke)
Organization: Florida State University, but I don't speak for them
Status: R
Originator: nadel@aerospace.aero.org



In article <s00g7INNo5d@agate.berkeley.edu> VNASMAN@FALCON.AAMRL.WPAFB.AF.MIL (Tori) writes:
>	I meant that women encounter prescriptive stereotypes more often than 
>they do descriptive stereotypes.

Fair enough.

>Unfortunately, the prescriptive 
>stereotypes faced by women actively discourage most or all of the behaviors 
>that are most critical to professional success.

Yes, true.  In the interests of being equitable, I should point out that the 
stereotypes faced by men actively discourage most or all of the behaviors
that are most critical to emotional well-being.

> But someone 
>earlier presented a sort of defense of stereotyping on the grounds that it is 
>an inevitable part of human culture.  Descriptive stereotyping IS inevitable 
>in the sense that human beings think by categories; children identify and 
>classify the world around them by grouping its objects and characters.

Well, people have posted that sort of defense to argue with things that I
have written, but I don't buy that defense.  Like most of the really difficult
human evils, stereotyping is similar to a human good or human necessity, 
differing mostly by degree.  I think that grouping things into categories
is a fundamental function of the human brain.  What we can and, I believe, 
should control, is the valence that we give to the categories.  I like the
skeptical approach, where one waits until one can be sure to apply a 
description.

>	What IS bad is when we demand that individuals CONFORM to our 
>expectations (defined by descriptive stereotypes).  This is prescriptive 
>stereotyping.

The problem I see is that I think this transition is more difficult to 
control than the transition from "working hypothesis" to "description
of reality."  It is more difficult, I think, to prevent oneself from making
the transition from "black people are lazy" to "I should treat black people
as if they were lazy" than it is to prevent oneself from making the transition
from "I have seen a couple of people who are both lazy and black" to "black
people are lazy." One should always, I think, have a healthy respect for the
limitations of one's experience.  A cognitive understanding of statistics
helps this.  One's sample space is always small, usually too small to 
generate any sort of reliable pattern.

Perhaps the real difference between us is that I think that such tendencies
are better nipped in the bud, while you would rather they be left until the 
last stage before they become actively destructive.  I really have no idea
whether this description is accurate or not.  What do you think?

-EMP

---
Post articles to soc.feminism, or send email to feminism@ncar.ucar.edu.
Questions and comments may be sent to feminism-request@ncar.ucar.edu.  This
news group is moderated by several people, so please use the mail aliases. Your
article should be posted within several days.  Rejections notified by email.
Newsgroups: soc.feminism