Odd stereotypes you don't get

[Gatx]

I'm part Asian so I don't understand this whole stereotype of Asians always being good at math and having small penises. I'm terrible at math and endowed enough that it has actually been a problem at times.

Now I can't say with 100% certainty but East Asian education at least seems to involve a lot of drilling and memorization, which of course would be more useful for maths and sciences.

Also I can't say with absolute certainty since I never go around comparing my penis to other people's, but a "stereotype" that's a physical trait would be one that's most likely true right? Like, obviously there are common physical distinctions between races (like skin color, average height, body hair, facial features), that's why we can even tell races apart after all, so I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that the average penis sizes of one race are bigger or smaller than another.

 

[Slayer_2]

I don't understand why women are supposed to be poor drivers. Sure, they have a MARGINALLY inferior depth perception, but I seriously doubt that would count. Does it have to do with some macho ideal?

Because all young women are hooked to their phone, and would rather die than put it down for a minute. They are fine drivers for a quick jaunt, as long as it is a very short distance, or provides plenty of phone-checking time at frequent red lights.

I think it may have been around before mobile phones became as big as they are now

I've got some random guesses

- traditionally cars were the MANS domain, women arnt into cars!
- going on generalisation perhaps women were "less inclined" to master drving or be interested in cars
-I did hear somthing about depth perception and all that

anyway random guess..I could be completly wrong

It's true that most women aren't into cars except as a way to get from point A to point B, but just because you don't know what a transmission does, doesn't mean your driving is any worse. The stereotype came along before mobile phones, but now with the borderline addiction most females have to their mobile devices, I almost can find some truth in it.

 

[thejackyl]

I don't understand why women are supposed to be poor drivers. Sure, they have a MARGINALLY inferior depth perception, but I seriously doubt that would count. Does it have to do with some macho ideal?

I thought it had something to do with the first automobile crash was caused by a female driver. Not sure if that's true or not, but it's the reasoning behind it that I got the last time I said something about it.

The stereotype I don't get (and it's more a cliche than a stereotype, so bear with me.) is the whole "Like father, Like son!" crap that I heard for the first few years after my father came out of the closet. I was one of the few straight people who got beat up/teased for being a "******" because of that reasoning.

 

[Averant]

From what I have learned "cracker" is short for "whip Cracker" as in slave owner.

Oh.

That makes SO much more sense now.

What I don't get is the stereotype that all Kansans live on a farm.

...yeah, it's called Kansas CITY for a reason, people.

 

[Something Amyss]

In case this wasn't covered....

The stereotype that all black people like fried chicken just sounds completely ridiculous. I know that most stereotypes are at least partly based on fact, but there are loads of non-blacks around the world who like fried chicken, and there must be loads of actual blacks that don't like fried chicken or are vegetarians/vegans. If not, KFC (invented by a white guy) wouldn't be so successful.

The stereotype comes from the early days of blacks having the right to work for pay in the US. Poor black folks tended to bring their lunch with them, and would take foods that didn't need utensils. Like, for example, fried chicken. This is a slight simplification, but you get the general point.

That's why, whenever I see these Photoshopped pictures or videos of black people going mad over a Bargain Bucket, the joke completely passes me by.

I don't particularly find it funny, and I know where it comes from.

Also, this isn't really a stereotype, moreso some kind of inside joke that no-one really believes in, but what about the whole thing of Welsh people apparently having sex with sheep? Is that just some kind of stupid rumour the English spread round? Was it people that'd never had prior experience with the Welsh happen to stumble upon him shagging sheep, assumed that they all did it, and passed that on?

Every place has this sort of rumour about their more rural brethren screwing animals. Often it's sheep, but it also depends on what's local or at least common. Being descended from Scots, I've heard a lot of jokes about the Scots and sheep. Living in Vermont, I hear a lot of jokes about rural areas in Vermont and New Hamster. There's also jokes about the American South and Midwest and so on.

Anyway, most of the thread seems to be full of "this stereotype isn't always true? By God!" which is kind of weird, because of course stereotypes aren't universally true.

But anyway, that's them explained. Well, sorta on the second one.

 

[Something Amyss]

...yeah, it's called Kansas CITY for a reason, people.

Willing to bet most people think Kansas City, MO, though.

Bet there's a reason for that, too.

 

[Diddy_Mao]

Mormons have horns.

Think what you will about their faith, I'm not here to defend of criticize it.

But how do you get past the age of 5 and still remain completely pig ignorant about something like that?

 

[FatalFox]

All norwegians are bad at english or fail to understand it, c'mon, that's just the old people =P
On the top of my head I am kind of --not confused or "don't get"-- but a little bit annoyed at the stereotype of "man"
Men are brute and very physical, incapable of displaying emotions they are irresponsible slobs who drink from flasks of beer and hit on women just to take advantage of them sexually and dumping them in the morning, damn sleasebags those men.
Unfortunately there are guys like this, but the therm "being a man" sets a really dumb stereotype and standard in my opinion, a therm I'd rather be driven out of use.
That's more about expectation than sterotyping I'll admit, but the label annoys me, and it's because of the stereotypical man some people hold prejudice to less "manly" men, forcing perfectly nice guys with their own hobbies under this pressure to "be a man".
I've ranted long enough, lol, just annoys me a little.

 

[Dimitriov]

Why white people are always accused of being racist to black people, mexicans, asians, and other minorities.

Where the heck does that stem from?

Probably the hundreds of years of white people being racist towards black people, Mexicans, Asians and other minorities. That's just a wild guess though.

Actually, traditionally most people in most places (and probably still in most places today) were pretty racist and intolerant of outsiders. Before our modern globalized world outsiders were viewed as dangerous (usually because they were criminals, back in the days when most people never traveled more than five miles from where they were born).

Now the racist white people stereotype comes from the fact that for around 100-150 years Europeans practiced Imperialism on a grand scale using the power of industrialization, technology, etc. and pretty much ran around the entire world shoving their version of racism in the faces of everyone on the planet...

and exploiting the hell out of them and their countries to boot.


OT: also I always heard that "cracker" comes from white and flaky.

 

[Torrasque]

That Canadians live in igloos.

I mean, I'm not quite sure how the rest of the world found that out. It's supposed to be our little secret!

More about Canadians is that apparently we're super, super nice. Yeah, sure. Maybe comparatively, but we're not really that nice.

Agreed. I have met many a douchey Canadian, and while I don't know that many Americans to compare, I don't get how people assume that all Canadians are the nicest people ever. Igloos also make no sense to me. It gets cold up here, but by Loki, not that cold... Besides that, I've only seen THAT much snow to make an Igloo, once in my life.

I've never understood the whole "you don't have a girlfriend? YOU MUST HAVE SERIOUS ISSUES" stereotype that I occasionally get.
I also don't understand the "you play consoles? omg you must hate PC gamers" stereotype. I guess I get that one a lot because of my macbook pro /shrug ?

 

[TaylorPaige09]

Blacks loving watermelon and grape drink. Never made sense to me.

You mean purple drank?

Damn. Ninja'd.

OT: White people can't dance/don't have rhythm.
Michael Jackson was an excellent dancer. Also, to further make my point:

Spoiler

 

[Don Savik]

Atheists don't believe in anything. NOTHING.

Yep. I don't believe in love, morality, art, air, the physical world, even my own existance.

None of it is real apparently.....or so I've been told by numerous people.

"wait, you don't believe in anything?" <--verbatim from people I've talked to

I said GOD not anything...GOD!!!!!

G-O-D does not spell anything.

 

[CounterReproductive]

A lot of people are baffled that I, a gay man, enjoy hip hop and metal. Hip hop I kinda get, what with the occasional homophobia and their love affair with the word "******". But metal? Seriously. Where did that one come from?

I think Steve Hughes said it best http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in9SiDtJLaU

 

[Saulkar]

That Canadians live in igloos.

I mean, I'm not quite sure how the rest of the world found that out. It's supposed to be our little secret!

More about Canadians is that apparently we're super, super nice. Yeah, sure. Maybe comparatively, but we're not really that nice.

Every stereotype about Canadians baffles me. I have never found a real life example and I have been in Manitoba, Alberta, BC, Yukon, NWT, PEI, Newfoundland and Labrador , and Nova Scotia besides my Native Sasky. Where do these stereotypes live, when did they exist, why do we self deprecatingly reinforce stereotypes in our media if they may have never existed in the first place? The only place where I heard an authentic Canadian accent was a few people in Halifax but it ended there.

 

[AnarchistFish]

That French people are cowards and Englishmen are ugly.

About the French, I believe it comes (at least partly) from World War 2. When the German invaded France, the French retreated so fast that the German army could barely catch up. They chased them through all of France until the French boarded some English ships and just left. Or something along those lines.

Yes, but it's bullshit. It's one war. Have you seen how large the border is between Germany and France? Anyway, France were one of many countries occupied in the Blitzkrieg, and then there was the large scale resistance movement.

 

[theSteamSupported]

Atheists don't believe in anything. NOTHING.

Yep. I don't believe in love, morality, art, air, the physical world, even my own existance.

None of it is real apparently.....or so I've been told by numerous people.

"wait, you don't believe in anything?" <--verbatim from people I've talked to

I said GOD not anything...GOD!!!!!

G-O-D does not spell anything.

I don't believe in anything, but I still don't want to call myself an atheist. That's beacause to me, religion has to do with emotional attachment that defines one's bias. Rejection of those attachments is an attachment in of itself, and I consider myself to be too philosophical and introspective to join said rejection. So yeah, I don't feel comfortable belonging to a religious community, not even the atheist community. Wasting my energy upon yelling at religious people isn't really my thing.

That's the core problem I have with Atheism, really. Verbal hostility towards emotional attachments, tends to make said attachments more binding to the people who hold them, no matter how true that hostility is. So it's not logic, reason or evidence you're lacking, it's kindness, honesty and subtlety.

In the end, resistance is harmful, but if an establishment is facing resistance, said establishment contains way too many errors. Never create anger.

 

[Mr Cwtchy]

Yes, but it's bullshit. It's one war. Have you seen how large the border is between Germany and France? Anyway, France were one of many countries occupied in the Blitzkrieg, and then there was the large scale resistance movement.

But not as large scale as the French made it out to be. The Yugoslavians put up MUCH more of a fight, granted they had an advantage in terms of terrain.

So yeah, the French are cowards stereotype is rubbish, but the old image of the heroic French Resistance is rather overstated.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Blacks loving watermelon and grape drink. Never made sense to me.

I can vouche that black people love grape drink . They love everything grape flavoured . I am black and love everything that has grape written on it , and i only learned it was a stereotype like 3 years ago ( i am 23), needless to say i was astonished!

Now i also love cool-aid and fried chiken ... I guess that makes me a stereotipical black man ,...

Grape flavoured swishersweets totally floored me. Like someone went to Stereotype Town University to get their marketing degree, and made millions. I just need to invent grape flavoured bread and fried chicken flavoured bologna.

OT : white people can't dance . Thats one i don't get . Can someone explain this to me? And can someone else explain why everyone assumes i am a great dancer?

I think that it has more to do with the type of dancing. Puritan Christianity had a very strong influence on Europe for a very long time. As a result white people tend to be exposed to rather "proper" styles of dancing in their cultures. Black and Latino culture have only relatively recently been infected by puritan ideals and rejected quite a bit of it as the culture of oppression. As a result I believe that the more sexually charged styles from traditional dance have survived in these cultures where it was more or less eradicated from white culture. The end product being that, regardless of skill, blacks and latinos simply tend to dance "sexier".
Totally pulled that out of my ass by the way.