Commentary: Stereotypes

Hooking-up! Greek life! Eating disorders! These are all buzzwords on our campus and consequently these are also words which carry some prominent stereotypes with them as well. Columnists generally get attacked for stereotyping and as a result, most columnists try to avoid making generalizations, myself included. Well, it's time to try something new. Not only will this column not avoid stereotypes, it will actually defend them. With that in mind, if you are particularly sensitive or plan on pulling the PC card on me, put this column down now and go back to whatever you were doing.

 Still reading? I thought so. First of all, there is a fundamental truth that people seem to forget when talking about stereotypes and that is the fact that almost all stereotypes, to a lesser or greater degree, come from an actual truth. There must have been many examples or instances of something happening in order for it to evolve into a full-blown stereotype that everybody knows. This is something that people never seem to mention when talking about stereotypes, but this is an essential fact nonetheless. Furthermore, it's important to keep this in mind when thinking about the usual stereotypes at Duke. Hooking-up. As I said in my last column, this social concept is hugely blown out of proportion. The general consensus at Duke is that hooking-up is the most popular extracurricular student activity, second only to tenting. This simply isn't true. There is clearly no official data on this topic, but if I've been here long enough to have a pretty good sense of the social scene and my estimate is that no more than a third of the student body indulges in hooking-up on a regular basis. Hardly something that you could make a stereotypes out of.

 Eating disorders. Last semester's phenomenon of "Effortless Perfection" pushed the topic of eating disorders to the forefront of campus conversation. However, it hardly told us anything that we didn't already know. On Duke's campus this is a common stereotype and many people automatically assume that any girl who is a size four or less is dealing with some kind of an eating problem. But again, just how wrong of an assumption is this? It is true that in the real world there are plenty of girls who eat whatever they want and still stay very skinny.

 However, when every other girl is a size four or less you've got to wonder just how genetic their figure really is. This stereotype is further supported by the fact that these size four and under girls make up the majority of people at the salad bars and in Wilson. Have you been to the gym lately? I've had to wait longer to get a treadmill then I have to get into half the basketball games this season.

 And what really makes things ridiculous is the fact that the cardio equipment is almost always being used by these waif girls who should be at McDonald's rather than Wilson. If you don't believe me just take a look at the cardio floor in Wilson--there is not a single plus size person there. You'll have better luck finding a Pratt student at Parizade then an actual overweight person at Wilson. Therefore, you can't exactly blame people for assuming that there is an eating disorder present since in so many cases this is actually true.

 Greek life. If you ask any greek, they will tell you that they're probably the biggest victims of social stereotypes on this campus. Even The Chronicle columns can be pretty harsh towards them. However, how much of it is actually deserved? Fraternities, and especially sororities, are often filed under a singe adjective. You have the sluty one, the wild one, the boring one, etc. To prove my point, let's try a little experiment.

 Turn around and ask a few people to tell you who comes to their mind when you ask them to think of a slutty sorority. I'm absolutely positive that in 95 percent of cases, they will name the same one or two sororities. You really think this is a coincidence? Now, many greeks may argue that this is a stereotype, and maybe they're right. Maybe it isn't true anymore. However, one has to acknowledge the fact that, if it isn't true now, then it must have been true in the past.

 That's the whole point! I have started out by defending stereotypes, but I am by no means endorsing them. Nor am I suggesting that we should just sit back and let people think what they want regardless of how true it is. I wouldn't be writing for a paper if I didn't think that individuals were capable of changing things around. However, there is a right and wrong way to go about doing this. Nothing is accomplished if upon encountering a stereotype you vilify the other person and victimize yourself. Before trying to change something, first make sure that it is actually wrong, and if that is the case, then accept the fact that it probably did come from something that was true in the past.