Stereotypes and Stereotyping - I Was a Teenage Brain :: Example Personal Narratives

Stereotyping - I Was a Teenage Brain It was a Friday afternoon, and I was waiting for my history class to start. The students sitting around me were talking about a big party that a girl was having that night. A guy sitting across from me turned and asked me if I was going to go to the party. Before I could answer him, he broke in and said that I would probably go home, do my homework and study all night. That Friday is one time I remember very well that being stereotyped as a brain limited what I could do. Just because I was not going to be at the party, it bothered me that my classmates assumed I would be at home studying. His assumption was caused by the characteristics associated with the stereotype of a brain. A brain is a person who does well in school, gets good grades, always has their homework completed and likes to be on top. A brain is usually neat and organized. People wrongly think brains spend all of their time studying and doing homework. They think brains do not care about their appearance and are not involved in athletics. A brain is expected to wear thick glasses held together with tape, wear a pocket protector, be skinny and zit-faced and always have a calculator. A brain is usually associated with not being well dressed and being unattractive. Television and movies have helped contribute to this unattractive picture of a brain. Some examples are Screech from Saved by the Bell, Carol from Growing Pains and Steve Urkel from Family Matters. I think the reason that people have placed me in the stereotype of a brain is because I have done well in all of my classes throughout school. I like to learn new things, and school is not very difficult for me. I always hated to get a test back because my classmates would ask what I received on the test. When I showed them my "A," I knew they resented that I had received a better grade than they did. They did not understand that I had to work hard to earn the "A." Because of my good grades, I am stereotyped as a brain.