The stereotyped and its "rebels"

By Wong Karmen

 

Sitting at the table with his eyes glued to the laptop, left hand smashing the keyboard and the other clicking away bullet fast, the boy wearing a hooded jacket and headphones then shifts his attention from his laptop to the two clearly fashionable girls walking into the food court. No, he was not checking the girls out; he was slightly agitated that their incredibly loud laughter filled the room like a pack of hyenas. “Communication students,” he thought to himself while shaking his head, eyes still glaring at them.  The two girls caught him staring and thought to themselves, “Boys from computing school just can’t get enough of their laptops.”

 

The remarks made by both parties may be exactly what you were thinking, computing students are glued to their computers and communication students are extroverts.  Well in this story, the boy is a  law student and the girls are medical students. They were stereotyped based on their behaviour.

 

Stereotyping is when we form opinions about others based on appearance, actions, language and so on because we are unable to obtain all of the information we need to make a fair judgement about people. More often than not, they are false assumptions. And most of the time, they are offensive.

 

In this article, we will look at a few common stereotypes among some of the schools in Taylor’s University (TU). We asked students what stereotypes they have most commonly received as a student of their respective schools and what their thoughts were about it.

 

School of Communication

Blake Kee Wei, 23, a broadcasting major, said the most common stereotype he came across was that the School of Communication is full of extroverts. "That is like saying all men are stronger than women and all women are better than men at cooking. It is merely a stereotype that shouldn't be assumed. I can be an introvert, it mostly depends on how I'm feeling that day. I'm not always an extrovert,” Kee said.

 

It’s a common misconception that communication students are extroverts because people assume that studying communication means you like communicating with people a lot. It is a great example of false assumption based on uncertainty. Many do not know that the communication module does not only consist of communication among people but there is a “behind the scenes” role as well, such as the creative department in advertising.  They are the people in the background who produce their communicative work without having to be as outgoing and sociable as others.

 

School of Computing

Computing students are the most commonly stereotyped. “People tend to think of  computing students as geeky introvert guys who only play computer games and communicate online,” Azliyana binti Azlee, 21, said. “Contrary to popular belief, not all IT students are like that. There are others such as myself who join clubs and make new friends by performing for various events,” Azliyana, an IT major, added. Dinesh Karthikesu, 21, also majoring in IT said, “We do spend plenty of time on our computers because of our assignments, but I highly doubt we prefer online communication over face-to-face communication.”

 

He expressed that every course has its fair share of introverts, and the computing school is no different. “There are a lot of students here who love presenting novel ideas in front of a large audience, and coming up with brand new business ideas,” Dinesh added.

 

School of Business

According to Koh Ru Yee, 19 who is majoring in accounting and finance said business students are assumed to be rigid, uptight and downright bland. Constantly surrounded by reports, numeric and dollar signs, people often perceive business students to be stringent in terms of figures. “It’s not the truth as the corporate world today requires high levels of creativity and innovation thus allowing business students to truly diversify themselves,” Koh said.

 

She added that business students today possess a great range of skills and talents that allow them to be immersed  in industries that were never associated with business such as music, arts and science.

 

Changing stereotypes is largely dependent on the individual. We should all examine the assumptions that we make about others and ask ourselves where those assumptions come from. It is important to not generalise people because everyone wants to be accepted according to their own behaviour and appearances. Put yourself in their shoes, you would not want to be generalised according to the group you belong to.