Generations and stereotyping Commentary

1. Children's Writer
John in the garden
Playing goodies and baddies
Janet in the bedroom
Playing mummies and daddies
Mummy in the kitchen
Washing and wiping
Roger Mcgogh
Daddy in the study
Stereotyping

2. Cultural generations are cohorts of
people who were born in the same
date range and share similar cultural
experience.
The idea of a cultural generation, in the
sense that it is used today gained
currency in the 19th century.
Source: Wikipedia

3. Ascribing universal attributes to a
broad generation is difficult, and
some observers believe that it is
inherently impossible.

4. Write a short COMMENTARY on the following
To ascribe certain features to a whole
generation
– either positive or negative –
is a useless, even dangerous, exercise.

5. Introduction (state the topic in my own words)
Newspaper and TV headlines that comment on the
young generations have become very common. More
often than not young people are portrayed as rude,
lazy and unreliable. This is simply not true, this is
stereotyping. These reports may help to sell papers or
attract advertising but, in my view, they are pointless
and sometimes dangerous.
(55 words)

6. Paragraph 2 – Viewpoint 1
Why is stereotyping pointless? To begin with, young
people, by definition, are growing! So, it is true that
some teens have not found their way, yet; they may
feel insecure, sometimes be outspoken, and even act
arrogantly. ‘Calling them names’ is not the way to
tackle the problem, and if we forget this we are
denying young people the opportunity to grow.
(62 words)

7. Paragraph 3 – Viewpoint 2
Why is it dangerous? When we stereotype people, we
do not see them as individuals and we address them
for what we think they are, and not for what they
really are. As a consequence, young people may start
behaving according to that image we convey of them,
as they do not understand what is expected of them.
(58 words)

8. Paragraph 4 – Opposing View
Some people claim stereotypes are harmless and they
just make it easier for us to deal with reality. That
might be true, but we should always be careful
because stereotyping may lead to prejudice and
prejudice is the basis of discrimination.
(41 words)

9. Conclusion– summary
All in all, I would say that by far the disadvantages of
stereotyping outweigh the advantages. Therefore, the
media should be extremely careful or simply avoid it
altogether. Stereotyping may draw bigger audiences,
but at what cost.
(37 words)
(Total: 253 words)