Stereotype Me Not

I recently commented on a classmate's blog about stereotypes, which got me thinking about how much we actually depend on them.  It's true we depend on these oversimplified ideas about people in order to make sense of the world around us. I don't condone stereotyping people, and I'm not suggesting it is right.  All I am saying is everyone does, even those people most adamantly against it are guilty.  

Think of it in fictional terms.  What is a stock character? Answer: A stereotype. The jock.  The mistress. The loner. We have ideas about what these personalities will look like and how they will act. The practice of oversimplifying in order to draw a point of recognition is common in fiction, and it is done to help people make sense of the themes and motifs in a story.  Now a stock character is never a central figure in fiction, but even the protagonists have stock qualities that enable us to recognize them. The best way to rationalize this tendency is to recognize we are predisposed to stereotypes from an early age.  Think of every fairytale or biblical tale you know because writers manipulate our familiarity with them to create their fiction. 

Think of it as a way of identifying.  Remember the persona we created in Writing for the Internet.  We chose images of people we knew nothing about to portray a target audience.  My group chose a picture of a young man that we "thought" looked athletic and upbeat.  We have simplified, long standing ideas about what certain things should and should not be.

I have no resolve for this post. I am simply considering how much a part of life stereotypes are. Does their abundance somehow necessitate them?