The Student Room Group

Things people should really stop thinking.

There are a lot of false stereotypes thrown about, a lot of toxic mentality and a lot of skewed views due to the place you live in/ your environment and the society you're in contact with. A lot of these misconceptions can be harmful to people and can lead to unfortunate circumstances.

So what sort of thinks do we really need to stop thinking, no matter how insignificant it may seem?


Examples would be that people should really stop seeing feminists as man haters, or Islam as some oppressive religion, or that gay men are always flamboyant, and that anything that has the colours of the rainbow to be taken as LGBT+ related, or that Nicki Minaj is a terrible human being, or that the reason for a headache is being on the computer too long [[Looking at all the parents here]]

I realise that there's risk of argument here and there's a very high chance the thread will be closed due to this, I urge you to keep your mind open and to accept that people have different opinions, and that even if some opinions are wrong you cannot change them via a spat on the internet.
Reply 1
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Existential Crisis

Posted from TSR Mobile
But a lot of Feminists are 'man-haters', as lot of Islam is oppressive, and a lot of homosexuals are flamboyant.

It is obviously inaccurate to say, for example, 'all feminists are man-haters', but it's not wrong to say that many are, because it is true to some extent.
Reply 4
Original post by tomfailinghelp
But a lot of Feminists are 'man-haters', as lot of Islam is oppressive, and a lot of homosexuals are flamboyant.

It is obviously inaccurate to say, for example, 'all feminists are man-haters', but it's not wrong to say that many are, because it is true to some extent.


Would it be naive of me to think that the whole reason we think that's a majority is because it's perpetuated by the media?
Original post by Ruthless Dutchman
Would it be naive of me to think that the whole reason we think that's a majority is because it's perpetuated by the media?


It would be strange unless you were willing to find some evidence. Personally I think I've seen little of any of these stereotypes, contrary to the received view that the media (the British media anyway) perpetuates them.

For instance, I tend to see feminists depicted as liberal freedom fighters, Muslims as a bullied minority, and Homosexuals as a beacon of diversity. This is accurate in some cases, in some it's not. But I certainly see more of the latter than the former.

Also it depends which point specifically you were talking about with your question. For instance there is fairly concrete evidence that Islam is very oppressive in many cases, the same perhaps isn't true for the other two cases.

(And I think it's important to note that I never mentioned majorities)
(edited 9 years ago)
Reply 6
Original post by Ruthless Dutchman
Would it be naive of me to think that the whole reason we think that's a majority is because it's perpetuated by the media?


boom
Reply 7
Original post by tomfailinghelp
It would be strange unless you were willing to find some evidence. Personally I think I've seen little of any of these stereotypes, contrary to the received view that the media (the British media anyway) perpetuates them.

For instance, I tend to see feminists depicted as liberal freedom fighters, Muslims as a bullied minority, and Homosexuals as a beacon of diversity. This is accurate in some cases, in some it's not. But I certainly see more of the latter than the former.

Also it depends which point specifically you were talking about with your question. For instance there is fairly concrete evidence that Islam is very oppressive in many cases, the same perhaps isn't true for the other two cases.


With regards to Islam, I came across this a couple of days ago [[Although I understand that one video in defence does not seem as enough proof to those against]]


Homosexuality being a beacon for diversity does come with a few problems unfortunately, since there are other types of orientations such as bisexual, pansexual [[Although I've recently been told that bisexual and pansexual are the same?]], asexual, transsexual etc and some of these are being seen as 'fake' or 'false', even within the LGBT+ community there seems to be a hostility against the BT+ bit.

I'm putting the validity of my response on the line here by saying that a lot of my understanding and insight into a lot of social issues come from Tumblr, which is more known for its 'eccentric' userbase, which I try to avoid and keep the feed more rational.

[[EDIT]] I feel like I must add that also a lot of the feed comes from the US, which I'm sure is very different from the UK
(edited 9 years ago)
Reply 8
Original post by Ruthless Dutchman
With regards to Islam, I came across this a couple of days ago [[Although I understand that one video in defence does not seem as enough proof to those against]]


Homosexuality being a beacon for diversity does come with a few problems unfortunately, since there are other types of orientations such as bisexual, pansexual [[Although I've recently been told that bisexual and pansexual are the same?]], asexual, transsexual etc and some of these are being seen as 'fake' or 'false', even within the LGBT+ community there seems to be a hostility against the BT+ bit.

I'm putting the validity of my response on the line here by saying that a lot of my understanding and insight into a lot of social issues come from Tumblr, which is more known for its 'eccentric' userbase, which I try to avoid and keep the feed more rational.

[[EDIT]] I feel like I must add that also a lot of the feed comes from the US, which I'm sure is very different from the UK


you're saying there's also hostility to bisexuality within the LGBT community?
Original post by Ruthless Dutchman
With regards to Islam, I came across this a couple of days ago [[Although I understand that one video in defence does not seem as enough proof to those against]]


Homosexuality being a beacon for diversity does come with a few problems unfortunately, since there are other types of orientations such as bisexual, pansexual [[Although I've recently been told that bisexual and pansexual are the same?]], asexual, transsexual etc and some of these are being seen as 'fake' or 'false', even within the LGBT+ community there seems to be a hostility against the BT+ bit.

I'm putting the validity of my response on the line here by saying that a lot of my understanding and insight into a lot of social issues come from Tumblr, which is more known for its 'eccentric' userbase, which I try to avoid and keep the feed more rational.

[[EDIT]] I feel like I must add that also a lot of the feed comes from the US, which I'm sure is very different from the UK


Okay, I certainly wouldn't accept a lot of the assertions in that video (namely that religion isn't a cause of actions or attitudes, interesting that he doesn't note any violent Jains), nor would I accept that there is no correlation between Islam and objectionable attitudes, not that it is the sole cause of them, but I do accept that some people erroneously describe the case of Islam in this way.

And yes it's certainly true that many people are still bigoted, and this is wrong. However those cases are not simple ones. I won't use transexuality as a point of argument, because I feel there is a lot of ambiguity surrounding that, for example it seems quite clear that it is different in significant ways from homosexuality as we understand it. However with the case of pansexuality, I'm not sure that generalisations about it as 'false' really are wrong. Of course we have no statistics on this, and it's almost impossible to research someone's subjective feeling. But you must admit that, as a tumblr user, it's clear in many cases that these labels are simply an excuse to adopt a feeling of victimisation. People have every right to maintain that they are 'pansexual', and they should not be discriminated against for it, but it isn't taken seriously because it isn't something that has any impact on anything at all. For instance, how would you identify a difference between a pansexual and bisexual person? You could not by observing their behaviour. Thus it seems that declaring oneself to be pansexual achieves nothing other than providing an excuse to feel victimised.

Apologies for the, perhaps slightly unclear, explanation. My central point is that people have negative attitudes towards such things that perhaps aren't always unfounded. In the case of transexuality, I think the problem is bigotry mostly. However I would admit that I don't take 'pan sexuality' serious, and I feel I've given a good reason for it.

I'm sure you're correct about the UK/US divide. I heart BBC.
Reply 10
Original post by Riku
you're saying there's also hostility to bisexuality within the LGBT community?


Apparently if you are in a relationship with someone of the opposite sex you can't call yourself bisexual.
Reply 11
Original post by Ruthless Dutchman
Apparently if you are in a relationship with someone of the opposite sex you can't call yourself bisexual.


This seems absurd. Especially if you have had two relationships, one with the same sex and one with the opposite, then it's plain stupid. Sounds more of an extremist, hetero-phobic camp in the community imo. I could be wrong, I hope so.
Original post by Ruthless Dutchman
There are a lot of false stereotypes thrown about, a lot of toxic mentality and a lot of skewed views due to the place you live in/ your environment and the society you're in contact with. A lot of these misconceptions can be harmful to people and can lead to unfortunate circumstances.

So what sort of thinks do we really need to stop thinking, no matter how insignificant it may seem?


Examples would be that people should really stop seeing feminists as man haters, or Islam as some oppressive religion, or that gay men are always flamboyant, and that anything that has the colours of the rainbow to be taken as LGBT+ related, or that Nicki Minaj is a terrible human being, or that the reason for a headache is being on the computer too long [[Looking at all the parents here]]

I realise that there's risk of argument here and there's a very high chance the thread will be closed due to this, I urge you to keep your mind open and to accept that people have different opinions, and that even if some opinions are wrong you cannot change them via a spat on the internet.

Islam literally translates to "submission" in English. A key tenet of Islam is to submit yourself to the will of their God and to act entirely in a way that pleases him. This principle governs every aspect of their life.

There are many points about Islam that are debatable but this isn't one. The essence of Islam is oppression.
Reply 13
Original post by tomfailinghelp
Okay, I certainly wouldn't accept a lot of the assertions in that video (namely that religion isn't a cause of actions or attitudes, interesting that he doesn't note any violent Jains), nor would I accept that there is no correlation between Islam and objectionable attitudes, not that it is the sole cause of them, but I do accept that some people erroneously describe the case of Islam in this way.

And yes it's certainly true that many people are still bigoted, and this is wrong. However those cases are not simple ones. I won't use transexuality as a point of argument, because I feel there is a lot of ambiguity surrounding that, for example it seems quite clear that it is different in significant ways from homosexuality as we understand it. However with the case of pansexuality, I'm not sure that generalisations about it as 'false' really are wrong. Of course we have no statistics on this, and it's almost impossible to research someone's subjective feeling. But you must admit that, as a tumblr user, it's clear in many cases that these labels are simply an excuse to adopt a feeling of victimisation. People have every right to maintain that they are 'pansexual', and they should not be discriminated against for it, but it isn't taken seriously because it isn't something that has any impact on anything at all. For instance, how would you identify a difference between a pansexual and bisexual person? You could not by observing their behaviour. Thus it seems that declaring oneself to be pansexual achieves nothing other than providing an excuse to feel victimised.

Apologies for the, perhaps slightly unclear, explanation. My central point is that people have negative attitudes towards such things that perhaps aren't always unfounded. In the case of transexuality, I think the problem is bigotry mostly. However I would admit that I don't take 'pan sexuality' serious, and I feel I've given a good reason for it.

I'm sure you're correct about the UK/US divide. I heart BBC.


I understand what you're saying and I'm still struggling to form my opinion of what I think about Islam and other religions, I'll take what you said into account though because I shouldn't simply accept what 'sounds nicest'.

Pansexual is still an odd ball for me too actually, but I'm uncomfortable about making a comment about it because there's always a risk of a hostile reply if I phrase it wrong. Which is why for the moment I just accept that it's a term some people wish to identify with, in all honestly I don't understand a lot of words people use to describe themselves.

I've had to find the definition of Bigot far too many times to remind myself, and every time I'm reminded of a post that said white people:" But the dictionary says that...", I'm forever working on word definitions via puzzling together other people's opinions. But that's a personal issue.
Reply 14
Original post by Riku
This seems absurd. Especially if you have had two relationships, one with the same sex and one with the opposite, then it's plain stupid. Sounds more of an extremist, hetero-phobic camp in the community imo. I could be wrong, I hope so.


It certainly does seem absurd, but then in the other way, of a bisexual person was in a relationship with someone of the same sex, people would instead think they were just homosexual, which again is equally as absurd.

I haven't really seen any of these issues close to home though, I can currently think of two friends who are openly bisexual and they don't really receive any discrimination for it. [[Then again neither are in a relationship currently so no one could make such comments anyway]]
The idea that if you care about the environment, support conservation organisations and want stricter environmental regulation you must be some nimby/luddite and/or weird hippy who doesn't shower and wants to take the whole world back to the stone age. A lot of people don't realise that the environmental movement has strong mainstream support and typical environmentalists are ordinary people.

This stereotype tends to come from anti-environmentalists, that insufferable "journalist" James Delingpole being an excellent example. It's annoying because it's used in an attempt to dismiss valid arguments instead of actually answering those arguments.

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