Friday, November 16, 2012
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SENIOR ADDRESSES THE POWER OF TRULY GETTING TO KNOW OTHERS
STUDENTS TALK ABOUT their identity beyond stereotypes
inside the head of a superfan
Page 3
PAGE 8 & 9
PAGE 13
The Howler Volume 14
A student publication of Monarch High School since 1998. 329 Campus Drive, Louisville, CO
Issue 3
Photo illustration by Katie Ciaglo
Student speaks Out About Stereotypes O’Connor sees benefits as well as downsides in making generalizations by Katie Ciaglo
“I
f you really knew me, you’d know that I’m introverted,” stated senior Kevin O’Connor. “I have a lot of groups of pretty good friends, but I don’t have one solid group of friends that I’m with all the time or that’s always been there. I tend to migrate around to different groups consistently. I talk to people because I see the ways they can help me. I might seem outgoing because I recognize the value in relationships. I don’t just want to crawl into a hole, but I’m actually introverted.” Like O’Connor’s introverted nature that lies under the surface of his outwardly sociable personality, every person has some aspect of their life that defines them in a deeper way than you could ever understand by simply passing them in the hallway or
sitting next to them in math class. It is easy to misjudge a person when you only get a small glimpse into their life, and in high school, these superficial judgments seems to be inevitable. O’Connor sees stereotypes affecting how students at Monarch regard each other. “The people who are more outgoing, like who go to parties and stuff, [people think] that they’re stupid and throwing away their lives, whereas that’s not always the case.” He also sees a lot of labels being thrown around between sports teams. “Cross country gets a lot of hate. Like every time we [would start running] the soccer players would actually heckle us. But they’re soccer players, and the football players heckle them for being sissies and ‘field fairies’ or whatever,” he said. Though these stereotypes can often seem like crude generalizations, O’Connor
believes that many of them aren’t meant to be insensitive, but simply form because of the advantages people see in belonging to a certain group. “The macho man who’s really big is most likely going to go out and play football,” stated O’Connor, “so then there’s going to tend to be less of those macho men who are playing soccer, so then they’re going to call soccer a sissy sport.” But not all stereotypes are so innocently intended, as O’Connor expressed that stereotypes exist for other reasons as well. “It’s fun to make jokes. And they’re funny jokes. But a good joke is always at the expense of another group. To get rid of [the negative stereotypes], I guess it’s just important to learn more about those groups, because it comes from ignorance.” Knowing what to say or not to say can be a challenge. “It’s hard to judge what is inten-
tionally mean spirited and what’s just a joke, because it’s a fine line.” Though labeling somebody before really getting to know him or her can mean making an incorrect or unkind assumption, O’Connor believes that stereotypes are beneficial in many cases. “I don’t think that stereotypes should be removed,” he said. “People need that sense of identity and sense of a group. Football players pride themselves on being very physically fit and strong, and if you were to take away stereotypes then you could never say that. It’s hard, because you don’t want the mean-spirited behavior, but at the same time, a stereotype is just a grouping of people, and people need that. People need an identity.”