N.Y. Times
By PAM BELLUCK
Published: April 24, 2009
On “Britain’s Got Talent” TV show, the Scottish woman named Susan Boyle became famous because of her song on how looks matter in our society and on how we stereotype people. Some social scientists, studying the science of stereotyping, say that there are reasons we quickly judge people from how they look. Judging people from their looks is same as telling whether an animal is a dog or a cat. Susan Fiske, a professor of psychology at Princeton, said that traditionally, most stereotypes can be divided into two broad factors: whether a person seems to be spiteful or gracious and whether a person seems dangerous. She also says that women are also subdivided into traditionally attractive women, who don’t look superior and have baby-faced features. In addition, attractive people are “credited with being socially skilled,” Professor Fiske said, and they might be, because if a person is beautiful or handsome, people enjoy him or her jokes and want to spend time together so that it is easy to be socially skilled. On the other hand, “Unattractive people may find it much harder to get all these things because people don’t find them out,” she said. She also said that age plays a role in forging stereotypes. In fact, her research has shown that racial and ethnic stereotypes are easier to change over time than gender and age stereotypes.
link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/fashion/26looks.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=yes%20looks%20matter&st=cse
I found this is dealing with cross culture communication because it is about how people stereotype others with a glance. I judge people from how they look often, especially when I am walking down on Hondori street alone. I would think that if a girl is wearing skirt in white and other warm colors, she might be more feminine and sociable than what I am, who prefer wearing pants in black or dark colors. This, stereotyping people, does not have any valid reasons, but when I share this idea with my friends, who are girls, nearly have the same idea as mine. So I found this connects with stereotyping Japanese girls in Japanese society. By reading this article, I found it very interesting that racial and ethnic stereotypes are easier to change over time than gender and age stereotypes. In Japan, there are less people who discriminate Korean people in younger generation than in older generation, which is around our grandparents’ age. In America, Mr. Barack Obama has become the first African-American president. However, we neither have had female president / Prime minister in our histories. This shows the evidence of what this article said.
