Jan 5, 2009

how we create stereotypes...

while driving R to her Maths classes, she was fiddling with the car lighter. it was irritating me, i know not why. so i asked her, "do you want a fag?" "what's that?" she asked. "Papa's after-dinner snack," i said.
she knew what i meant... and said, "good girls do not smoke."
i was thrown off guard... while i have to admit that i was happy with her confidence in her belief in two things (a)that she is a "good girl"; (b)that she thinks she will not smoke since she is (a), it has kept my mind occupied on a whole lot of other questions:
(a)does she know that good girl does not mean being a door mat?
(b)does she know that good girl may entail a lot of choices which do not necessarily mean being smart (unlike the non-smoking choice she seems to have made)?
(c)what are the other attributes of a good girl in her mind?
(d)has she latched on to the idea of good girl, not seeing through my trick of getting her to do things by calling her a good girl (lokkhi meye, in our lingo) many times?
(e)have we successfully increased the number of a non-challenging stereotype?
... many questions, many doubts, many unsure ideas in the mind...

3 comments:

Unknown said...

now which one do u wanna be??? the mother or the champion??? Do take a final call.

imemyself said...

both, if possible...

Suranjana said...

Please do not stereotype her let her be free and allow her to fly and reach the sky. Just remember Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, he was an ordinary gull who thought differently let her be like that