Colombia and USA stereotypes

By Mateo Reyes Medina

To speak of culture means to include a sum of factors and disciplines that include
values of historical, philosophical and scientific knowledge. Stereotypes are
impressions, prejudices and labels created in a generalized way and simplified by
common sense. They are formed from a static conception of the generalized
characteristics of members of a community. Today there are many stereotypes that
can be due to different characteristics such as social class, age, religion, ethnic
origin, sex, among others. The media are one of the main generators of stereotypes,
cinema, radio, television and now more than ever the Internet, because through
many commercial strategies they manage to establish models of behavior or
appearance that most people try to acquire. We all establish stereotypes or have
been stereotyped, we do it to describe, generalize and judge people very quickly,
however, life is much more complex than that. There is also the role of gender, as in
the case of women, from whom we expect a certain type of behavior, they must act
as mothers, as housewives, and when they do not do so they are exposed to the
punishment of society. On the other hand, men are also punished by society when
they do not act in accordance with the stereotype of being providers of money in the
home. This means that when you act in the opposite direction to gender stereotypes
or norms, you get a social rejection for this kind of behaviour. They are generated
mainly by the media: cinema, radio, television and now more than ever the Internet.
In this essay we compare two cultures, based on stereotypes, two points of view,
Colombia and the United States. In my opinion stereotypes are not good because
they generalize and create a prejudice about a group of people.

The main stereotypes associated with United States are that people are loud, rude,
and entitled. Speaking to my American colleague, I concluded that the truth is that
some people are rude and some are entitled, but most are friendly. On the contrary,
stereotypes about Colombia frame it as a dangerous country, full of friendly people
and beautiful women. The stereotypes are discriminatory and are not good because
they force people to assume ideas about someone they haven't met, and they don't
give people the opportunity to be themselves without being judged first. Americans
think of Colombia as a country of drug traffickers with many crimes. These facts often
happen, but they are not the most important point in the country. Colombia is a
beautiful land full of friendly and hardworking people. Colombians see the United
States as a developed country with a lot of technology and infrastructure, to which
you have to go on vacation. It also has bad things, but Colombians consider the
United States to be one of the best countries.
Another interesting point is the gender role. Gender stereotypes are simplified but
strongly assumed ideas about the characteristics of men and women, which are
translated into a series of tasks and activities assigned to them by each culture. Our
relational environment tells us what is right and what is not, to be men or women,
from the way we dress to the way we talk, how we behave, what we can play or what
sports we participate in. In addition to the biological or genetic endowment that
differentiates men from women, the fact of being a woman or a man implies a long
process of cultivation, learning and adaptation to established roles. A big difference
between Colombia and the United States is "machismo". In Latin American
countries, "machismo" is strongly marked, this refers to the fact that men think that
by nature they are stronger than women and for this reason they believe that they
have better opportunities and rights, to the point of reaching violence and abuse, this
does not happen often in the USA. On the other hand, in the United States there is
more freedom of expression compared to Colombia, the issue of homosexuality is
accepted in much of the United States, while in Colombia they see it badly, the
majority of homosexuals are discriminated against.

In conclusion, stereotypes have greatly influenced the way society thinks, but this
has a greater impact on the adolescent context, young people, as we are more likely
to act incorrectly or follow certain models, to be part of a community. We should not
give importance to stereotypes, what we should do is give ourselves the opportunity
to know this social group and have our opinion. The factors that most influence this
are the media and the fashion industry that have forced us to believe the distorted
reality they face us through their images. The only thing left to do in this situation is
to use them in the right way so as not to harm us and anyone else, otherwise they
would end up being weapons of destruction against us and our fellow man.