Unconscious Stereotypes
No matter how hard we try, we have unconscious stereotypes. As writers we try to avoid ethnic, religious or gender stereotypes in our characters. And if we don’t, you can be sure that someone will call us on it. But what about our unconscious stereotypes? Do you know what yours are?
When I was very young, one of my best friends had bright red hair. Jimmy was the class clown, and I lived vicariously through his escapades. This was the era when Bozo the Clown was on TV and Bozo’s hair was also super red. So for the longest time, I just expected everyone with red hair to be funny! You can imagine my disappointment when this proved to be incorrect.
The truth is that we’re pattern-seeking creatures. No doubt this helped us survive in prehistoric times. And it doesn’t take much at all to make us “see” a pattern. If you were mugged even once by someone wearing a hat in a dark alley, you might avoid dark alleys and hats for good measure! Eventually you would realize the absurdity of that reaction. Or someone might notice how you flinched every time a hat walked by… ouch.
As writers, we endeavor to write believable characters. And our readers are more likely to believe an older male is an international businessperson. They are more likely to believe an older female is a grandmother then a CIA agent. Should we take the easy path for ourselves and our readers? It’s hard to resist.
If you take the path of least resistance, you are perpetuating one of society’s most frustrating stereotypes. People of retirement age are likely to live another 20 to 30 years and are just as diverse as every other demographic. Society’s limited expectations affect future behavior and contribute to narrower lives.
We use our experience + our imagination to come up with our characters. From what I read, we aren’t using nearly enough imagination. Write older female characters that rescue people in the wilderness, ride motorcycles or design software. Make your older male characters write poetry, climb mountains, or knit sweaters. Do it even if you’ve never met anyone like that. Because they are out there.