STEREOTYPE

Today both the rain and the heatwave have been gone for a couple of days, leaving a clear sky with plenty of cotton-like fluffy white clouds that occlude the sun. My wife suggested going out to the shore as she said we hadn’t been there after the Lunar New Year, and then we headed to the Shorncliffe Pier. The spectacle was beautiful, with a calm sea in front of us. Standing on the pier, we could admire the blue sky, the dark green sea, and the horizontal line at the far end where they met. Ashore there laid some quiet villages reflecting the golden sunshine. Far away were mountains that were blurred in vision. White seagulls were flying on top of our heads. Many fishing rods were laid on the fence of the pier, with some people sitting leisurely while waiting for the fish. My wife rejoiced with the beautiful scenery and urged me to take photos for her. When I had taken many photos for her and Ivan, she said she wanted to take some for me. I was not keen on photos and unconsciously accepted the idea. I didn’t know what postures and expressions should I make for the photos. So I was just standing naturally while she was taking photos for me. Then she looked at the photos on the mobile phone and exclaimed, “Oh, you look too feminine in the photos. ” I groaned, “What postures are considered to be masculine? ” Then I said, “There is some type of beauty for the feminine postures as well.” Then in the next photo, I made a posture by holding two fists in my hand, assuming that was meant to be manly.
In our society, there are always some behaviours and appearances considered to be masculine and some others to be feminine. It is expected that a man should be masculine and a woman should be feminine in terms of this. Otherwise, they will be considered abnormal or disgusting, and are teased. However, I believe these are merely stereotypes, and should not be viewed as wrong and teased. Could we consider them as a special form of beauty other than a type of guilty? I reckon at least we should view them as a form of nature, which should not be condemned or required to rectify.




I suddenly recalled in the old days when I was a child, I had a doll as my favourite toy. My father was not happy about that and he said as a boy I should prefer to play with toys such as a robot or a superman model to be masculine. However, in my mind, manliness was not meant to be playing what types of toys, it means braveness and determination though I admit that I am not a brave or determined man either.

Stereotypes do not only relate to gender characteristics. Sometimes it will be applied to other aspects. For instance, there is a type of stereotype for adults.

I would like to tell a true story of mine during the final year of secondary school. It happened just two months before the national college entrance examinations. One day the headmaster of my class asked me to her office to have a chat with me. It was said she wanted to understand all students’ requirements and provided helps if needed. As the headmaster had seldom chatted with me. I was very nervous. I admitted that I was weak in social interactions and communications, and my academic performance was poor in my class during the senior high school period. I was also under enormous stress for the coming examinations. For almost every mock exam I had diarrhea and needed to go to the toilet for some time, and then often had not enough time to answer all questions.

I was afraid to talk to teachers and worried about why she asked me to her office. It was during the evening classes. When I entered her office, I trembled a bit. “Miss Yang! What is the matter that you asked me to be here?” I said to her. I have forgotten much about the conversation. I just remembered that she said she wanted to see whether I needed some help. However, I clearly remembered that after I went back to the classroom for some time, she furiously went to the classroom, and blamed my rash gestures and rude behaviours during the conversation. She said, even other teachers had noticed that my facial expressions and gestures were unusual, which had made her rather embarrassed in the office. “You have been over eighteen years old,” She said in front of all students in the class, “and you shouldn’t behave like that, which was aggressive and rude.” Then she condemned me in front of all students in the class for about half an hour.

I admitted that my behaviours had never been elegant, and sometimes they were a bit uncourteous, but I had never intended to offend anyone. I was not sure why she was so angry with me for such a trivial matter. Ridiculously, the conversation, which was said to be used to understand whether I needed help, in fact, had hurt me greatly, especially just two months before the college entrance examinations. It is true that I had been over eighteen years old and had been a young adult. But why can’t an adult be shy and nervous? Why can’t an adult behave a bit unusual when overwhelmed by the coming exams?

Then later I went to Xi’an for university, and I told some of my roommates this story. They were shocked by how narrow-minded the teacher was to bother with a student for only the gestures and facial expressions matter. For many years, I thought I also had some faults to be not courteous enough, but now I think it is not a fault as an adult, especially when being overwhelmed by preparing for the world’s most competitive examinations.