In an odd way it’s comforting to know that despite the “effort” to break down the social and cultural stereotypes and unflattering tags that have attached themselves to various geographic areas of Sydney, at the end of the day many of them live on with vengeance. Thanks to the media, you know your place in practically every facet of life and even though you may disagree with it, at least you know where to align yourself if ever in doubt.

Take this year’s HSC results. The “high achievers” were honoured a day earlier than everyone else, which is fine – except when there is obvious and particular emphasis from one television network on the shock factor that the kid who topped Mathematics was from – wait for it – Macquarie Fields High School.

Yes, where the riots happened a few years back. Where there is no social order, one can only assume. It really is a double whammy. Western Sydney is one thing to digest, but a public school – surely only dumb poor kids live way out there and have no hope of ever making it anywhere (it is “the sticks” after all, right?).

The same goes for the release of the top Sydney suburbs hit by burglaries. I am sure several people must have fallen off their chairs when they saw Bankstown didn’t rate a mention in the top five.

It’s one thing to have a bit of a chuckle when a generalised view of any place, person or group rears its ugly head (we’ve all done it), but I was interested to read an article published earlier this year on ABC Science Online that unpacks the more disturbing qualities of a stereotype. A few Australian psychologists and academics have likened a stereotype to a more severe form of dehumanisation, that “pigeon holing” someone is easier if you think of them as “less than human”, similar to the superiority that a human feels towards an animal.

Though stereotyping usually goes unnoticed - partially because it is so institutionalised it barely raises an eyebrow anymore – in the examples given above it shows that stereotyping is a way of telling yourself what you are not, or what you don’t want to be. While no one wants to think of themselves as a “dehumaniser”, perhaps we are doing more damage when laughing at racist or sexist joke than we think.

Reference: Stereotypes make people “less than human” - By Anna Salleh

http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/1908327.htm [1]