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Part 4. Stereotypes
Lead-in
59 The relatively recent movement for non-discriminatory language condemns stereotyping. Stereotypes are referred to as "oversimplified and generalised labels applied to a person or group of people. They are discriminatory in that they take away a person's individuality. While all sections of society are susceptible to being stereotyped, it is the least powerful who are usually most adversely affected". What explains the fact that stereotypes die hard?
| Consider the possibility of these: | q generalization is a natural process of reasoning; q people are prone to create or associate themselves with groups with positive stereotyped image; q stereotypes are used as forewarning or prior knowledge before people look into the subject matter; q stereotypes are exploited to gain authority or improve status at the expense of others; q stereotypes are basis for popular jokes; q stereotypes change as the groups do. |
60 At the same time, you come across innumerable stereotyped images and more often than not you tend to trust them. Read the jokes below and say if you are prepared to believe them, laugh at them or resent them. Is "many a true word spoken in jest"?
The Importance of Punctuation. An English teacher wrote these words on the whiteboard: "woman without her man is nothing". The teacher then asked the students to punctuate the words correctly.
The men wrote:
"Woman, without her man, is nothing."
The women wrote:
"Woman! Without her, man is nothing."
Heaven and Hell. What's the difference between Heaven and Hell?
| In Heaven... | In Hell... |
| q the French are the cooks q the Germans are the engineers q the British are the politicians q the Swiss are the managers q the Italians are the lovers | q the British are the cooks q the French are the managers q the Italians are the engineers q the Germans are the politicians q the Swiss are the lovers |
61 Next follows a passage on political correctness of what we say. These are going to be excerpts from the Guidelines for Non-discriminatory Language, developed by the University of Western Sydney, Australia.
The document in full is available at: http://www.uws.edu.au/uws/uwsn/policies/ppm/doc/031501.html.
Now listen to the tape and note down information under the categories as follows:
| Who are subject to the current regulation? | Which groups of people does the regulation protect? | What are the Guidelines directed against? | What are the objectives and commitments of the Guidelines? |
62 Answer the questions in development of the topic.
63 The book by Jeremy Paxman, The English, A Portrait of a People, 1998, is a humorous and enlightening look at the English (as opposed to the British) identity. With the loosening of ties with Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, the English are once again examining who they are and what makes them unique. Below are just a few of the ideas from the book. Can you use your knowledge of the country, historical background, logic or imagination to explain or disprove the following?
q The English are rather bad at visual arts, such as painting. They have not produced many outstanding artists.
q They are very good with words and have demonstrated a remarkable facility in producing fine literature.
q In England all they ever do is talk about the weather.
q Don't ever be shy about saying anything to the English: they are too proud to be touchy.
q The safety of their island made them look down on less fortunate people who suffered from the chronic disadvantage of not being English.
q England's colonial past contributes to a general unease on racial issues.
q The English do not take pride in the achievements of their governments.
q The English are not a churchy people.
q The English have a curious reluctance to engage with one another.
q The only way to gain social acceptance in England is to pretend indifference.
q Neighbours keep themselves to themselves.
q English people see the cities as destroyers of traditional moral values.
q Do-It-Yourself is a true national obsession.
64 The book asks numerous questions and gives explanations. Look at the questions below and say if you can suggest any answers.
a) How can you reconcile the image of an English gentleman with that of a football hooligan?
b) Why do the English give names to their houses?
c) Why is Englishness often synonymous with the tranquillity and simplicity of rural life although the country is highly urbanized?
d) Why do the English show so much passion for amateur pursuits? (They developed the current forms of soccer, and rugby, tennis, boxing, golf, horseracing, mountaineering, skiing, modern tourism etc.)
e) If you remark to an Englishman, in a smoking compartment, that he has dropped some cigar-ash on his trousers, he will probably answer: "For the past ten minutes I have seen a box of matches on fire in your back coat pocket, but I didn't interfere with you for that". Is it respect for privacy or disdain?
65 Below is a list of character traits. Mark the ones you think do not pertain to the English. Justify or find proof for your reasoning in the ideas in the two previous exercises.
being polite, unexcitable, reserved, hidebound, steadfast, trustworthy, stoical, homely, quiet, disciplined, self-denying, kindly, honourable, dignified, gallant, upstanding, modest, civilised, with impeccable manners, respect for privacy, having a sense of humour, fair play, doers rather than thinkers, writers rather than painters, gardeners rather than cooks, industrious, economical, tough, cautious, pedantic, argumentative, humourless
Reading
66 
Read the article below. Learn the language of the passage and make a comprehensive list of all the conventional and contradictory aspects of character that the author attributes to the English race.
Tristram Hunt, Guardian, January 7, 2002
Jeremy Paxman and the government's "patriotism envoy" Michael Wills have corrupted the idea of Englishness. The two have led us to believe that the English are a pragmatic, politically acquiescent and innately tolerant tribe. The English have become the dreary residents of middle England. Yet any sustained reading of British and Irish history, not least the civil wars of the 1640s, shows the English to be a passionate, revolutionary and frequently brutal people.
Jeremy Paxman's The English, a Portrait of a People has been one of the silent forgers of modern English patriotism. In an era wracked by national self-doubt, Paxman sets out a well-crafted credo for Englishness. The book lovingly pokes fun at every cherished aspect of our "national character" - rural nostalgia, laughing at foreigners, obsessional wordplay - but reassuringly concludes that ultimately Englishness is a conservative state of mind. Yes, there might have been riots and rebellions, but at heart we are modest and pragmatic.
The government has fallen in behind this view. Michael Wills has defined the values that might be included in a national code for new immigrants as tolerance and, in true Edwardian style, "a sense of the importance of fair play". Generously, Wills also attributes to us a sense of duty.
Wills leaves us with still the same cloying vision of Englishness which Stanley Baldwin, George Orwell and John Major revelled in. The land of anvils, cycling maids and long shadows, pigeon fanciers and red telephone boxes. Come what may, the gently resolute Englishman lives on.
But history relates that the English are not an especially tolerant, pragmatic or just people. They have a long history of political radicalism, militant religiosity and, sometimes, staggering brutality. Nowhere is this more evident than during the defining years of these islands' history - the civil wars of the 17th century.
In the 1640s the English went to war against themselves, the Scottish and then the Irish in a savage conflict, which killed more than a quarter of a million people - the greatest loss of life prior to the First World War. What sparked it were the supposedly un-English attributes of fervent religious belief and deeply held political principles. According to Paxman, "the English are not a churchy people". They like their religion "understated and reasonably reliable". Not in the 17th century they didn't.
A vicious doctrinal tussle over the Church of England between Puritans and a high church faction set off the civil war. King Charles I's quasi-Catholic reforms led thousands to rebel. The fabled English pragmatism, the third way solution, was far from evident as Roundheads and Cavaliers thrashed out their religious differences in battlefields across the country.
The English tradition of tolerance was not much in evidence as Cromwell massacred his way through Catholic Ireland. In England, he presided over a soulless war state, abolishing parliament and introducing just the kind of military dictatorship.
On into the 18th century, the English spirit happily connived at the brutal suppression of Jacobites in Scotland and the enforcement of Anglican supremacy in England, to say nothing of its "outward looking" approach to the Atlantic slave trade.
Every nation has a dark past, and England's is certainly less dark than many. Yet the dearly held idea of English exceptionalism, our supposedly unique history of tolerance and openness compared with the continent, no longer seems viable.
The English civil war or revolution has often been regarded as an aberration - a moment when the nation and then the king lost its head. Yet perhaps the passion, brutality, and intellectualism of the civil war years should more accurately be regarded as just as peculiarly English as tolerance and openness.
Exercises
67 Explain the meanings and give examples of usage of the following words from the text above. Use the chart below.
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