Artists' Statement

Stereotype: a simplified and standardized conception or image of people invested with special meaning and held in common by members of a group, without consideration of an individual’s characteristics.
The theme of our blog is breaking stereotypes prevalent on the University of Arizona’s campus. The stereotypes used in our blog were derived from discussions with our group members and our fellow classmates.
Stereotypes over generalize groups and portray them in af negative light. This can often influence people’s perception of reality. The stereotyped individual or group may face certain hindrances throughout their lives due to the misconceptions that society holds them to. This could affect the outcome of job applications and more importantly a person’s self esteem. For example, if someone from a lower income class is stereotyped as “stupid and trashy” then they may never find the courage or reason to amount to anything else. The stereotype of African Americans as “thugs” alters people’s view of the individual, thus causing people to assume the worse and react differently to them, such as a timid or racist manner. Women may sometimes be portrayed as the weaker gender, which can manifest sexism, halting their ability to move up in the professional world or receiving jobs in the first place. Although we chose stereotypes that we found prevalent on our campus, this is an important realization for other campuses across the United States. Stereotypes can be found worldwide but the specific ones that we as a group have portrayed are relevant to us as students and artists because they are a part of our everyday life.
Typical Sorority Girls, Flamboyant Homosexuals, Wealthy Elitists, and Hispanics in the Work Place were the stereotypes that we viewed as prevalent on campus and decided to explore further. As a group we believe that not everyone fits into the mold of these stereotypes. There are always individuals who fall into a category however, their personal characteristics, beliefs, actions, or appearances may have no similarities to their stereotypical counterpart. As artists we photographed what we conceptually thought held the views of society’s generalized stereotypes. Then, we photographed someone who broke these given stereotypes. We then placed the images next to each other to directly display the contrast and evoke, in the viewer, a thought about how they relate people to their stereotypes. After exploring through our blog we want people to not over generalize individuals within groups and to take into account their individual attributes. Our goal is to break stereotypes and society’s perceptions. Essentially, to not “judge a book by its cover.”