I am not going to lie, when i see certain things in life i automatically use prejudices to put my own puzzle together about the person. For Example: Someone wears cowboy boots i automatically assume they drive a truck and listen to country. When in fact its a stupid way to think because 1) we live in TEXAS (boots are common)
2) Some of my closest friends wear them and they dont own a truck and mostly listen to rock
3) Im a hypocrit now for owning a pair and not fitting the "stereotype" either
Now if i was wearing my boots and someone came up and asked me who my favorite country band was, i would answer the question, laugh, and make fun of the person for asking (in a joking way). See thats where stereotyping isn't such a bad thing because i am proud to wear the boots and i enjoy watching society be nieve.
I actually have a funny stereotype story: Me and my buddy are in a band. We play alot of 90's rock covers, but the majority of what we play is comedy. So our first gig ever was supposed to be a little acoustic set at a coffee house in Dallas. We literally learned 5 songs a hour or two before we went up there and literally picked the name of our band on the porch of the coffee shop. Our band name is Sconald by the way (middlenames: Scott + Donald). So we walk in and talk to the manager and joke with him and tell him what kind of stuff we play. The guy looks us up and down at how we were dressed and literally says "Well by the looks and sound of you guys, i just want to tell you that I dont want to hear any cussing or nasty songs up on stage." Me and my buddy nodded our head, walked off and looked at each other, and laughed at how bad we were just stereotyped by the manager. Just for that we went on stage and played the most perverted song we knew on the last song (after dedicating it to the manager). haha
Those are examples of how stereotypes can not be such a bad thing. Now most are true even if not for everyone in that group. But alot can be offensive, like if you tell a asain person to go eat some rice or a black person to go eat chicken. Depending on the tone and person it can either be taken as a joke or offensive.
Stereotypes in conclusion are stupid and amusing to people like me who fall into the trap of realizing when you do make such a prejudice. Even though there are people out there that fall into those stereotypes and remind us of why we make those judgements. Stereotypes are stupid overall, but we all do it sometime or another. If you dont think you do... Walk down a dark alley and tell me what runs through your mind...
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In your post, you introduce the concept of how we analyze discourse.
It has been argued that how we 'dress' is a form of discourse, too. Is it analyzable? Of course. We would argue that is why your manager drew a certain conclusion - stereotyped or otherwise.
Let us also examine the 'talk-in-interaction' - the conversation, the discourse sequential structures, how we 'go on' in conversation. Analyzing a billboard, for example, is quite different - a still image.
In our discussion of stereotypes in documentary film, we must critically examine the content-but as social action.
That is, what we 'mean' is inseparable from 'how we say it', e.g., the difference between a joke and an insult. Thus, the practice of talking is inseparable from what gets said.
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