Stereotypes Are For Clothes By Lenn Navratiloves

Martina Navratilova once said, “Labels are for filing. Labels are for clothes. Labels are not for people” (Navratilova). This quote is trying to say that judging someone off of their outside appearance is not the right way to judge someone. A lot of people are affected by stereotypes. Stereotypes judge people falsely, and are a problem in our society. Stereotypes can be defined as generalizing a large group based on an idea, and they impact our society in many ways (Stereotypes). For example, in an interview with Guy Raz from NPR, Jamila Lyiscott says that “So it's almost like - it's almost like the stereotype becomes the way you start to view yourself.” (Raz). This shows the meaning of stereotype by saying people start accepting the stereotype themselves. This affects our society because individuals shouldn’t judge others based on the looks or culture.
For example, in the story, “Desiree’s Baby,” Armand married Desiree and had a baby with her. He got mad at Desiree when he found out that she was half black. Later in the story he found out that he was half black. A quote from the story that relates to modern society is, "But above all," she wrote, "night and day, I thank the good God for having so arranged our lives that our dear Armand will never know that his mother, who adores him, belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery” (Chopin). This shows why people shouldn’t judge people based on color. He had no idea that his own mother was of the race he hates. This shows why people should be more accepting of things like this. In addition, in the poem, “Labels”, it is shown that people cannot be judged just off of their race. It also explains how everyone is different. In the poem, it says “and no one label fits” (Holbrook). This shows that one category can't fit someone. Individuals have to know them, to understand