Stereotyping is bad

Hopefully that is not news to you. As queer people we have all been stereotyped before. As a flamboyant interior decorator, or a man hating construction worker. They cause people to look only as far as the stereotype in their head will allow. Which tends to be very near sighted. The person you really are is over looked. Gay stereotypes are easier for people to see, then to accept that we are ordinary, everyday people.
So if we all know that stereotyping is bad. Why are we doing it to ourselves?
It can be seemingly harmless things such as gay men thinking all lesbians preferred drink is canned beer. Or lesbians assuming gay men have a vigorous moisturising routine. But the stereotypes can get much more complicated then drink orders, or skin care. They set a ‘proper’ way for us to act, within the label stuck on us.
‘Butches’ are expected to speak, move, and express themselves in ways that are different then how ‘femmes’ are supposed to act.
As queers we should know how harmful categorising people is. However ‘untraditional’ our labels are. We are still being asked to fit into our own versions of ‘traditional’ roles.
There is no ‘proper’ way to be queer. I know when a person is young, and discovering who they are in relation to their newly found community it is easy to fall into roles. It gives them a sense of understanding, of themselves and how they fit into the community. But those roles quickly become smothering. Instead of creating a sense of who they are, the roles begin to dictate who they can’t be, and what they can’t do.
There is no reason for us to act a certain way to fit the role expected of us. And it is not acceptable for us to look at a person to act within roles we set for them.
People don’t fit into ‘butch’, ‘femme’, ‘twink’, or the many labels out there.
So lets take ourselves back to a lesson that didn’t quite sink in as a kid. Stereotypes are bad, don’t do it.


On a separate note, today is a day for history. In a country with a blemished history, today is a mark of change and hope.

Rosa sat so Martin could walk; Martin walked so Obama could run; Obama ran so our children can fly!
- 19-year old single mother from McKeesport.