STEREOTYPES

Do not get me started with stereotype. I have been stereotyped all my life. I am from the Philippine Islands and my appearance of being Asian gave many people false assumptions. Right off the bat, people who first meet me ask me the questions “Are you Chinese?” or “Are you Japanese?” Because of people’s lack of knowledge of the different cultures they always make these assumption. As a child I have always been called names. Growing up I always felt annoyed by these comments. Kids would always call me, “Chinese,” ”Eggroll,” or “Godzilla.” When we do school related work, they assume I am smartest kid in the class because of Asian stereotype. Let me ask you thing. Do you think I’m good at math? Well… I am not! I absolutely hate it with all my heart. Nothing kills me more than math. The stereotype that I would go into the medical field is always made too. However I do have a lot of family members in the medical field, I cannot stand being in a hospital or even being around blood and needles. NEEDLES! Needles are one of my fears. My major is actually Business and know I do not own one of those Japanese smart cars.

Being a female lead to being stereotyped in sports. Whenever I go play at the park with a group of kids with majority of them being boys, I am always chosen last or chosen to sit out when I was young. This occurred mostly during elementary school and middle school. But after playing the particular sport, I always end up proving them wrong. I can play just as dirty as the boys. That’s for sure!

Speaking of sports. I have played multiple sports throughout my life and one stereotype I also got was being a dike! Just because I played a ton of sports doesn’t mean I am a dike. This also leaned more towards the sport of basketball. At my high school, I am not going to lie, there was a number of different orientation of girls, known as “Dikes,” or “Lesbians.” People used to think our whole team was lesbian. But I never took it offensive. I never judged people by their orientation. As a team leader, I always accepted each of and every one of them regardless of orientation. Did it ever cross my mind? Of course it did, but I always respectfully ignored it and focused on what was important, the game. I feel that judgments made cause unnecessary drama, that always end up affecting the team as a whole. I remember one time there was one particular conflict about a girl and it reached the school administration. Let me tell you, my coach made us run for days!