Stereotypes surround us. The college life also has its own set of stereotypes floating around. “In my classroom, there are students who sit at the front benches and they are usually the studious kind, students interested in their studies. The last-benchers, the noisemakers, are usually the rebels. For example, even if there’s a rule against it, they will come to school with a Mohawk or with their hair colored,” shares Urja Aryal, 17, who is a recent high school graduate from National School of Sciences and Management in Lainchour.
“The front-seaters and the last-benchers don’t mix up with each other,” she adds. Urja further points out the group-ism she has witnessed in her college. “Because of the differences, not everyone is involved with everyone and there’s a lot of group-ism and backbiting going on,” Urja confesses.
Lifestyle
On the other hand, Saurab Lama, 21, is a student of Bachelors of Engineering in Information Technology at Cosmos College of Management and Technology in Satdobato, who doesn’t care about stereotypes. “You can’t know a person until you’ve had conversations with that person. It’s not right to jump to conclusions,” he opines.
He recalls an incident when one of his friends was being teased because he belonged to a certain ethnicity. “Although the teasing was light-hearted, at some level, my friend who was at the receiving end of the joke, must have felt slightly bad about it,” he says, suggesting that people not judge others. Relating to one of the stereotypes associated with boys sporting long hair, one that has sadly been affirmed also by the Nepali government in many instances, Saurab says, “On the first day of my college, I had long hair. But I don’t think anyone thought less of me.”
That attitude is needed but there are other instances when the act of simple self expression such as having long hair, for men, or having radical hairstyles, has worked against one.
“I also sense this general stereotype going on about boys who have long hair,” agrees Jenish Maharjan, 19, a student of Bachelors of Science in Computer Science and Information Technology at St Xavier’s College in Maitighar. “I’ve noticed that people, especially teachers, associate having long hair with not being good in academics. It’s a different story if the teacher already knows that that boy has strong academics and also happens to have long hair. But, if such information is not known beforehand, then teachers tend to treat such students differently,” shares Jenish.
Sometimes, such students are brought into the spotlight and are scolded in front of their class or colleagues and this, Jenish points out, could bring down the morale of the student. Hence, he is all for having an open-minded approach.
However, like most of us have done at some point of time, Jenish also shares a stereotype he had. “I saw students smoking outside the campus or in cafes and I used to think of them as undisciplined spoilt brats. Especially, if a girl was smoking, I had a perception that they were characterless. But that has now changed,” says Jenish, who now knows, for instance, that smoking has nothing to do with having a bad personality or character and similarly is aware about the dangers of holding stereotypes.
It’s not just about hairstyles or indulgence habits. Stereotypes go beyond that to affect the way we deal with people from different ethnicities, cultures and countries. If in a relatively small community, such as the college, there are stereotypes tainting the environment and human relationships, think about the bigger picture. The world.
So go ahead, shake hands and talk to the girl in college with multiple body piercings. You might discover your next best friend.
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