Stereotypes

In class the other day, we were split up into groups according to what we were wearing. People with casual shoes went to one group, sneakers to another, and dress shoes which I was wearing, went to the last group. Once in the groups, we were asked to judge the other groups based on what they were wearing. It is interesting to see how people reacted once they were given permission to freely judge anyone on appearances. Some people were all over, excited to be able to rip the other groups apart. The chance to judge someone on a shallow level seemed like a fun game to most. Others were more reserved, afraid to say anything bad about the other groups. These people tended to stick with more generalized, neutral comments about the other group. Overall, it was a somewhat enjoyable experience for everyone to do the judging.
When it came time to receive our judgments from the other groups however, it was shocking to hear how harsh some of them were. My group in particular received comments such as "pretentious" and "low self-esteem." It was all in a joking manner, of course, but it was kind of a reality check to receive the judgment instead of judging someone else. It was funny, but crazy to think that people could infer (mostly incorrectly) so much about someone's personality just based on what they are wearing. In class, it was mostly a joke, but it happens in real life all the time.
This reminded me of my friends' attitude toward kids who attend Penn. I know this is not true for everyone who goes there, but many kids at Penn seem to have a pretentious attitude. My friends and I are guilty of judging people who dress like they go to Penn (why does everyone there dress the same?) by the same standards. Any time we see someone with boat shoes and a nice sweater or collared shirt, we start making jokes about how snobby they must be. This is ridiculous, because how you dress does not in define you as a person, but it's easy to get swept up into stereotypes and believe them.