Stereotyping Images

Some images and ideas that we're not usually exposed, we tend to place stereotypes on. Some examples shown in class were photographs of Arabs in normal everday outfits that they wear. In the photograph they were placed in front of a city. We(the Americans) tend to think it looks wierd because when we think of a photograph of an urban setting we think of a man in suit and tie. It's not normal for us to see people in different types of clothing in an urban setting, so automatically we think it's wrong or funny looking. This is absoulutely terrible of us to stereotype like this, but sometimes we forget about being open-minded. This is one reason why I think it is so important to travel; to become accustomed to other cultures unlike our own, and to make us more open-minded. One specific example of a photograph we spoke about was a man on a camel with a car and a Mountain Dew can on a pedestal. It's terrible for me to say, but i laughed to myself as it came up on the screen. It was wierd for me to see such an old view(man on a camel) with a contemporary car all in the same photograph. This is their life but "we" think it should be different for them just because our life is different. We just don't know, and it is wrong of us to stereotype.