look before you think (stereotypes)

Schmalz, Kerstetter, and anderson (2008) found that in the world of sports stereotypes can play a large role in the form of the stigma consciousness in the willingness of an individual to participate in sports. That is, they found that individuals would not participate in sports that held a negative stigma associated with it. I encountered a similar situation in my life with surfing. Although it was not enough to keep me from surfing it was enough to keep me from wanting to admit to being a surfer. For those of you who do not know surfers are generally stereotyped as being lazy potheads, which unfortunatley has been becoming more and more true. So when people would find out that I was a surfer it would change the way they looked at me, but eventually I learned that I should be proud to be a part of the ever groing world of surfing. Anyone who has ever tried surfing knows that it is not easy and that someone who is lazy would not stick with it for very long. Also, while there has been an increase in the number of "shady" people in the sport comparatively there are many more people in the sport doing great things. One example is the Malloy brothers, three brothers from California, who go to Ireland every year to surf, but when they are there they also run a surf camp that brings Protestant kids from the northern part of Ireland and Catholic kids from the southern part of Ireland, which is almost like two different countries and have them surf together. For those who do not know Protestants and Catholics in Ireland do not get along at all, and though these kids live in towns only about 15 miles apart they proably never see each other. After a do of surfing together however, these kids were laughing and playing together, and there was no separation between them. In closing, although there is currently a negative stereotype of surfers I am now proud to say that I am one and try to promote a more truthful image that represents all the good that can come from surfing, such as the Malloy brothers uniting children divided by religion in Ireland.

Schmalz, D. L., Kerstetter, D. L., Anderson, D. M. (2008). Stigma consciousness as a predictor of children's participation in recreational vs. competative sports. Journal of Sport Behavior, 31(3), p. 276-297.