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Monday, 2/26/2001
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Monday, 2/26/2001
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 Students should ignore reputations
Frat Boys are a bunch of alcoholic jerks. Cheerleaders are airheads. Foreign students on this campus can't drive worth a crap. Feel the love? Don't worry, I disagree with these statements. I rustled enough feathers last week criticizing boy bands, so I'm attempting impartiality this week to break even. I was merely demonstrating the effect of an evil word: the word "reputation." We all have one, whether we want to or not. It feeds off gossip and rumors. With high school being the official pinnacle of gossip, shouldn't the ill effects of reputations be declining? Right, and the West Lafayette pothole patrol is making a difference. Damn, I'm on my third set of shocks this month. No, not even maturity can suppress the need to gossip. Case in point, the mothers of all gossip are, well, middle-aged mothers. Hell, Mrs. Dillon could write a book on it. (Hi mom!) To clarify the subject, Webster (the short kid on that TV show back in the '80s) defines a reputation as "the general estimation in which a person is held by the public." Reputations are evil. There are numerous smart cheerleaders and sober frat guys out there. And as for skilled foreign drivers … well, that's pushing it. I'm kidding. A reputation is, in many cases, nothing but another term for "stereotype." Stereotyping is one of the most ignorant things we can do. Every day we subconsciously make judgements about people based on previous experiences that they had nothing to do with. Look, just because someone in engineering is a nerd, that doesn't mean every engineer on the planet is one. This isn't some mathematical proof, if A then B. This is life and life is more complex. Also, walking down the street, we think we know the life story of a complete stranger just from his appearance. It's crazy that we allow a single trait of a person to suggest what kind of person he is. "Oh, that guy has a mullet haircut, he must be a redneck." Yet one time I saw a handful of mullets in Chicago. Of course there was a gun show in town, though. You know why a reputation is such a load of crap? Because one's reputation is created by one's peers. And as peers, we can be excessively biased. I paid attention in PSY 120, "Elementary Psychology," and there's this proven theory that says we attribute the mistakes of others as their fault, while our personal shortcomings we often rationalize as bad luck. With that in mind, peers are the last ones who should be making judgements. Yet it's their judgements that give one his reputation. Jealousy, close-mindedness and insecurity come into play, and this tends to make us unfair judges. For example, if Joe Shmoe got pissed off that some frat guys from Alpha Bravo Charlie are hogging all the "action" at a party, Joe will get frustrated and call frats a bunch of jerks. Are they, though? No! Joe just gets comfort in thinking that. If I had a dollar for every time, while getting to know someone, I disproved a bad reputation I had heard about him, I'd have $22. Don’t let others dictate your thoughts about someone. Get to know someone yourself. If a person has a reputation for being a jerk, don't take that as the truth. Get to know them with an open mind, and then if they really are a jerk, you can call him one. Now, I'm not totally disproving the integrity of a reputation, but even if one's reputation is rather valid, people can still change over time. Take the Grammy Awards for example. Wednesday night Eminem performed with and then embraced the openly gay Elton John. Wasn't he refuting his reputation of being homophobic? Elton John was wearing a hot pink suit, so I think so. Nevertheless, there are some very accurate reputations: • White guys can't dance. • Diet Dr. Pepper does taste more like regular Dr. Pepper. • Britney Spears is … well, quite "unnatural." • Women talk way too much on the phone. A false reputation can keep you from making friends with a great person or respecting a group that deserves it. Don't let a peer's bad experience with someone dictate your impression of him or her. Live an open-minded life and don't rush to judge others. There are many great people out there with reputations that don't match. Next Monday's column: superficial snobs. 'Til then guys. Brian Dillon is a junior in the School of Technology. He wrote this column in an attempt to shrug off his reputation of being an idiot. Feel free to email the idiot at dillonb@purdue.edu. |
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