Media Reporting and Reference Guide on LGBT Issues

“hermaphrodite” Intersex people Abusive <strong>and</strong> offensive term for intersex people –
it has a meaning of “oddity” <strong>and</strong> “abnormality”.
But even the term “intersex” was first used to
describe a disorder that needs to be “fixed”.
During the last decades, the term “intersex” was
adopted by (intersex) human rights defenders
as an umbrella term based on the human rights
(Theofilopoulos 2015; Ghattas, 2015).
4. 11 + 1 most common negative stereotypes, prejudices <strong>and</strong>
myths
Prejudices <strong>and</strong> Stereotypes
Prejudice: Prejudice is to make a judgment Stereotype: In sociology, the stereotype
about an individual or group of individuals
on the basis of their social, physical or
cultural characteristics. Such judgments
are usually negative, but prejudice can
also be exercised to give undue favor
<strong>and</strong> advantage to members of particular
groups. Prejudice is often seen as the
attitudinal component of discrimination.
is always a social construction which may
have some basis in reality but is a gross
generalization (eg: women like romance
novels). To stereotype is to apply these gross
generalizations, to people or situations rather
than seeing the individual variation.
Source: Online Dictionary of the Social Sciences N.d.b;
Online Dictionary of the Social Sciences N.d.c
Ashmore <strong>and</strong> Del Boca introduced a wide <strong>and</strong> neutral definition of stereotype, according
to which “a stereotype is a set of beliefs about the personal attributes of a social group”
(Ashmore <strong>and</strong> Der Roca 1981:21). As Jussim et al. point out, according to the above
mentioned definition, stereotypes
may or may not be accurate <strong>and</strong> rational, widely shared, conscious, rigid, exaggerations
of group differences, positive or negative, or based on essentialist or biological
rationales. Stereotypes may or may not be the cause or the effect of prejudice, or the
cause of biases <strong>and</strong> self-fulfilling prophecies (Jussim et al. 2009:201).
36