Hi, I’m new here. Sort of. I am new to The News Observer, but I’ve been in the Blue Ridge area for the majority of my 21 years.
I am a new mother and a full time college student on top of my many roles: daughter, fiancée and employee. The list is seemingly endless. My topics of interests include, of course, my super cute and precious son Phoenix as well as psychology.
Occasionally, when I tell someone I’m a psychology major they ask, “What am I thinking?” Well, for anyone else wondering, I couldn’t tell you. Psychology, despite popular belief, is the study of the mind (partially), not of mind reading.
I’ve studied how thought processes work, but I am not able to confidently guess what color you are thinking based off of my studies. Sorry to disappoint.
It’s apparent that stigma centers around more than just psychology; even journalism and motherhood carry ridiculous stereotypes. Some think journalists are pests that thrive off of making others look bad – not necessarily. I can’t speak for other news media, but The News Observer strives for accuracy. So much so, that on one of the first articles I wrote, I had to change certain words such as “beautiful” to “intricate” since beautiful is an opinion and intricate is fact.
Some may think what I say about this newspaper is biased considering I work here, but, again, bias is something I’ve been informed is not acceptable in the newspaper business, and the statement that The News Observer strives for accuracy is yet another fact.
Motherhood comes with a set of stereotypes as well. First time mothers are “over bearing, irrational, helicopter parents.” Well, just because I want my son in my arms doesn’t make me overbearing. I think it makes me loving. Just because I panic about people getting in my son’s face doesn’t make me irrational, it makes me cautious. Just because I keep a hawk’s eye on my son most of the time doesn’t mean I am helicopter parenting. It means I’m being observant.
Okay, there may have actually been a tinge of bias in those last statements, but regardless, the point I am trying to get across here is that a mother being protective of her child shouldn’t be viewed negatively. Unless one’s actions are negatively impacting a child, let folks be.
Stereotypes are ideas that are attributed to, well, probably everything you can think of. For some reason, as people, we see one person in a group do something and think it applies to everyone within that group. That isn’t the case. In fact, often times it applies to only a minimal amount.
Stereotypes are the pests that linger around infinitely. No matter how hard we try, once a stereotype pops up, it’s there to stay, and it usually is applied to the subject negatively.
With all this being said, stereotypes really aren’t the best to refer to because most psychologist aren’t trying to read or manipulate your mind, all journalists aren’t trying to make you look bad, and all mothers aren’t freakishly protective. Each person is to their own.
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Mollie Allen is a staff writer for The News Observer. She can be reached at 706-632-2019 or by email at mollie@thenewsobserver.com.