Stereotypes

"Groundlessly based negative attitudes about certain social groups and their members"

-All French people wear a beret and drink wine-
What a stereotype!
I do not agree so much with the definition about "based negative attitudes"
Actually, I think it can also be based on positive attitudes.

Example of positive stereotype :
The way ‘Hollywood stars’ are treated – like gods with ‘paparazzi’ following them wherever

Example of negative stereotype :
Terrorists, now mainly associated by muslims or Arab looking people

When all the exchange student arrived in Tampere in Finland the first discussion we had where based on stereoptypes, particulary about Finns :
They drink too much
They are all blond hair
They are rude
They are quiet and shy
They always spit
And so on...

When people say that, they say that as "it is not normal, they are strange people". But the fact is, they don't come from the same culture than us, and consequently they are different.
But these kinds of stereotypes are not so rude.

Some are really harmful and it is quite difficult to remove them : we all have that kinds of stereotypes, these are the unconscious stereotypes : since you don’t know that it’s a stereotype, you take it to be true.

Sometimes that stereotypes can be really dangerous as they are very negative, they are about a culture or a group of people, and the people think it's 100 percents true.

But I think stereotype is something normal. We don't necessary have to fight them (particularly positive stereotypes). They can sustain a conversation between a group of people and be compared, as people by comparative their stereotype will build an opinion maybe closer to the reality, and they will learn something more.