Great Oak Gazette

According to Oxford Languages, the definition of a Jock is an enthusiastic athlete or sports fan, especially one with few other interests. They are often portrayed as a “young male athlete or sports fan, especially one with few other interests, often stereotyped as a slow-witted person of large size and great physical strength.” (https://en.wiktionary.org). They’re frequently associated with aggression, arrogance, meanness, stupidity, and egoism, especially when they appear in novels, movies, and shows depicting high school and college students. 

 This pop culture perception isn’t purely negative—they also are described as: attractive, strong, and determined. However, in this article we’re going to focus on the negatives.

Jocks are usually referred to as “stupid” due to their egotistical or immature behavior, especially those who play a more physical sport. People who are like this probably don’t care about being called this, or perhaps even like the attention; on the other hand, this could be offensive—or at least annoying—to people who are just really into a sport. More importantly, according to Andy McGlashen’s article “Fighting the ‘dumb jock’ stereotype”, on the website “MSUToday”, he states: “The theory holds that stereotypes are self-fulfilling prophecies: They create anxiety in the stereotyped group, causing them to behave in the expected way,” (https://msutoday.msu).

What makes a stereotype different from a generalization is the fact that just using them can be harmful. You could generalize that most Americans wear T-shirts, but a stereotype would be that girls should wear pink and it would be weird for a boy to do the same. The commonality of that statement turns into reality, because boys, after hearing this many times, then think, ”pink is a girl color” and generally stray away from that color. (For the record, I like pink).

But that’s just something small. With the “Stupid Jocks” stereotype, hearing that phrase again and again makes one’s self esteem, confidence, and general care for academics lessen. If you believe you can’t do something, or can’t do something well, that’s likely to become the truth. This can hinder the performance of those who don’t want to pursue their sport completely and want to have a future with another job. This might sound like an overreaction: “Just calling them jocks isn’t going to do anything to them”. However, media and the constant way it portrays this stereotype can hurt those being constantly bombarded with it. They’ll start believing it and put minimal effort into their studies, just because it seems like a fact that they can’t learn. And it’s not just academics. The connotation of a jock as someone who’s “stupid”, heard over and over, can hinder people in many ways. 

Yes, there are ‘jocks’ in the world and they can be very annoying. But we should be sure to categorize a person because of their behavior, not just because they’re really into sports, or they’re muscular.

As with all stereotypes, we should try to avoid agreeing with or using this. Although it may seem insignificant, small acts of kindness go a long way.

By: Landon Macaspac, CO 26′