Like many others, soap operas are a background noise to my evening routine when pottering around after dinner when the evenings draw in. Recently whilst half listening to a popular soap, I heard my daughter draw a sharp gasp of air. I instantly asked her what had happened.
Apparently a heterosexual character X had unwittingly become entangled in a love triangle with a heterosexual female Y and a “gay” male Z and a fight had ensued. Following the fight, the now angry heterosexual character spieled out a torrent of homophobic abuse to the gay character which spilled out onto the street. It appears that this is what my daughter had been gasping at.
I considered this scene, in that this behaviour was in conflict with X’s usual character. He was generally considered to be a lovely young man with “no side to him”. His character also has a gay brother and a gay best friend. Indeed through these connections X, Y and Z had previously been very good friends.
I wondered, as social commentators what was in the script writer’s minds when they wrote that scene?
I realised that the scene demonstrated that during conflict and times of high emotional pressure individuals will refer to negative stereotypes to hurt and offend others and to justify a root cause for the perceived negative behaviour of their partner in conflict. This occurs even when this course of action does not form part of an individual’s usual behaviour.
This is based on the theory that we do not have to believe in a stereotype to be affected by it we just have to have knowledge of the stereotype.
It is also based on the theory that, during times of immense stress, pressure and emotional overload our rational brain takes a back seat to our emotional brain which becomes flooded with emotions, like a burst flood defence. When this occurs our usual resolve and emotional constraint can go out of the window, resulting in a negative impact.
If we are honest with ourselves, we may acknowledge that we have caught ourselves expressing biases in situations of pressure which focus on difference and perhaps even surprise us. Where did that come from we wonder? If this is not true of our usual behaviour; the answer is our unconscious mind.
How many of us can say that they have never expressed a bias either silently, or loudly or to someone who we expect to understand and share our views?
If we are to role model positive equality behaviours and eliminate prejudice, this surely starts with ourselves and requires both the control of our emotions as well as the control of our minds.
Contact: Denise @ http://www.dmttraining.co.uk or email: info@dmttraining.co.uk Follow my blog for articles on: leadership, communication, personal development coaching, equalities, change and careers, or follow me on twitter