Tessa Perkins

Stereotyping is not a simple process and contains a number of assumptions that can be challenged. Tessa Perkins (1979) identifies five assumptions, which are;

• Stereotypes are not always negative (for example; The French are good cooks)
• They are not always about minority groups or the less powerful (e.g 'upper class twits')
• They can be held at one's own group
• They are not rigid or unchanging
• They are not always false

Tessa says that stereotyping is not a simple process. She identified that some of the many ways that stereotypes are assumed to operate simply aren't true. As society changes it's hard for stereotypes to change as they stick in society. Not all stereotypes are bad, not all good and the audience categorise themselves.
Stereotypes are always usually wrong in content. They are negative concepts a majority of the time. They are about groups with whom the audience have little or no social contact with; by implication, they're not held about ones own group - that's a stereotype of a stereotype.
They are about minority repressed groups, yet they are more than often simple. People either 'hold' stereotypes of a group, meaning they believe them to be true, or they don't. Because someone holds a stereotype of a group, his or her behavior towards a member of that group can be predicted. Stereotypes are an invaluable aid to understanding the world, and all the stereotypes must have a bit of truth or they would not have such an influence.