"This week, Wired published an article titled "Inside the Gay Tech Mafia," profiling the network of gay men in the tech industry. Beyond documenting professional influence, the piece emphasized stereotypes about gay men, including gossip, cattiness, and drama. The illustrations accompanying the piece depicted gay men as exaggerated stereotypes, including two limp wrists reaching out to give a handshake coming out of the zipper of their pants. As if the only way gay men greet one another is through our penises."
"She recalls visiting Guadalajara, Mexico, and suddenly noticing people all around her simply living-walking, shopping, and dining-and feeling a wave of shame. She realized she had bought into the single story about Mexico and the border without ever questioning it. Adichie says, "The single story creates stereotypes and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.""
Mainstream portrayals of gay men in tech have emphasized gossip, cattiness, drama, and exaggerated sexualized imagery that reduces people to caricatures. Caricatured illustrations can frame ordinary interactions as inherently sexual, reinforcing a narrow perception of identity. Repeated exposure to a single narrative trains viewers to notice only confirming examples and dismiss contradictory evidence, producing confirmation bias. Confirmation bias strengthens limiting beliefs about worth and behavior and perpetuates stigma. Chimamanda Adichie's idea of a single story explains how incomplete narratives create lasting stereotypes and shame by making one perspective the dominant lens through which groups are seen.
Read at Psychology Today
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