The Danger of a Single Story

As I heard Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie speak, I understood how perceptions are often shaped by a single story. For example, Chimamanda talks about the media's coverage of Mexicans who come to the United States. The media portrays Mexican people as illegal immigrants who come here for healthcare and opportunity. I realized that sometimes I think these thoughts before I even meet a Hispanic patient. I automatically assume, by generalizing the majority of my Mexican patients in to one group, that the patient will not speak English, will be on welfare and will smell like Mexican food. I am passing judgment on the patient because of a generalization I made to encompass all people from Mexico. This is stereotyping, which can be detrimental to his care (Warkentine). However, I know that is not the case. I think of one man I know. He grew up in Mexico. He is highly educated and a gifted physician. He speaks English well. He is always very clean and smells like expensive cologne. I was surprised the first time I met him because of my initial assumptions. What if his story was my "single story?" I would think of Mexicans as intelligent people who speak well and smell good.I realized that I have a similar personal story.

Imagine that you hear that a teenage girl is pregnant. What assumptions do you make? The girl sleeps around. She is not intelligent. She needs attention, so she got pregnant on purpose. Her parents do not know how to control her actions. Maybe you assume that she will be on welfare for the rest of her life and your tax dollars will care for her and her baby. The father will not be present and she will struggle to care for her child. The child will struggle in life and the cycle will start again. All of these assumptions come from a single story and how the media portrays teenage pregnancy.

This is my "single story." This is what people thought of me when I was seventeen and pregnant. I listened to my friends call me a slut. I heard the whispers when I walked through the halls in high school. I saw how adults looked at me with pity and disgust. I answered the questions, which included, "Are you getting an abortion, or giving the baby up for adoption?" and "How do you think you are going to be able to afford a baby?" I am writing to tell you, I did not give that baby up. I raised him, and we are doing well.

My real story is that I became pregnant at seventeen to a boy who I had been with for four years. I never slept around. We used protection that failed. I did not plan to get pregnant. I was an honor student and was accepted at every college or university I applied. My parents were involved in my life and were always available to me. I did take a year off of school between high school and college to care for my baby. However, I worked during that time to earn money and saved it as much as I could. The father of my baby was very involved and is now my husband of almost thirteen years. We both have great jobs with good benefits. The baby boy, I gave birth to at eighteen, will be seventeen next month. He is an excellent student, a year-round athlete and is involved in the community. My husband and I have other children who excel as well. Life is good. I am so glad I did not let what everyone thought of me define who I would become.

I have seen similarities between generalizations and stereotypes in my life. For example, stating that all teenage pregnancies occur because the girl sleeps around is a generalization. It is a general statement saying that if a girl is pregnant as a teen, she is promiscuous. Stereotyping the girl as promiscuous because she became pregnant is similar. This thinking is using what you typically think of as a teenage mother and applying it to all girls who become pregnant as a teen. The two are similar, and both generalizing and stereotyping can give you wrong ideas about the person. I have taken steps to counteract the effects of thinking in this way. I tell people my story and let them know that I was a teenage mother. I was never promiscuous. I was an honor student. I am responsible. I am raising amazing kids with my husband. We are still together. I live my life in a way that counteracts what people may generally think about teenage moms and try to show them mine was not a stereotypical teenage pregnancy.

References:

1. Adichie CN. The danger of a single story. [video]. Oxford England: Ted Talks; 2009.
2. Brady K. 13 facts about teen pregnancy that will blow your mind. . 2016;May.
3. Warkentine J. Generalizations v. stereotypes. . 2013;January.