Whilst wandering into the Courtyard last week for a sunny lunchtime pint, I came across a rather odd looking group of people, the ‘books’ of the Living Library, a project run by YUSU. Each human book wore a label on their t- shirts advertising their social stereotype; I saw ‘political activist’ buying a drink at the bar, and narrowly missed a collision with a librarian! Living in a university culture which prides itself on being non-judgemental and coming from a group of friends encompassing many of the stereotypes on offer, it was an odd experience to see people defining themselves by two or three words. The aim of the Living Library was to give students a chance to challenge their preconceptions of different groups of people, and I was definitely up for the challenge.
After browsing through the list of people on offer, I decided to have a chat with ‘engaged’, a guy called Jamie. Although I myself and loads of my friends are in relationships at York, I couldn’t even begin to conceive what being engaged, especially before arriving for fresher’s week, would be like. I have to confess that I imagined they would not have enjoyed the uni experience to its full extent, and I did feel that the commitment of getting engaged to someone is not something to be done at such a young age.
However, after chatting to Jamie, who proposed to his boyfriend just before going to York, I began to respect their decision far more. “It just seemed like everything I had planned for the future involved him”, he told me, “we hadn’t been together long but I can’t imagine life without him”. I realised that all that was different about his relationship and those of my friends was the title ‘engaged’, something that had caused him difficulties throughout his university life; “when I told some people, they found it hard to imagine I go clubbing and get drunk too”.
Although his engaged status may set him apart from the majority of students, his relationship is in reality no different to those of friends who have managed to maintain brilliant long-distance relationships during university; it was lovely to talk to a guy who was so happily in love and looking forward to a future with his boyfriend while making the most of his time in York.
I also had a chat with Hannah, who labelled herself as a ‘feminist’. I was very intrigued to compare her views with mine, as although I would describe many of my views as feminist, I didn’t feel my views were ‘militant’ enough to participate in the Living Library under that title – I was quite looking forward to meeting the stereotypical ‘man-hater’. In the event, Hannah was lovely, and we compared views on feminism and the role of women in society under the interested, and occasionally worried, gaze of my boyfriend.
In my experience, Living Library was a total success; I don’t really see myself as prejudiced against anyone, but I realised that I do have preconceptions of all sorts of people, and that while the participants of the Living Library were obviously proud of their ‘labels’, it was a really good experience to talk about these stereotypes and get to know the people behind the stereotype.
The Living Library set out to defeat conventions, but what do people regard as stereotypes today, in our , ‘politically correct’ world? Vision looks at the mesh of stereotypes that is, Urban Dictionary to find out…
