Blended Family Stereotypes

Ethnocentrism as described by Jandt is considered to be a barrier to effective intercultural communication, it is defined as negatively judging aspects of another culture by the standards of one’s own culture (Jandt, 2010, pp. 84). A blended family is at times hard to live in, especially when stepchildren are involved. As a family the stepchildren’s mother chooses to live a lifestyle as a lesbian, when that children were younger there was friction due to the disagreement with that lifestyle choice. Many judgements were passed regarding how the children were raised and if her partner should be able to parent the children due to a past of violence and anger. This has caused some disagreements in the family making people feel like they were

being left out due to others did not want them to be present at family events. As a family this has all been worked out and gatherings now are spent without any friction.
Stereotyping as defined by Jandt is when a negative or positive judgement is made about an individual based on any observable or believed group membership (Jandt, 2010, pp. 86). Stereotyping is normally looked at in a negative way, an example is a lesbian couple could want to adopt a child but due to the lifestyle they live the judge in the case may deny it. This could be turned around and be shown as a positive if the couple’s environment is looked and determined it is suitable to properly raise a child, meaning not looking at the lifestyle but the overall environment and what is best for the child.
In the video “A Class Divided” the children go through an exercise of discrimination based on eye color (A Class, 1985). This situation can compare to how the family treated the stepchildren’s mother and the judgements that were passed due to her lifestyle choice. The only difference between the video and the lifestyle choice is that the children got to go back to being friends just like before without any discrimination based on eye color, whereas with the lifestyle that was chosen by the mother there will continue to be judgement due to there will always be someone who does not accept it. When it comes to a lesbian couple adopting a child and the video there is the discrimination due to the lifestyle choice again, just like it was with the children and the eye color. The same issue is that the lifestyle choice is not going to change but the children were able to go back to being friends just like before the exercise.