Stereotypical Characters

COMMON PHYSICAL STEREOTYPES and how to use them as characters

1.          Beautiful Blonde Woman
  a.          Unintelligent
  b.          Stuck up
        i.          Changing from the stereo type of this character, I could make her very intelligent, but not show it; or she could seem very stuck up, but then be inwardly very insecure or something.

2.          Star Football Player
  a.          Strong
  b.          Confident
        i.          My first thought on a character such as this would be that he comes down with some illness that ends his football playing and how he changes and copes with that illness or terrible injury.

3.          Elderly male crossing guard
  a.          Friendly
  b.          Cares for kids
        i.          He’d make a good character in a murder mystery or horror story as some evil, twisted person

4.          A male hair dresser
  a.          Not very manly
  b.          Possibly gay
        i.          Give him a completely different personality – maybe he’s an amateur cage fighter on the weekends.

5.          An old, single woman with angular features who lives alone with several cats
  a.          Crabby, old lady
  b.          Possibly a witch
        i.          I would use her in a story as a very caring woman who no one has ever given the time to learn more about, possibly with a drastic past that has kept her single

6.          A small girl with a speech problem and leg braces
  a.          Not very intelligent          
  b.          Different from the other kids
        i.          I would use this character in a way that would show how she is very alike the rest of the kids and make her the heroine of the story, perhaps solving a problem or saving the other kids from a terrible fate.

7.          A young Black teen with baggie pants wearing a bandana
  a.          A gang banger
  b.          Low income & uneducated
        i.          This character could be trying to help others out of the gang life or could be a very good student and from a middle income family, but he’s just dressing to fit in or for some other reason.

8.          A burly Irish man with red hair and green eyes
  a.          An Irish drunkard
  b.          A fighter with a bad temper
        i.          I might use him as a meek and mild mannered character

9.          A homeless man          
  a.          A draw on society or a “Welfare case”
  b.          Crazy
        i.          I would give this character a background as some upstanding hero possibly, whose life, for some reason, took a drastic turn and he’s lost the will to turn it around. 

10.          A young prostitute
  a.          A “slut” with no self esteem
  b.          Someone nobody cares about
        i.          I would show this character as one with an internal struggle who was once a bright, happy young girl with a promising future.  Maybe she returns to that path somehow, but she doesn’t feel she can get out of the rut that she’s in now.