ABSTRACT
This chapter explains that, as Richard Dyer has argued, it is politically important to understand 'just what stereotypes are, how they function, ideologically and aesthetically, and why they are so resilient in the face of our rejection of them'. It describes the theory of ideology and the concept of values as used in sociological theory. Potentially stereotypes provide a means of studying a cross-section of ideology rather than a single stratum. Stereotypes form an important part of the socialisation of major structural groups. The chapter describes that stereotypes are often 'valid'; that they are often effective in so far as people define themselves in terms of the stereotypes about them; that they are structurally reinforced; and that they refer to role performances. Stereotypes are particularly strong when they have to operate as conceptual resolutions of such contradictions.
