Interviews

The topic of my research paper was stereotypes in men (i.e. nerd, jock, rebel, etc.). Instead of interviewing just one person, I interviewed two people, one who is often looked at as a nerd and one who is looked at as a jock. By having both interviews I got two different sides and two somewhat different opinions. Individually, the questions they answered did help me get some insight but I ended up getting a lot more information when I compared their answers. I have a decent relationship with both of the guys I interviewed so I don’t feel like they spruced up their answers because they were embarrassed or anything, I think they both gave honest answers. They didn’t really point me to any other sources but just having the interviews and analyzing the responses gave me more information. I think the most captivating insight that I got was from “the jock” I interviewed, I asked if he thought that he fit stereotype (dumb, cocky, no emotions, etc.), and why or why not; he responded with a very detailed answer and gave me examples of how not only him but a lot of his teammates (also jocks) do not fit the stereotype. He said “No, I got a 25 no my ACT my very first time taking it, and at least 4 of my teammates are some of the highest ranking kids (grades wise) in our class. Our football team has the highest cumulative GPA in Florida. There are some cocky athletes but that’s all about personality not necessarily because they are jocks. Saying that anyone doesn’t have emotions is pretty stupid, I think. I myself am a pretty emotional guy. One of my friends just broke up with girlfriend of 3 years and he is totally devastated right now.” I just thought that the solid facts he gave me really added to his point, and I believed his argument. After the interviews I really did start to view the topic more openly and really think about their answers and I felt more confident about my analysis. There really wasn’t anything I didn’t understand that they said, as I mentioned they were both friends of mine and gave me pretty clear, honest answers. When I compared their responses I ended up getting even more information and noticing certain patterns, so that gave me another few points to address in my paper. Their answers really just helped me solidify my thoughts on the topic and gave me a better argument. The interviews really helped me better understand what real guys thought about it all considering the closest I could get to a real guy’s opinion online was some b.s. Yahoo blog posting that a bunch of bitter women would respond to. Their answers kind of motivated me to really think about all sides of stereotypes and to try and argue the different views of a jock and a nerd, but to also show that, in general, they had the same process when it comes to the stereotypes.