typecasting means the process by which a person is typecast, or taken to be a particular stereotype. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 86 out of 100.
Why “typecasting” is a great word
The process by which an actor becomes inextricably identified with a single character or archetype, thereby restricting their professional range. From type, denoting a category or stereotype, and cast, in the theatrical sense of assigning a role; the compound verb was first recorded in 1927. Unlike versatility, which celebrates an actor's chameleonic breadth, or characterization, which is the deliberate artistic craft of building a role from within, typecasting is an external, industrial mechanism of repetition. It is the detective's trench coat that becomes a permanent uniform, the comic's pratfall that echoes in every subsequent silence, the heroic jawline that can never again be unclenched—a fame that is also a kind of exquisite, gilded confinement.
Etymology
By surface analysis, typecast + -ing.
noun
- The process by which a person is typecast, or taken to be a particular stereotype.“Similar in consequence to the ethnological typecastings, these ideologically driven political readings produce a lumping effect.”
- The act of typing out messages with a typewriter and posting images of them online.“Matt Cidoni, 16, of East Brunswick, N.J., keeps a picture of his favorite machine, a Royal No. 10, on his iPod Touch so he can show it off to friends. Online, he is a proud member of the "typosphere," a global community of typewriter geeks. Like many of them, he enjoys "typecasting," or tapping out typewritten messages, which he scans and posts to his Web site, Adventures in Typewriterdom.”