Examples Of Stereotypes In My Big Fat Greek Wedding

In the Western society, immigrants are often associated with stereotypes. For instance, Chinese mothers are viewed as the Tiger Mothers who are tough on their children so that they can achieve high levels of academic excellence. However, as Amy Chua implies in The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, such stereotype is not quite reflective of what Chinese mothering is like. In addition to Chinese immigrants, Greek immigrants are also often stereotyped as being loud hosts of parties who are overly proud to be Greeks. Just like Chua’s book, My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a film that plays on diasporic stereotypes. In the film, the father, Gus, is portrayed as a man who thinks of Greeks as being superior to all the other non-Greeks. Maria is depicted

Although such portrayals of characters may appear as generating misconceptions, the film presents the inside story of diasporic people such as nostalgia, identity and belonging. Therefore, this paper will argue that My Big Fat Greek Wedding demonstrates that diasporic people highly value their home and put emphasis on their cultural traditions in hopes of preserving their home and identity; this challenges the common stereotypes associated with immigrants as being mere inventions that others impose on them.
Gus is portrayed as an overbearing patriarch of the Portokalos family. When he first finds out that his daughter, Toula is dating a non-Greek man named Ian, Gus gets mad. He invites many attractive Greek men to dinner so that Toula can find a Greek boyfriend. Gus describes Ian as a xeno who is not trustworthy as he is not Greek. The film also depicts Gus as a proud Greek who tries to instil the idea that they are privileged to be Greek to his children, Athena, Toula and

For instance, young Toula feels like an outsider at school because Maria prepares her moussaka when all the other white girls eat sandwiches. This scene indicates that people who share the same kind of cuisine are likely to be in the same community. People from different communities have difficult time understanding each other in terms of food. Maria and Voula could not understand the concept of vegetarianism when Ian claims that he does not eat meat. Moreover, when Ian’s parents bring a Bundt cake, Maria thinks of it as being faulty for having a hole in the middle. As evident, confusion and misunderstanding are easily created among the people who do not share the same kind of cuisine. The reason why food plays a central role in this film is because food is the most tangible form of making people feel the sense of belonging to the same