Gender Stereotypes In Film West Side Story

Stereotypes have always “been around” in a way, consistently having a place in society throughout the entire globe. Stereotypes often lead to the misunderstanding of a culture, and paints a skewed image to society. In film, these stereotypes run rampant, reinforcing these false cliches to exist, and miseducating those who stumble upon them. Rarely is there ever a time in film where a certain race or character acts “above” their stereotype, and often shrinks back into the false image they are mainly known for. There are many cases in film where a certain group of people are misrepresented, portraying that group as something blown way out proportion in comparison to their real-life counterparts. Movies that involve negative stereotypes include the 1911 film Tony, the Greaser, and features a hispanic lead playing a

The negative characters portrayed in these films kept on reinforcing the stereotype, further tainting the image of the Latino as more and more of these films came out. Another film that further reinforced the stereotype was the 1961 film West Side Story. The plot of this film features two rival gangs fighting for territory, and things go awry when a gang member falls in love with a rival’s sister. Right off the bat, this film involves Latinos playing gang members yet again. The Sharks, one of two of the rival gangs, consists of Puerto-Rican immigrants. In this film, Puerto-Ricans are described to be ruthless and bloodthirsty, just like the apex predator their gang is named after. This film further defiled the image of Puerto-Rican, doing nothing but ruin the reputation and misrepresent this race of people as petty, criminal, gang members. Several years after, West Side Story was adapted into a musical, and a production of the play was supposed to run in a school located in New York, the same city the movie took place in. However, this production never took off, as students and parents opposed the stereotyping