Gender Stereotypes In Hollywood

Hollywood has been the most successful place in the film industry thanks in large part to their enormous budgets, a wide range of subjects, engaging stories, and willingness to push the boundaries of social norms. Due to Hollywood’s outreach, their influence can be felt all across the United States, and in many other developed countries. It is for this reason that Hollywood often becomes trapped by their desire for ultimate success, and they begin falling back on the artistic decisions that are considered “safe” and “appropriate” for the mass public. Despite Hollywood’s notoriety, at the end of the day it is a business seeking to make as much money as it can earn with each new project, and for this reason, the “unpopular” or less common characterizations

Although Hollywood appears to be introducing more ethnic characters to the big screen, the majority of these roles are being given to white actors who portray these characters based on stereotypes. It can paint a negative picture of minorities. According to Yellow Face, documentary video hosted on YouTube, Mickey Rooney is made up to depict Hollywood’s image of a Japanese man, in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Through the use of extravagant make-up and a fake accent, Mickey Rooney was considered a convincing portrayal of Japanese culture for American movie goers. Mickey Rooney’s caricature of a Japanese man has since been widely deemed to be racist, uneducated, and harmful towards the Asian community as a whole. Additionally, it generates stereotypes that make ethnic groups seem one dimensional. According to the article “Asian Women in Film: No Joy, No Luck”, Asian women are often characterized as being either quiet and submissive or sexually hyper. For instance, in the 1960 movie, The World of Suzie Wong, the titular character can be heard saying the following to her Western lover: “I not important,” and “I’ll be with you until you say – Suzie, go away.” (Hagedorn 344) In these two lines, the audience is made to see Suzie as a single-minded woman, whose sole purpose is to

While it is true that the final decisions of movies fall upon the corporate shareholders of the respective movie studios, there are ample accommodations that can be made by producers, directors, casting teams, and actors that can impact the tone and message of the movie before it reaches the big screen. Movies often focus on what is different between ethnic groups which lead to conflict. People who come from the various groups behave strangely and unlikely to understand the viewpoints of those outside their community, and Hollywood movies further this communication barrier by presenting ethnic groups as an alien species, unable to speak English at times. Not many people are open minded and outgoing enough to be able to see the differences from what they learn, hear, see, and what they encounter in the real world. As a matter of fact, instead of helping people from these differing groups build a healthy curiosity or appreciation of contrasts and similarities they share between each other, Hollywood has tried to create a chasm that only leads to further racial segregation and insecurities. For instance, in Michael Bay’s Transformer: Revenge of the Fallen, two characters Skids and Mudflap are caricatures of black people. In the movie, the two characters speak and act in a manner that how some people historically think black people behave.