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Theories about stereotypes
Stereotypes and perception
Theories about stereotypes
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The year is 2016 and American society is open-minded to so many issues, except televised stereotypes. Racial and gender stereotypes are continually reinforced by social media and television, it has played a major role in the way society views one another. Enabling stereotypes that have been associated with a person of specific race or gender in the media promotes prejudice. Meaning society expects that person to act a certain way based on what they have witnessed on television or social media. . A perfect example of how television shows incorporate stereotypes based on ethnicity is the tv show “Everybody Hates Chris “which is about a working class African-American family that lives in a poor urban neighborhood in New York.
Annotated Bibliography Introduction: Examine different kinds of advertisements and the problem at hand with how they perpetuate stereotypes, such as; gender, race, and religion. Thesis: The problem in society today is in the industry of social media. In efforts to attract the eye of the general population, advertising companies create billboards, commercials, flyers and other ads with stereotypes that are accepted in today’s society. Because of the nations’ cultural expectation for all different types of people, advertisement businesses follow and portray exactly what and how each specific gender, race, or religion should be.
The Simpsons is an American cartoon sitcom which depicts a working class family that consists of Homer the father, Marge the mother, Bart the oldest son, Lisa the oldest daughter and Maggie the youngest daughter. The show uses satirical humor to portray American society, culture and human conditions. In this particular episode Homer becomes ashamed of his family after a picnic gone wrong and then decides to enroll the family in therapy. The therapist struggles to solve the family’s problems and gives up, and in the end the Simpsons get their money back and are living dysfunctional family unity once again. To begin with, there are many stereotypes that are mentioned in this episode of the Simpsons.
The series ‘Fresh off the boat’ is a sitcom that used characters that display stereotypical or counter stereotypical behaviours of Asians that most people hold to be true. The sitcom teaches the viewers about the stereotypes that Asian and white people tend to be labelled by. The main character is Eddie, with his family and friends playing supporting roles. The family moved from Washington DC to Orlando. Eddie has made the decision to break out of the stereotypes to fit into with his peers at school.
Challenging Stereotypes: How “Modern” Is Modern Family? The show won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in each of its first five years and the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series four times. If you have never heard about “Modern Family," you have never seen comedy. Modern Family is an American television show that portrays the ‘Modernism’ in families nowadays in America.
In the sitcom, Friends, we see a variety of stereotypes. Sitcoms usually aim for using strong stereotypes because they can easily create humor from them. There are three women: Monica, Rachel, and Phoebe. Each of them are characterized as just a few of the stereotypes commonly associated with women.
Minorities have made significant strides towards equality in American society. In America the minority groups are being stereotype due to their ethnicity. The media has had a significant impact in passing the stereotypes to the work that have convey negative impressions about certain ethnic groups. Minorities have been the victim of an industry that relies on old ideas to appeal to the "majority" at the expense of a minority group ideals (Horton, Price, and Brown 1999). Stereotypes have been portraying negative characteristics of ethnic group in general.
The structure of media messages is deliberately crafted and packaged to persuade, inform, entertain, and to educate a target audience. Aristotle, a Greek philosopher that created the five canons of rhetoric which includes Arrangement, delivery, memory, style and invention. All media messages have a structure using the five canons of rhetoric analysis of content. Invention Invention is the first principle of rhetoric.
Americans Stereotypes: Loosening stereotypes Americans are always scared when they see a black man and think about them trying to harm them. Actually, that isn’t always the case and isn’t the case a lot of the time. Brent Staples in his writing Black Men in Public Spaces shows some of the societies stereotype issues. Americans should stop stereotyping blacks, not purposely go around them at night, and he shouldn’t have to whistle to make people comfortable around him. Americans put stereotypes on different ethnicities.
According to Lippmann, “stereotypes are ‘pictures in our heads’ that we use to apprehend the world around us” (16). Stereotypes can be formed due to effects of media, as Wood describes media as pervasive, powerful and influential (31). Hence, stereotypes can be defined as inaccurate perceptions towards a group of people or community that is strongly influenced by the media. Whether positive or negative, stereotypes are usually false as they are formed based on personal judgments, which are biased or exaggerated. When stereotypes are consistently portrayed in media platforms, they subconsciously form and maintain assumed identities for the stereotyped groups.
Stereotype a word that harbours judgements and ideas of how an individual or groups should act depending on factors such as social status, culture, sexual orientation and nationality. It is still used very often in today’s society but most of it consist of ideas that are proved to be false or exaggerated but nonetheless these unrealistic judgements are spread amongst society through propaganda, traditional and social media. In some circumstances, stereotypes can be extreme enough to incite prejudice, disrespect or even racism between people. Three stereotypes that I find to be to be really relevant in today’s society are directed towards the culture of Americans, Asians and Muslims. These stereotypes portray how these populaces act and what their characteristics should be or is.
But what is stereotyping? According to the dictionary, stereotype is defined as “a simplified and standardised conception or image invested with special meaning and help in common by members of a group.” Moreover, it is considered as a form of prejudice, as people are putting labels about how a person should act or live according to their gender, nationality, religion, personality or appearance. This creates pre judgment, including misconceptions, which can develop further, leading to bigger problems and complications. Society can be broken down into many groups or categories and there are all sorts of categories within stereotyping, which are the tools used to stereotype.
Everybody has their own misconceptions of others, but how did stereotypes turn out to create false images for certain groups of people? Misconceptions are views or opinions that appear to be incorrect about a person. The misconceptions that are talked about these days often are from movies and tv shows that are watched everyday by millennials. They create a false image of particular people or things which get believed by young adults and kids. Stereotypes also have an effect on the generations of today because they are general characteristics that people believe represent a particular person or group.
People get categorized by stereotypes everyday just by outward appearances or the group of people they are associated with. A stereotype is a preconceived notion about a group of people. People form fixed images of a group that are assumed that all group members act and behave is a particular way. A person essentially gets stereotyped by being “guilty by association” of a particular group. All stereotypes get based off of a bit of truths that all group members similarly have.
There are countless reported negative American stereotypes and I honestly struggled tremendously to find a stereotype that I identified with. However, I would say cultural ignorance is a negative American stereotype I can actively work to address as our class travels internationally. Researching cultural ignorance more in-depth will aid in my understanding and appreciating diverse cultural perspectives, the importance of historical knowledge, and the complexity of communication amongst different cultures as I travel to Europe. Cultural ignorance is when an individual shows a lack of understanding of other cultures in terms of history, society, government, and much more. This lack of knowledge and understanding can easily be interpreted as a lack of respect for the culture or country and even ethnocentrism in the more extreme examples.