- Monday, February 23 - Television (Tru TV), a tv special on gangs ("Gotti Boys"), all of New Orleans was portrayed as segregated into gangs, I feel racial stereotypes/profilings were encouraged
- Friday, February 27 - Dinner Conversation with friends regarding border patrol, racial stereotypes
- Friday, February 27 - Work Conference in OKC (Patterson Dental), comments were casually/jokingly made about the predominance of gang-like-violence in Detroit, low-class/racial stereotypes
- Thursday, February 26 - Site Visit to my Campaigns Class client (Oklahoma Health Care Authority), I went to a company meeting and in lieu of black history month the black employees acted as a famous black person and asked the audience to guess their identity, this led to light-hearted comments from other black employees, I feel these stereotypes encouraged racial stereotypes
- Thursday, February 26 - Site Visit to my Campaigns Class client (OHCA), also at the meeting, a Hispanic employee made a comment that stereotyped all those with any degree of Latin ancestry
- Monday, February 23 - Capstone Class, Dr. Carstarphen, a comment was made about PR classes being dominated by girls and science classes dominated by guys, gender stereotyping
- Tuesday, February 24 - Conversation with friends, a joke was made about classifying household jobs as "skirt-work" and "dirt-work", gender stereotyping
- Thursday, February 25 - Cooking show on FOOD Network ("Barefoot Contessa"), as an introduction to her recipes for the show she posed a rhetorical question "who says grilling's just for guys?", it reminded me of the stereotype that grilling is a 'manly' thing, gender stereotype
- Thursday, February 19 - an episode of "Private Practice" (ABC) brought up the stereotype of women always being up front with their emotions and men always being emotionally hardened (the couples therapy part), an example of a gender stereotype
- Friday, February 27 - the movie "Slumdog Millionaire", the character Latika, and other young girls from the poor district, were all shown as having only one worthwhile asset to their being, a sex object (particularly the part where the orphanage headman says something about her being a valuable virgin), gender stereotype
Reflection:
- Were you surprised with the amount of stereotyping that exists in media today? Honestly, I was not surprised by the amount of stereotyping in the media. I think it would be a fair assessment of society at this point to say that it is predominantly segregated by race and to see the media mirror this societal trend is not surprising to me. Similarly, at least from what I've seen, there is a lot of reality in the "stereotypical" roles that women and men play in commercials, tv, etc. Therefore, I think it's natural for the media to imitate this trend as well.
- How did you feel if you experienced racial or gender stereotyping in personal or social experiences? Well, I actually have become more sensitive to gender and racial stereotypes since I began this course. When i hear stereotyping comments, such as the "skirt-work" and "dirt-work" joke mentioned earlier, I feel enraged. I don't want to be put into a box of gender-designated-limitations when it comes to my capabilities. I know how to change a tire, work a grill, drive a car and any other 'manly'-job just as well as the next guy. My anatomy has no impact on my know-how in these examples.
- Do you see how the continuous or cultivation of images affects representation and individual perspectives of different ethnic groups and women? I did. In my opinion, it's impossible to truly gain a personal experience that helps you identify with every segregated group... men, women, black, white, Latino, Asian, etc. Therefore a lot of what people see in the media directly influences the audience's impression of "normalcy" for that race or gender (especially for race). In other words, if the viewer doesn't have a personal experience that tells them differently then they are apt to believe whatever the tv program, radio show or commercial tells them is "typical" for that race. Thus the continued evolution of stereotypes.
Life experiences add plenty to the mix
ReplyDeleteI agree completely that since beginning this class I have become even more sensitive to stereotypes and jokes about those stereotypes. I've always been offended by racial and gendered jokes but I've come to the point that because they perpetuate these stereotypes, I find them completely unacceptable. I know the people who tell these jokes don't typically have ill intentions, but the people listening may have little background on the group involved in the joke.
ReplyDeleteI also think the same applies to children watching TV. Because some children are more sheltered or live in less diverse communities, the stereotypes they see on TV could be their first encounter with gendered or racial relations. So if TV is a child's only experience with racial diversity or gendered relations, when they get to a public school or move to more diverse communities, they will potentially offend people because they only know the stereotypes they've seen.
Unfortunately I think it would take an astronomical media shift away from stereotypes to allow younger generations a chance to grow up without racial and gender stereotypes.