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Lt. Evans

Stereotypes and discrimination

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This topic is an off-shoot of another message I posted the other day. However, rather than address British stereotypes this topic is more to do with right and wrongs of stereotyping, be it stereotypes of Southerners, Black people, Women, Jews, the Japanese or anyone else. My question is this: do stereotypes lead to discrimination? I didn't think so after reading through everything said in:

 

British Stereotypes

 

However, while I was continuing my research work I stumbled across this article:

 

What A Girl Wants - Apparently, is not much...

 

The line which caught my eyes and started this topic is:

The contrast between her rollicking American self and the tamped-down version she must become while in British society is so oversimplified that it likely will reinforce stereotypes for a youthful audience. The Brits are all stuffy, unfashionable twits, except for the adorable, dark-eyed musician (James) whom Bynes falls for.

 

I'm just wondering if people think that stereotypes do lead to racism, homophobia and sexual discrimination. Are stereotypes always counter-productive or do they have their merits? Are stereotypes an important part of the media and literature? Why do stereotypes survive to day?

Edited by Lt. Evans

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It could lead to discrimination. I'll never forget on America's Funniest People they had two people on one of the videos that said "This is how southern people ask girls out on a date" and they started burping. It hurt.

 

Rick Berman wanted the character of Trip on ENT to be forgetful and mess up a lot because he was from the south. Connor Trinneer stood up for us and said that Trip wouldn't be main engineer if he was clumsy and didn't know what he was doing

Edited by Gamera

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I'm just wondering if people think that stereotypes do lead to racism, homophobia and sexual discrimination.

 

Gah, I don't think they do necessarily, but I do see them as a TOOL of implanting racism, homophobia, and sexual discrimination. In the past, stereotypes were used to propagate such thinking. Hopefully, nowadays, people and children learn well enough that different people fill out the various needs and roles in society to realize that stereotypes are not the measure of a person. Unfortunately, as with every rule, there are exceptions, as I've been recently getting a painful reminder.

 

Are stereotypes always counter-productive or do they have their merits? Are stereotypes an important part of the media and literature? Why do stereotypes survive to day?

 

I'm gonna answer the third question, and in the process, I hope it answers all three. Stereotypes survive to this day for four major reasons:

 

1) Humor. Childlike humor and clean jokes only go so far with an audience. With stand-up comedy possilbly becoming more and more popular, you're gonna encounter more stereotype jokes to give us all guilty laughs. It's like those charadists said in Huckleberry Finn when they re-promoted their "Royal Nonesuch" show, this time with the disclaimer "No women or children allowed": "If that don't fill the seats, then I don't know Southern folk!" Or words to that effect. The racier, the better. And few things are racier, yet still funny, than stereotypes.

 

2) Surveys. Polls. A poll can only have so many options on it. Hence, the numbers and stats fall in line a certain way, and Boom, you have a trend or stereotype. I remember watching Hollywood Squares where there were two polls involved as questions. The first one, what did most women say they look for most in a man? The answer, as Vivica A. Fox put it: A big fat bankroll. Which turned out to be the actual answer. The second one, what physical attribute do women look for most? The answer: tall. These kinds of polls do not take into account the complexity of humanity, both feminine and masculine. But these kinds of polls are often fun to take, and make good filler material in magazines and newspapers, which leads to the third point, sort of.

 

3) MARKETING. There's a reason that's in all caps and the others were not. Marketing and advertising, almost by the very definitions of their jobs, require stereotypes. They need a target market. White males over 40 making $35,000-$50,000 dollars, single, and may or may not have their own business. I know! Let's put some hot chicks in our ad! Youthful, low income, urban or suburban, still with parents, either gender? Use the hip colloquialisms. How do you think we got McDonalds' "I'm Lovin' It" campaign? Marketers and advertising agencies use stereotypes all the time, practically shamelessly, to create effective campaigns to sell their products or services. Businesses do it, too though, because stereotypes create a comfortable association. Pizza places with Italianish names (what would you say to Jorgesson's Italian Cuisine?), Chinese people still running laundromats, etc.

 

4) Some people are stereotypes. It's true. Or more precisely, most of us exhibit at least some aspect of stereotypes. I'm a male. I like women. A woman acting provocatively, to some degree, will excite me. Guess I'm a typical male chauvinist piglet, right? A Hispanic woman wants to wait for Mr. Right? Well, she's obviously the Catholic Mamacita type, right? Well no, but all of us exhibit some bit of stereotype. Some of it's just plain biology, a lot of it is simple socialization. Then you get those who exhibit more than a few stereotypical behaviors of a kind of person, that tend to give all people with any loose exhibition of any of those characteristsics a bad rap.

 

Just my thoughts. Take them as you will.

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Do stereotpyes create discrimination? I guess it depends on what you mean by discrimination? Do you mean legal - as in employment etc, or personal - as in who you sit with at the lunchroom table. Is it discrimination to hang out with people that like the same things you do as far as music, politics or whatever and not hang out with those who have tastes outside your interests? I would say no - racism would IMO be based on physical attributes. However, most of what I read in the news associates culture (ie things we have choices over) rather than physical attributes with racism. And that is IMO what stereotyping is - assuming certain cultural tastes based on race, religion, ethnicity or nationality etc.

 

I also think it interesting you asked about race, sex & gender but didn't mention religious stereotypes - which I see a great of as well. And since this has been in the news (those cartoons) I think it is relevant.

 

What really bothers me about stereotyping - the idea that some stereotypes are avoided by the media but others (Southerners, various religions etc) are fairgame.

 

I love that ep of Designing Women where Julia launched into her diatribe about how the media portrayed Southerners. (...sitting around in our log cabins eating dirt...)

 

I just have to say - all women that grow up in Florida don't work as mermaids in Weeki Wachee - the vast majority do not. But everything I see supposedly filmed in Florida always has a character who was a mermaid. I've never even been to Weeki Wachee.

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