The first step in the process of understanding stereotypes is admitting they exist. Check. The next step is trying to figure out what role they play in society. The question becomes: What work to stereotypes do? What are stereotypes for?
Comedy? They are used that way, but to assume that it's all for fun and games definitely misses a bulk of the placement and usage of stereotypes.
To hurt and belittle people? again, stereotypes can be applied such that they have that function, but I don't think that is inherent. (It is important to differentiate between "Stereotyping," "discrimination" and all the -isms-- racism, sexism, classism, ageism etc. While there are moments when they surely align, an unnecessary conflation of those terms wont help us navigate this investigation.)
No, stereotyping seems much simpler and yet much more complex than that. Stereotypes are a way for our brains to quickly make sense of information. Instead of redefining existing categories, or creating a new category for the new information (accommodation), we assimilate the new information into categories we already have, often incorrectly.
So, instead of adding new data to our definition of "woman" everytime we come across one, we rely on previous evidence which we ASSUME is still valid. Instead of asking that woman about her identity, we use stereotypes to project her likely identity onto her. If she is not a homemaker, she may likely be a teacher or nurse. If she does not have a wedding ring, she is single and childless (but if she has a child with her and no wedding ring, she's immoral, got knocked up, etc.). Is her hair short and/or is she wearing flannel? She is a lesbian. Consider seeing her in an office building, or in front of a computer. She is somebody's (some man's) secretary.
Yes, those kinds of leaps are unfounded and unfair, but we make them everyday, over and over, unconsciously just for the sake of saving time and mental strain.
The perpatuation of these stereotypes is carried out by the entertainment industry, ruthlessly, and with little regard for what effect they are having. They take advantage of the recognizability of these images and use them to make a profit. They reify the stereotypes, such that we don't recognize the fallacy of our assimilations
A show like "Cops" instills images of what criminals look like and do: they are poor, black or brown, violently resist arrest and possess (do) illegal drugs. These are the images that stick with us.
take a look at the following clips of gender stereotypes. at 2:10, 3:35, 4:30, 7:30 are clips that really exemplify the kind of gender stereotyping that pervades commercial media
Commercial advertisement does not hesitate to use race stereotyping either. Like gender stereotyping, racial stereotyping in ads works to indoctrinate the expected and acceptable positions and predispositions of people of different ethnicities and cultures.
Ponderings for next time:
What stereotypes are found in schools?
What are blacks supposed to be in schools? Whites? Latinos? Asians?
Who are the women in schools? Who are the men?
With this under our belts, we can move forward and explicitly examine the ways in which stereotypes are present in, and have effects on schools and schoolchildren.
Great post! The first video really made me reflect on what Dr. Lunsford said in class today about how gender stereotypes are created at such a young age. As a little girl, I would have loved to have the dream house that is advertised around 2:10, but would have never been attracted to the trucks in the later clips. They seem rather "innocent," however they have greater implications then our society often realizes. And the second video also made me reflect on how athletes are portrayed in the media, especially African American athletes. I honestly never realized this specific instance of stereotyping until you pointed it out. I think that is one of the problems with stereotypes, in that they are seen so often that they become the "norm" and no one dares to challenge them. Look forward to your post next week on school stereotypes, especially how movies and films portray them.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! The first video really made me reflect on what Dr. Lunsford said in class today about how gender stereotypes are created at such a young age. As a little girl, I would have loved to have the dream house that is advertised around 2:10, but would have never been attracted to the trucks in the later clips. They seem rather "innocent," however they have greater implications then our society often realizes. And the second video also made me reflect on how athletes are portrayed in the media, especially African American athletes. I honestly never realized this specific instance of stereotyping until you pointed it out. I think that is one of the problems with stereotypes, in that they are seen so often that they become the "norm" and no one dares to challenge them. Look forward to your post next week on school stereotypes, especially how movies and films portray them.
ReplyDelete-Jennifer Lopez
These clips were really eye opening. It's amazing how when you are made aware of this going on you see it everywhere. I found the line "[the cottage] where her dreams have room to grow" around the 2:10 marker to be rather interesting. It implies that her only dreams are related to the home. I'm not saying that those dreams are bad, but this ad certainly does nothing to counteract cultural assumptions (such as girls aren't good at math) that might really hinder girls from dreaming bigger. Thanks for making me more aware of this.
ReplyDeleteJeannette
videos emphasized the points you are making and the post made sense! good writing!
ReplyDeletei'm working however to connect it teaching and learning? your questions for next started to broach it but i couldn't quite get there??
Are you familiar with the Princess and the Frog? I definitely observed both gender and racial stereotypes in that movie. I think the best thing to combat the ill effects of stereotypes is to create awareness (especially in ourselves) about how they are easily wrong. When teaching, we must remember this when thinking of students, and it is important to correct students when they stereotype. As an English teacher, what would you say to a student after they say Princess and the Frog and told you that they gained a new perspective on New Orleans?
ReplyDeleteDear Mr. Miles,
ReplyDeleteStereotypes exist, check. But I would like to add to your theory, or maybe even discuss potentially another reason why stereotypes exist. Essentially, for us to remember detail is a pain in the butt, so we summarize, categorize and group things. We make categories and group races, gender, ethnicity, religion and etc under them. That way when we hear a buzz word, we have an image that pops into our head. Like hoe, pimp, CEO. There are certain stereotypes that exist regarding their gender, the way they probably act, and the reason they probably do it, among other things.
Social media has normalized stereotypes that already exist so much so that we overlook them unless we pay special attention to them. The reason I think why social media uses things like stereotypes is for individuals to focus on the message that they're trying to market instead of getting caught up in the details of things that are irrelevant. Stereotypes have come to be apart of American culture I think, so much so that, if stereotypes were not used in social media, the attention would be on the image displayed, rather than the marketing.
If you put an asian guy in an old spice commercial with a basketball (not named Yao Ming), what kind of reaction would you get? If you put a black man in the kitchen for a commercial, what would your attention be on, the product or the black man?
Stereotypes have become so normalized that if anything asides them would be used, it would attract our attention to it as opposed to the message that the advertiser was attempting to get across. From a marketing perspective, that's a loss.
~ A-Train