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Stereotype influences in movies
Stereotype influences in movies
Stereotype influences in movies
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How Asian actresses are portrayed in American films? Why most Asian female actresses act superior roles in the American films? As the technology develops in the society, the relationship between mass media and people is deepened. The diversified mass media such as radio, film, and television brings fun to a lot of audience. Regardless of races and ages, most people have preference to watching films. Especially, many American films have been recognized around the world. However, the recognized American film industry has been controversial after the film, Avatar, casted white actresses for acting Asian animation characters. Some people say that casting white actress for Asian characters of this film is right because the film is produced in the United States. However, the producers’ casting the white actresses for Avatar characters portrays racism which is not proper in this society . The directors and media producers in Hollywood should have a social responsibility to avoid stereotyping ethnic characters because films are mediums for connecting people around the world in one, the young …show more content…
With learned incorrect racial images, the future society can face ethnic conflicts which bring the ethnic wars. In the United States, several animations show features of racism to children. One of popular animations, Popeye portrays non-white people as villains, and the main white character, Popeye as the hero who defeat the non-white people. After watching the animation, the children are likely to misunderstand that white people defeat black people who attack the white people. Because of growing with watching the animation, children experience racial stereotypes in schools. Taylor Armbrester, 10 years old black boy, says, he has been punched, kicked, called "black boy" and "retarded," and a white classmate told him the school was better before he started attending.“
From the early ages of American film, Latino women have been portrayed in a negative light. Has this image changed over the years? The answer to this question is left up to the viewer, but there is one thing that has not changed in the portrayal of Latino women in American film. That is the clear distinction between two stereotypes of Latino women; the "innocent, passive Madonna" and the "hot blooded, fiery, sexy whore". In the case of the hot-blooded tamale, these images date back to the 1930’s in Lupe Velez and to the present Rosie Perez. Dolores Del Rio and Maria Montez represent the virgin Senorita. (Rodriguez 75-7) These are just some of the actresses that have portrayed characters that fit into these two stereotypes. Other actresses include Carmen Miranda, Natalie Wood, and Rita Moreno. These actresses are featured in the following films, West Side Story, Flying Down to Rio, Mexican Spitfire, and White Men Can't Jump. These two stereotypes have been carried out in American cinema from the thirties to today and are a common theme in many films.
The Asian American history is the history of the ethnic and racial groups in the United States who are of Asian descent. Spickard (2007) shows that the "'Asian American' was an idea created in the 1960s to bring together the Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino Americans for a strategic and political purposes.
The Asian women interviewed in this film spoke candidly about their experiences in the entertainment industry. This film shows a comprehensive look at media stereotypes of Asia and Asian American women since the silent era. One point that the film brought up was that many white women played Asian women in early Hollywood films. One actress who frequently played an Asian woman was Katherine Hepburn. I can’t imagine how insulted I would be if I was an Asian actress who was losing roles to an American woman.
In Shohat and Stam’s article, Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the media (2013), they discuss the issue of racism within the media and entertainment industry, such as Hollywood films. More importantly, Shohat and Stam’s discuss the assertion of racial politics in casting within the Hollywood films industry. The interesting idea to their argument is that they suggest that for a film to become financially successful, the casting of the protagonist must consist of a white star as they are seen to be ethnically universal (Shohat & Stam, 190). They further suggest that the ethnic minority have been limited to designated roles which ultimately perpetuate their ethnic stereotype (Shohat & Stam, 190). They concern this issue by critically analysing and contrasting western Hollywood films against other ethnic films.
Abstract My research focused on the coverage of Asian Americans in contemporary mass media. The following types of media were researched. Music Television Films Magazines I gave several examples where Asian Americans used to play very simple characters. These roles were defined by stereotypes that exist in America.
The number of Asian American communities is growing in the U.S. population, however, these groups of people are often marginalized and misrepresented in mainstream media. In today’s mainstream media, there is a visible lack of Asian American representation on film. Asian actors, when given roles in film and television, are rarely cast for central roles and form about only 3% of prime-time characters (Ramasubramanian, 2011). Not only is the number for casting Asian and Asian Americans low, the roles of these characters are often portrayed in the stereotypical ideology which has been present for decades. But why are Asians portrayed the way they are? Why has Hollywood maintained its representational practices when it comes to the portraying Asians? Why do these portrayals persist in the presence of a growing Asian population and racial diversity? What is the significance of the Asian American segment for Hollywood? To what extent does the consideration of the Asian American market influence the way Hollywood portray Asians? These are the questions that surface when watching films, and in the lens of an Asian American, many Asians and Asian American do not fit the mold created by Hollywood. First, I will introduce the range of common film representation of Asians. This literature review will focus on the negative and positive light of Asian representation , the structure of Hollywood film industry and its effect on representing Asian race, the social acceptance of Asian stereotypes, and Asian American’s social identity theories.
Although we have taken monumental strides in the past fifty years towards racial equality and diversity, it is still commonly argued that popular culture lacks some sort of racial representation. In the United States, the people who live here are vastly diverse when it comes to race and culture, yet in the media people of color get marginalized and stereotyped everyday in film, music, and etc.
A director is successful when they take the audience away from comfort and security. In the film American Beauty, director Sam Mendes effectively achieves this. Creating a sense of discomfort and insecurity throughout the film allows the viewer to have a more in depth knowledge of the underlying themes within the film. Mendes strips viewers away from a sense of comfort and security through the portrayal of a dysfunctional family and the use of aggressive verbal slurs.
While watching movies, have you ever noticed that the villains in almost every single Hollywood film are of Middle Eastern or European descent? In a reoccurring theme of Hollywood, the villains in these films are almost always foreigners or people of color. This is a stereotype. On the other side of the spectrum, we often see that the heroes of these films are most often than not white males. This is another stereotype. Within the last few years, we’ve seen actors such as Will Smith, Morgan Freeman, and Zoe Saldana take the lead roles, so it can’t be said that there are no non-white heroes, but there certainly isn’t many. Hollywood action movies, moreover than other genres, are typically loaded with an abundance of stereotypes. The way these movies are composed and structured can tell us a great deal about the views held within the American psyche and who holds the social power. The harsh reality is that the media ultimately sets the tone for societal standards, moralities, and images of our culture. Many consumers of media have never encountered some of the minorities or people of color shown on screen, so they subsequently depend on the media and wholeheartedly believe that the degrading stereotypes represented on the big screen are based on fact and not fiction. Mary Beltran said it best when she stated in her “Fast and Bilingual: Fast & Furious and the Latinization of Racelessness” article, “ultimately, Fast & Furious mobilizes notions of race in contradictory ways. It reinforces Hollywood traditions of white centrism, reinforcing notions of white male master while also dramatizing the figurative borders crossed daily by culturally competent global youth – both Latino and non-Latino” (77). This paper will specifically look...
Ethnicity and appearance has become a tremendous problem in the media due to the fact that they try to use it as a power to control creativity of abstaining the truth in media. According to journalist Nishijima, A, she refers to the Oscars and explains that it is very absurd how the media is slowly progression in lacking diversity. This was recognized when watching the Oscars and seeing that based off predominantly white nominees. Nishijima quotes “Boone Isaacs decl...
The American society, more so, the victims and the government have assumed that racism in education is an obvious issue and no lasting solution that can curb the habit. On the contrary, this is a matter of concern in the modern era that attracts the concern of the government and the victims of African-Americans. Considering that all humans deserve the right to equal education. Again, the point here that there is racial discrimination in education in Baltimore, and it should interest those affected such as the African Americans as well as the interested bodies responsible for the delivery of equitable education, as well as the government. Beyond this limited audience, on the other hand, the argument should address any individual in the society concerned about racism in education in Baltimore and the American Society in
A lot of the roles that I usually see Asian Americans play are the kung fu master or the scientist or the nerdy friend. Only rarely are Asian Americans the main protagonist and even if they are it is in an Asian story. Even then Asian Americans actors do not play the protagonist in the Asian story. Many caucasian actors are there to fill the spot. This again highlights the fact that Hollywood think that Asian Americans can not fill a main role and they would rather cast a more well known face.
Feminist theory was derived from the social movement of feminism where political women fight for the right of females in general and argue in depth about the unequality we face today. In the aspect of cinema, feminists notice the fictitious representations of females and also, machismo. In 1974, a book written by Molly Haskell "From Reverence to Rape: The treatment of Women in Movies" argues about how women almost always play only passive roles while men are always awarded with active, heroic roles. Moreover, how women are portrayed in movies are very important as it plays a big role to the audience on how to look at a woman and how to treat her in real life due to the illusionism that cinema offers. These images of women created in the cinema shapes what an ideal woman is. This can be further explained through an article 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' written by a feminist named Laura Mulvey in 1975. She uses psychoanalysis theories by Sigmund Freud to analyze 'Scopophilia' which is the desire to see. This explains how the audience is hooked to the screen when a sexy woman is present. In a bigger picture, where Scopophilia derives from, 'Voyeurism' is also known as feeling visual pleasure when looking at another. Narcissism on the other hand means identifying one's self with the role played. It is not hard to notice that in classical cinema, men often play the active role while the women are always the object of desire for the male leads, displayed as a sexual object and frequently the damsels in distress. Therefore, the obvious imbalance of power in classical cinema shows how men are accountable to moving the narratives along. Subconsciously, narcissism occurs in the audience as they ...
Dragon Ball movie will address that the main character is white and the helper character is Asian. Mulan will discuss the reality the world currently faces, with the reference to the petition that is established. With further discussion on the petition, the reasoning behind why it is unethical for film market to whitewash everything will be expanded. In this case, the research materials collected from the new articles will be helpful. Perception of the stakeholder, customers in this case, will be addressed the most.
Women have made progress in the film industry in terms of the type of role they play in action films, although they are still portrayed as sex objects. The beginning of “a new type of female character” (Hirschman, 1993, pg. 41-47) in the world of action films began in 1976 with Sigourney Weaver, who played the leading role in the blockbuster film ‘Aliens’ as Lt. Ellen Ripley. She was the captain of her own spaceship, plus she was the one who gave out all the orders. Until then, men had always been the ones giving the orders; to see a woman in that type of role was outlandish. This was an astonishing change for the American industry of film. Sometime later, in 1984, Linda Hamilton starred in ‘The Terminator’, a film where she was not the leading character, but a strong female character as Sarah Connor. She had a combination of masculine and feminine qualities as “an androgynous superwoman, resourceful, competent and courageous, while at the same time caring, sensitive and intuitive” (Hirschman, 1993, pg. 41-47). These changes made in action films for female’s roles stirred up a lot of excitement in the “Western society” (Starlet, 2007). The demand for strong female characters in action films grew to a new high when Angelina Jolie starred in ‘Tomb Raider’ in 2001 and then in the sequel, ‘Tomb Raider II: The Cradle of Life’ in 2003 as Lara Croft. Her strong female character was not only masculine, but was also portrayed as a sex object. Most often, strong women in these types of films tend to fight without even gaining a mark. At the end of each fight, her hair and makeup would always be perfect. The female characters in these action films, whether their role was as the lead character or a supporting character, had similar aspects. I...