Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Stereotypes on television
Stereotype in media
Lgbt media portrayal
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Stereotypes on television
In “Bella’s Choice: Deconstructing Ideology and Power in the Twilight Saga” author Leslie A. Grinner explore how dominant ideologies are often enforced by media and pop culture (Grinner 2013:199). Ideology, as defined by Grinner, is “a set of beliefs that guide a culture… and tell us who or what is most valued… and by extension what is least valued.” In the article, Grinner uses the Twilight series, a teenage supernatural love story, to show how the intersectional framework she developed, SCWAMP (Straight, Christian, White, Able-Bodied, Male and Property), can help identify dominant ideals in media, which can then further our media literacy (Grinner 2013:199). Grinner’s SCWAMP framework helps brings to light the dominant and sometimes hidden …show more content…
In the Twilight series, Grinner (2013:199) points out how evident this is in that most of the couples are in heterosexual relationships, for example Bella and Edward and Rosalie and Emmett. Also, while there is one disabled character, Billy Black (Jacob’s father), tests of strength and being physically superior is a recurring theme in the series (Grinner 2013:201). The importance of straightness and able-bodiedness in our culture can be seen everywhere, which significantly highlights the issue of representation as it applies to LGBTQ and disabled peoples. This distinction can be seen in the lack of LGBTQ diversity in media. In the report by GLAAD (as cited in Kimmel year: 64-65), “96 percent of regular characters on prime-time scripted television are straight, four percent lgbtq… Whereas people with disabilties make up 12 percent of the American population, but less than 1 percent of regular series’ characters have disabilities”. While we are seeing more representation of LGBTQ and disabled characters in movies and television stereotypes still prevail. Bisexual characters, for example, are often portrayed as hypersexualized, untrustworthy individuals with low morals and prone to infidelity or as an individual going through a phase which they will then get over when they find the right
In bite me or don’t: twilight as abstinence porn, Christine Seifert from Westminster college in Utah, analyzes the twilight saga. Describing twilight saga as an abstinence porn saga. Christine agrees with twilight fans about the lost of abstinence and sexual tension in breaking dawn. Christine is a feminist writer from the Bitch magazine she emphasizes most of her critics towards Bella describing her as weak and with no control over her body (348). Seifert believes that Edward is in control of Bella’s protection, humanity and virginity.(348)Christine uses rhetorical strategies during her discussion, persuading the reader about the life of Bella as a teenage mom and how twilight transmits a message of abstinence.
Peterson uses the Bureau of Justice Statistics, US Department of Labor, and the US Bureau of labor statistics. These sources are from the government, and therefore are constantly updated and verified by professionals. The other sources that Peterson mentions, such as the Gallup poll that she mentions on page three are all relatively recent to her essay. The poll is from 2011, which is only two years before Peterson wrote this essay. The “Works Cited” page includes all the sources cited and can easily be double-checked and verified by the audience. All of these sources are up-to-date, and can be easily verified. The Gallup poll that she mentions on page 3 is also something which was taken in 2011 which is fairly recent. Peterson’s evidence is slightly slanted, since the usage her use of a personal story as the main basis of her essay can make her biased towards the topic. She might have gone through unique experiences as a disabled person, and other people facing disabilities might have gone through much more contrasting experiences. Because of this fact her view on the situation as well as her thoughts on misrepresentation can vary vastly because of how vast people’s disabilities are and how each person views that and reacts to their environment. On a personal level, the author feels as if she is unequal in her society and cites evidences from social media and movies to prove her point. However, most of her evidences were based on how someone might interpret each of these evidences Some people might feel that they are supported in their communities and on the internet, and might feel that the inclusion of disabled characters, no matter what role they play, is a form of inclusion. However, Peterson does not seem to feel this way, and as a result, views these platforms differently and brings evinces to support her viewpoint. Although
Nancy Mairs, born in 1943, described herself as a radical feminist, pacifist, and cripple. She is crippled because she has multiple sclerosis (MS), which is a chronic disease involving damage to the nerve cells and spinal cord. In her essay Disability, Mairs’ focus is on how disabled people are portrayed, or rather un-portrayed in the media. There is more than one audience that Mairs could have been trying to reach out to with this piece. The less-obvious audience would be disabled people who can connect to her writing because they can relate to it. The more obvious audience would be physically-able people who have yet to notice the lack of disabled people being portrayed by the media. Her purpose is to persuade the audience that disabled people should be shown in the media more often, to help society better cope with and realize the presence of handicapped people. Mairs starts off by saying “For months now I’ve been consciously searching for representation of myself in the media, especially television. I know I’d recognize this self becaus...
In the past, all of the disabled characters that I had seen in movies and tv shows, were more plot devices than people. They were the main character’s disabled son, who was merely the struggle for the main character to overcome. They were the lesson for every character who thought they had a difficult life, just to show the
Women with disabilities are seldom represented in popular culture. Movies, television shows ,and novels that attempt to represent people within the disability community fall short because people that are not disabled are writing the stories. Susan Nussbaum has a disability. She advocates for people with disabilities and writes stories about characters with disabilities . She works to debunk some of the stereotypes about women with disabilities in popular culture. Women with disabilities are stereotyped as being sexually undesirable individuals , that are not capable of living normal lives, that can only be burdens to mainstream society, and often sacrifice themselves.Through examining different female characters with disabilities, Nussbaum 's novel Good Kings Bad Kings illustrates how the stereotypes in popular culture about women with disabilities are not true.
In 1987, Nancy Mairs argued that physical disabilities are not represented correctly in the media and television. And recently, Rosie Anaya disagrees by explaining that mental disability is suffering worse representation than physical disability. People with mental disabilities are not realistically portrayed on television. Thus, this unrealistic portrayal results in a negative stigma on mental disability and can further isolate those with disabilities.
This movie had made an advocate out of me. Historically, we have been taught that people with disabilities are different and do not belong among us, because they are incompetent, cannot contribute to society or that they are dangerous. We’re still living with the legacy of people with disabilities being segregated, made invisible and devalued. The messages about people with disabilities need to be changed. There needs to be more integration of people with disabilities into our culture to balance out the message. Because of our history of abandonment and initialization, fear and stigma impact our choices more than they would if acceptance, community integration, and resources were a bigger part of our history.
Today television shows are widely praised for their portrayal of different characters sexuality. On Modern Family a same-sex couple’s life is shown through their relations with their family and raising a child. There’s also shows aimed at young adults that are receiving attention for their depiction of gay or lesbian characters such as Glee and Pretty Little Liars. Even the Disney Channel has shown a same-sex couple on the show Good Luck Charlie (with some backlash claiming that since Disney is intended for children that they should seek merely to entertain and not to push an agenda). On the contrary to this argument is the idea, that same-sex couples are becoming more and more normal thus they should make it recognizable to children.
The depiction of transgender women characters in mainstream television has been offensive, insulting and derogatory. An article from GLADD called “Victims or Villains: Examining Ten Years of Transgender Images on Television”, examines 102 episodes and storylines on mainstream television that contained transgender characters since 2002. Of these, more than half were characterized as containing negative representations of transgender. In 2007 only 1% of television series had a recurring transgender character, which has slowly increased to 4% in 2013.
District 9 is a film that takes us into a realm of a different world from the one that we know now. It combines extraterrestrial life with immense science fiction to illustrate a story we could only imagine to ever actually occur. Although it was created for entertainment purposes, the motion picture can be compared to many different types of individuals and situations. District 9 displays many underlying concepts throughout the movie about racism, prejudice and discrimination. While studying and analyzing the plot and characters, these concepts became more translucent to me, the viewer. This paper will discuss the treatment of District 9 residents and equate their treatment to people with disabilities.
When television first appeared back in the 1940's, times were very different. What we would consider completely normal today would have seemed quite taboo just a few decades ago. For example, in 1953, Lucille Ball was not allowed to say the word "pregnant" while she was expecting baby Ricky and it wasn't until the 1960's show Bewitched, that we saw a married couple actually sharing the same bed. Considering how conservative the television networks were back then, it is not hard to deduce that something as controversial as homosexuality would be far from discussed or portrayed at any level. It was only in 1973 that television premiered its first homosexual character. Over the next three decades the emergence of gay and lesbian characters in television has increased and decreased as the times have changed. Due to the resurgence of conservatism that came back in the early 1980's, homosexual topics were again reduced to a minimum. Since that time though, as many people can see, there has been a rise of gay and lesbian characters on television. One might think after a first glance at the previous sentence that there has been progress among gay and lesbian communities to have a fair representation in the media. However, if one looks hard at the circumstances surrounding their portrayal, many people may start to believe that if there has been any progress then it has been quite minimal.
Ideology is “a system of meaning that helps define and explain the world and that makes value judgments about that world.” (Croteau & Hoynes, 2014). According to Sturken (2001), the system of meaning is based on the use of language and images or representation. Therefore, media texts come along and select what is “normal” and what is “deviant” to the extent that this hegemony of constructed meanings in the viewer’s head becomes “common-sense” (Gramsci in Croteau & Hoynes, 2014). From this standpoint, what America claims to be pop culture which is omnipresent in media internationally, is a representation, through “politics of signification” of what is right or wrong (Kooijman, 2008). An example of America’s cultural ‘manifestation’ is Mean Girls,
The media, through its many outlets, has a lasting effect on the values and social structure evident in modern day society. Television, in particular, has the ability to influence the social structure of society with its subjective content. As Dwight E. Brooks and Lisa P. Hébert write in their article, “GENDER, RACE, AND MEDIA REPRESENTATION”, the basis of our accepted social identities is heavily controlled by the media we consume. One of the social identities that is heavily influenced is gender: Brooks and Hébert conclude, “While sex differences are rooted in biology, how we come to understand and perform gender is based on culture” (Brooks, Hébert 297). With gender being shaped so profusely by our culture, it is important to be aware of how social identities, such as gender, are being constructed in the media.
The 1990s saw surge of gay characters in both television and movies. From Ellen Degeneres and her character Ellen Morgan coming out under much scrutiny on the TV show ‘Ellen,’ to Julia Roberts and Rupert Everett comedically playing off each other in the motion picture ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding.’ Sure, gays and lesbians have been around forever, especially in Hollywood. But never has there been a time to be more out. With the popularity of shows like Will and Grace, which feature leading gay characters, as well as Dawson’s Creek and it’s supporting character of teenager Jack McPhee, we are slowly seeing gay and lesbian characters creeping into the mainstream media.
Similarly, in Western cultures masculinity is associated to having an able-body, the physically disabled male is often referred to as feminine (Scott, 2014). In Scott's (2014) article he mentions a man named Kale whose colleague asks if the semi-attractive woman was his nurse, Kale called him an asshole and told his colleague it was his wife. This is related to Natalie’s experience of people asking if she is Tim's Mother, sister, friend, or nurse, she explains that no one has ever asked her if she was Tim's wife (Verstraten, 2014). Both scenario's reiterate how society culturally positions men with physical disabilities as “other”, and upsets the dominant understandings of gender performances (Scott, 2014). Additionally, this can be connected to the YouTube video “Shit Able-bodied People Say to People With Disabilities”, questioning and making assumptions regarding the relationship between Natalie and Tim is a complete violation of their privacy. The couple view themselves as role-models due to the lack of support, and not seeing many people similar to their situation. Together they are working to break down the myths and misconceptions that people with disabilities are not sexual beings (Verstraten,