Examples Of Stereotypes In Our Every Day Life

Monday- Feb. 23

1) Personal Conversation with Claire _____

Friends house. 10:30 PM

Conversation about marriage and relationships/ roles of the man and women in the relationship

Gender Stereotype

 

2) Television

E! 1:00 AM

The Girls Next Door

In interview, Kendra exaggerates and enforces the dumb promiscuous blonde

Gender stereotype

 

Tuesday- Feb. 24

1) Internet 12:30 PM

http://www.hollywoodcelebgossips.com/2009/02/03/miley-cyrus-racist-miley-cyrus-mocking-asian-photo/

Picture and discussion of Miley Cyrus’s offensive picture

Racial Assumption/stereotype

 

2) Billboard

I-35 Dallas, TX, 5:00 PM

“Ricks Cabaret Premiere Gentlemen’s Club”

Contained pictures that caused severe exploitation of women- limited clothing, provocative positions

Gender Stereotype

Wednesday- Feb. 25

1) MTV, 11:30 PM

Television

Singles Hotline Commercial-

Very inappropriate images of women, scantily dressed, with inappropriate sexual innuendos

Gender Stereotypes

 

2) Classroom Experience

Intro to Philosophy Wednesday’s 6:30-9:20

Classroom Experience Profess. Hussain

Class Discussion about students rights to bear arms on a college campus

Racial assumption/stereotypes

Thursday- Feb. 26

1) Personal Conversation with friend 3:45 PM

Starbucks on Boyd

Conversation about customers that come into her store

Racial assumptions/ stereotypes

 

2) Film, 10:30 PM

“Guess Who”  2005, (Bernie Mac, Ashton Kutcher)

Scene between Ashton’s character and his Boss- boss disapproves of his girlfriend just because of the color of her skin.

Racial assumption/stereotype

 

Friday- Feb. 27

1) Television

TBS, 11:00 AM

Home Improvement Episode

The “Man Episode” on Tool Time- Female assistant made to dress scantily and is made to do the cooking

Gender stereotype

 

2) Film 3:30 PM

Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay (2008)

Beginning scenes while in the airport- Directed towards Kumar being Indian

Racial assumptions/stereotypes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LC5qv1dmzk&feature=related

 

Reflection:

            I was very surprised at the vast amount of racial and gender stereotypes that I found every day, all around me. It was almost harder to choose which examples to use, than to find any. But I hadn’t really started to take notice to all of these stereotypes and assumptions until this class opened my eyes and asked me to look around and evaluate the media. It is sad but these stereotypes have become so much of our society and culture. Especially in advertisements, movies, and pop culture- like MTV- these stereotypes are most prevalent. 

            I have not personally experienced many stereotypes lately, but I have witnessed plenty. It shocks me and makes me sad because our society should be past that.  I don’t see it as much with my generation, but I find it more with the older generations. My parents and grandparents grew up in small towns, where racism was still strongly prevalent. And in their world, the women stayed home, had dinner on the table, and raised the children while the men went off to work. But today it is good to see how progressed our culture is. Most women I know would feel disrespected if their husbands or boyfriends demanded they cooked and raised the children. I know I would. Our schools are integrated, “separate but equal” is a phrase looked down upon, and at least in my daily life, racial slurs are hardly prevalent.

            One of the tragic things about these stereotypes represented in the media is that they create a spiraling effect, enforcing and feeding them to the American public. The media has so much power because we are all surrounded by it all the time. The public looks to the media for instruction on how to act, dress, eat, groom, and so much more. When the media feeds us these stereotypes, we begin to think that they are the norm, and that the stereotypes represent the whole. Often, these stereotypes have gotten it all wrong. If only the media would use its power for “good” instead of “evil”, then maybe our society could take a more progressive step forward, and rid our country, and our world, of these judgmental and hurtful assumptions and stereotypes. 

Links: I highly recommend visiting the links that I posted, which each go along with their prospective stereotype example. They are both a good example of how crude and easy to find these stereotypes can be. 

Race-based Admissions

 The following Big 12 universities do NOT have a race-based admissions process:

Texas A&M- NO

University of Texas- NO

Texas Tech- NO

Baylor University- NO

Iowa State University- NO
University of Kansas- NO

Although in this day and age, a race-based college admissions process seems racist and way past our time, the fight is still alive and well. The current argument is now between getting the SAT out of a college admissions application because some feel that is is biased against minorities, while others feel it is not. 

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_11_18/ai_84184997

http://www.ku.edu/

"Wise" Up

This week in class, we got the opportunity to watch a filmed lecture from famed lecturer, Tim Wise. One of Mr. Wise’s main topics was that of privilege.   From what I got out of his speech, privilege is the difference of treatment and judgment people get, just because of the color of their skin.  He mentioned many examples, some of which have been kept under wraps by today’s media. If the mother of a white upper-middle class man happens to die in a hospital or nursing home due to neglect, it appears all over the news. But where was CNN whenever 1 million African Americans died in hospitals last year due to the same neglectful treatment??? Wise also mentioned the that police officers pull over, search, and assume that minorities are drinking and driving and contain illegal substances, when in fact white men are more apt to be doing those things. During a road block, the unsuspecting white man smiles, waves, and drives off with a trunk full of weed while the Latino working man is humiliated by being publicly search and ridiculed, and is found to be innocent.

            Media was also discussed in class, and by Mr. Wise. Our  class was asked the question of if we could remember the last time an Asian man had a romantic scene on screen in an American film or TV show. Hardly anybody could. Why is this? The only romance scenes I can remember are with Brat Pitt, George Clooney, or Jake Gyllenhaal. Although, Will Smith WAS just claimed the highest-paid actor  by Forbes magazine… As mentioned earlier, the media jumps all over the white man’s neglected grandmother while the millions of minority deaths are left uninvestigated. And remember all those horrible school shootings, bombings, and sniper incidence in the recent past? All committed by white males. But yet we don’t look at the white males in our neighborhood and shake our heads at those hoodlums. No. We point our finger across the tracks and blame the minorities for our mistakes. The media has lots of power, and if it would only flex that muscle, maybe it could help to change this unfair path of white privilege.

 

Lately I have been keeping my eye out for privileges I have seen or heard around me. Not only have I seen privilege by race, but by bank account and zip code. Now some of these may seem minute and caddy, but they are privilege non the less.

1. I saw a store clerk help the nicely dressed mother and daughter, while completely ignore the Latino girl clearly needing assistance.

2. A under qualified student got an internship just because their father knew someone, while a perfectly qualified student did not even get an interview.

3. A well known family’s teenage daughter gets pregnant and it is just another “trial”, while other families are looked down upon as being irresponsible.

4. A member of a family with power is able to get out of a huge felony with nothing but a scratch on their record, while a black teenager is put behind bars for a petty crime because he is believed to be a “danger to society”.

5. A girl is praised at  work because she is cute, while another one is criticized on things she did not even do, because she is not as good-looking.

6. A worker at an information table set up in a public place goes out of his way to talk to a group of cute girls about what he is promoting, but is short and almost rude to a group of a different race that walked up.

7. A person cut ahead in a line of people waiting to order food, but when another student of a different race is just trying to cut THROUGH the line to get somewhere else, people stop him and tell him not to cut.

8. An Indian person walked by and a group of white boys proceed to mutter terrorist comments at his expense.

A lot of these are things that I would not notice, or even acknowledge as privilege unless I was informed about this problem in class and asked to look for it. The ease of finding these examples of privilege is shocking to me.

 

            I don’t think that society still believes in the one drop rule, but I am sure there are still a few individuals out there that secretly practice this horrific tradition behind closed doors- just like those white residents in the neighborhood across the road from one which was full of minorities, who tried to pass a rule that only relatives could reside in their neighborhood too.

 

            I completely agree with Beverly Tatum’s suggestion that we as adults have a responsibility to educate ourselves and then change our behavior based on this new awareness. This class is a perfect example of that. I am already opening my eyes to injustices, but also strives we have made towards equality. It takes getting educated and informing yourself and others on the injustices of our world before discussion, action, and change can occur.  

http://www.redroom.com/blog/tim-wise/this-your-nation-white-privilege-updated

http://www.afro-netizen.com/2008/07/tim-wise-on-whi.html

"The Change We Need"

On our first day of class, most of the students seemed to be weary or in denial of the fact that racism is still alive and present in today’s society. Most of us tried to act like today is so different and equal, and while it is true that we have come along way, prejudice has not completely diminished.            

            In today’s class, a week later, it seemed as though the class had opened up. There was much more discussion about race in society, especially personal experiences. This class was a perfect example of how society reacts to the discussions of race and gender. When the topics of racism and sexism first get brought up in discussion, people often try to deny its existence, or belittle its impacts that are felt all over the world. But once discussion begins, people often become more comfortable with the subject and are more apt to accept these sad facts, and also try to understand how to reverse these horrible traditions that have been passed down through generations.

            One topic discussed in our class was the question of whether a person’s racial and socioeconomic background affects the way they view racism. This is definitely true. Tim Wise spoke in a video of a survey done in white suburbs. When asked if they thought racism was an important issue effecting American’s today, a huge majority said no. But if you asked a member of a different race, they would most likely tell you that they have dealt with the issue of race personally.

            But it’s hard to understand things that you are not exposed to. Just like after the 9/11 attacks, everyone that looked like they could have come from the Middle East was subjected to racism, because people are scared of things that they don’t understand. It’s sad that the United States of America let the actions of a few people completely change their ideas of the Indian and Muslim cultures.

            On the flip side, when we see white male teenagers performing gruesome acts such as school, for some reason we don’t allow this to change our opinion of the rest of the male population. Why is this? Maybe it’s because your brother, son, father, grandfather, uncle, neighbor, and boyfriend would all fall under that category. But this is the hypocritical society that we have been born into to and it is taking way to long to reverse these ugly cycles.

             Possibly the most disturbing survey discussed in class was taken of African American children. When shown identical pictures of a white and black child, and asked which ones they thought were prettier, smarter, cleaner, and more well liked, most of these children would point at the white child. How awful is it that these children believe that at such a young age. But my faith was restored when one child pointed to the picture of the black girl and said, “She’s pretty because she’s black.”

            I agreed with the woman who conducted this survey when she said that all children need to be constantly told at a very young age that they are all beautiful, smart, and well liked. It is starting to become more and more of a self confidence issue that effects everyone, especially women. As mentioned in my last blog, the media and society have the power to convince groups of people that they should be treated or act a certain way- and usually it is wrong. It is taking groups like Dove, and classes like Race, Gender, and the Media, to at least start the discussion. If these topics are never brought up, then neither will change. 

www.TimWise.org

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3Xe1kX7Wsc

Campaign For Real Beauty

The media today is one of the most powerful forces in the world. It has the power to influence the beliefs, thoughts, attitudes, actions, and more, of everyone that it reaches. Being a 20-year-old white female myself, the media has most effected my self-image and confidence. Today, the media paints the picture of a woman as tall, tan, thin, and beautiful. And according to the media, if you are not all of these things, you are not beautiful. It is has been hard growing up with thousands of messages a day telling you that you don’t fit the mold of “beautiful”, but luckily lately there has been lots of work to reverse this unrealistic image of what is “beautiful” into what is real.

The body and skin care company Dove has taken the fight of the skewed image of beautiful head on. Their Campaign For Real Beauty is their efforts to help real women see what real beauty is all about. Not only is it in the US, but all over the world as well. They have funds, products, advertisements, messages, and workshops all dedicated to breaking the stereotypes that breed in the minds of women everywhere. Their tool that reached me first was their commercial showing a woman on a billboard before and after hair, makeup, and airbrushing. From that moment, I learned not to trust the media like I had before. In this commercial, the model looks just like ay other woman. Her skin is not glowing and her teeth aren’t sparkling white. If you saw her walking down the street you would not assume she was a model. But after the hair and makeup team came in, the lighting is perfect, and the airbrushing is applied, you would not recognize this woman.

            This commercial is an amazing weapon in fighting this unrealistic image of beauty the media paints in the minds of women everywhere. I definitely think that every man, woman, and child should see it. Not only does it give more confidence to women, but it shows everyone that the media can be extremely deceiving and unrealistic. 

http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U