Make us blind to unique characteristics of individuals ..

1
Media stereotypes Bamboozled by history?

• December 4-6, 2006

2
Marsha Woodbury on stereotypes

• Origin of the word stereotype
• Printing term practice of setting type in a
  printing plate that made it simple to reproduce
  material
• Thus, a reference to
• Labor-saving
• A way to avoid repetitive work

3
Stereotypical representations (and thinking)

• Stereotypes replace thinking
• Make us blind to unique characteristics of
  individuals
• Let us assume that traits associatedfor right or
  wrongwith a group are always true for all
  individual members of that group
• And usuallybut not always!focus on negative
  group-associated traits

4
Although some stereotypes may contain an element
of truth

• They often unfairly and inaccurately label an
  entire culture or people
• They simplify our complex environment (and, like
  types, they organize it for us)
• So we can make sense of the world
• In a way that limits our experience of the world
• They are misleadingly incomplete

5
The continuing appeal of stereotypes

• Its nice (convenient) to have the world all
  mapped out for us!
• The world is a messy, complex place, after all!
• Life is hard!
• Its easier to use simple/simplistic thinking
  than complex thinking

6
The danger of stereotypes

• Theyre not only simple and efficient
• In their simplicity, they insist that others
  are different from us in fundamental and even
  dangerous ways
• Other groups differences are portrayed as
  threats to us
• How so? (examples of stereotype as threat)

7
What else stereotypes do

• Deploy a strategy of splitting
• divide the normal from abnormal, acceptable from
  unacceptable
• exclude/expel what falls in the abnormal or
  unacceptable

8
Thus, stereotyping creates and maintains

• Symbolic order
• Acceptable and unacceptable images
• Social order
• Binding and bonding together of us and
  segregation of them
• The them group is abjected (thrown out)
• Symbolically, societally, or both

9
Stereotyping of non-whites in US entertainment
and media

• (a whirlwind historical survey)

10
Media stereotypes they dont exist in a vacuum!

• Stereotypical representations in media
• change over time
• almost always reflect political, social, and
  cultural issues/attitudes of the day
• contribute to (and/or reinforce) pre-existing
  stereotypical attitudes

11
The big question

• Do media stereotypes create attitudes that did
  not exist in the first place?
• (Some scholarship suggests the answer is yes)

12
Variety of stereotyping strategies over time

• Invisibility
• Race (i.e., other races) as problem
• Other object, not subject
• Assimilationism
• Ambiguity
• New aesthetics

13
Quick survey by group/type

• Native Americans
• Latinos (and Hispanic Americans)
• Asians (and Asian Americans)
• Black people (Africans African Americans)

14
Native Americans

• The first people with whom white Europeans coming
  to this continent (1490s) had to co-exist
• How those Europeans described NAs
• Primitive
• Innocent
• Generous (shared food)
• Dark and handsome in appearance

15
The noble savage

• All the stuff on the last slide (primitive,
  innocent, generous, handsome) struck Europeans as
  noble
• At the same time, Europeans commented on natives
• Nudity
• Open sexual relationships
• Cannibalism
• Hence, savage

16
1800s (in literature, newspapers)

• Treatment as monolithic (no distinctions made
  among 2000 cultures, languages, etc.)
• Indian problem
• Impediment to white expansion (and thus to
  progress and civilization) and manifest
  destiny
• Translations to stage plays in early 1900s

17
Early 20th-century film images

• Fears of miscegenation in silents (1910s)
• Our white women shall be guarded
• White actors play most Native roles
• Directors found it difficult to teach Native
  actors how to act Indian!

18
1940s historical/Westerns

• Generic Indian stereotype solidified
• Feathers, beads, fringe, halting accent
• Warriors attacking white people

19
Mid-century shifts

• 1950s-60s movies
• White America feels guilt
• Hollywood movies attempt to purge guilt
• 1950s TV
• Tonto Lone Rangers faithful companion
• Positive fought for justice and American Way
• Negative secondary status, stereotypical
  appearance, accent, clothing

20
And now?

• Mostly, invisibility
• In movies, TV shows, video games

21
Latinos/Hispanics

• Invisible in North American literature until
  mid-1800s
• Coinciding with battles for Mexican and Texan
  independence, Mexicans portrayed as
• Cruel, inhuman
• Lazy and/or ignorant
• Unclean (greasers)
• (But sometimes Mexican women were described
  favorably)

22
From Mexican to other Hispanic portrayals

• Generally, little or no differentiation in US
  media between Mexicans, Guatemalans, Hondurans,
  Cubans, Puerto Ricans, (Costa Ricans??), etc.,
  etc.
• greaser image migrates from Mexicans to just
  about all other Spanish-speaking cultures
• Silent films Tony the Greaser (1911), The
  Greasers Revenge (1914)

23
Latinos/Hispanics in 1930s-40s

• 1930s Hollywood responds to 1922 ban of US
  movies by Mexican government
• And sympathetic reactions by other Latin American
  nations
• Hispanic movie males reinvented as Latin lovers
• Although often played by non-Latinos!
• Other traits quick temper, spitfire, unstable,
  dishonorable

24
Mid-century film TV

• Latino greasers evolve into gang members
  (1960s West Side Story, etc.)
• Positive film portrayals dont appear until 1980s
  (La Bamba, Milagro Beanfield Wari)
• 1950s TV Cisco Kid (1950s adventure hero), Desi
  Arnaz, Zorro
• But mostly supporting characters, criminals,
  servants

25
Advances and retreats

• 1970s-80s a few shows with Hispanic leads
• Chico and the Man, Miami Vice, L.A. Law
• More and more Hispanic performers outing
  themselves after passing for white
• Raquel Welch, Martin Sheen, Linda Ronstadt
• 2003 NBCs Kingpin about Mexican drug lord

26
Asians

• Asian immigration fairly limited before 1900
• White American attitudes toward Chinese and
  Japanese (2 biggest immigrant groups)
• All Asians lumped together
• yellow peril deceitful, devious, vicious,
  threat to national security
• Resentment (because many Chinese immigrants had
  jobsalbeit low-level labor)

27
Asian stereotypes in media texts

• 1916 film The Yellow Menace
• Series of Dr. Fu Manchu films (Chinese
  villainbut played by white actor)
• Mysterious East
• China and its people characterized by vice,
  corruption, prostitution, drug use (opium)

28
Effects of WW2

• Japanese take over as specific yellow peril
• Cruel, inflictors of torture
• But by 1950s-60s, as Japan solidifies role as US
  ally
• Portrayals are more sensitive, positive
• Still, inter-racial romances usually come to bad
  end

29
Flip side of Asian portrayals

• Aspects of model minority
• Asians in film/TV portrayed as polite, bowing,
  wise
• So, other than fully manly
• And, if female, then gracious and submissiveand
  still mysterious

30
Model minority and success

• Asians and Asian Americans still portrayed in
  media as
• smart, efficient, hard-working, successful,
  law-abiding, resourceful
• Chen on dangers of model minority
• In addition to not being true of all group
  members..
• Reflect fear that Asian Americans good
  qualities will let them assume power

31
Economic issues

• Hollywood, the TV industry, and the advertising
  industry
• Slow to recognize that non-white groups are
  important markets
• Entertainment industry responds to economic
  pressure
• And also to political statements

32
Anti-prejudice advocacy groups target media
companies

• NAACP (National Association for the Advancement
  of Colored People)
• Anti-Defamation League of Bnai Brith
• Gay Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
• National Council of La Raza
• American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
• National Italian-American Foundation

33
Black media stereotypes

• Roots in colonial period (Puritans, settlers in
  Virginia)
• Color white associated with goodness, purity,
  cleanliness
• Color black associated with evil, impurity,
  filth, spiritual darkness

34
Minstrel shows

• Roots in 1830s-40s New York (Buffalo, NYC)
• Irish immigrantswho were classified as other
  than whiteperformed shows in blackface
• Musical numbers
• Comedic skits
• Blacks not allowed to attend or perform!

35
Examples of minstrel show texts

• In Eric Lotts Love and Theft

36
Post-Civil War literature

• Portrayals motivated by political/social stances
• Resistance to end of slavery
• Resistance to legal equality
• Blacks portrayed as lazy, stupid, sexually
  immoral, fond of alcohol
• And thus not fully humanor deserving of equality