Media Stereotypes

Stereotyping is an issue that has existed in American media for a very long time. We can trace this phenomenon to the earliest days of movies in America in which Blacks were portrayed in Black face by caucasians actors in a very negative and disrespectful light. A media stereotype can be described as the way a particular group of people is framed in media based on the stereotypes that exists about them in real. These stereotypes can be lumped into a few main categories:

    Racial Profiling: This occurs when the media depicts a group of people in a particular way based solely on their race. We can see examples of this in how in the depiction of Black people as being ghetto, Latinos as being Cartel or gang members, and Asians as being super intelligent.

Gender: This occurs when a group of people is depicted a certain way in media based solely on their gender. Examples of this can be seen in the way women are depicted as being frail damsels in the distress while men can depicted as being very macho and heroic,

Sexuality: This occurs when a character is depicted in a certain fashion based on their sexuality. We can see examples of this in how a gay man can depicted as being feminine while a lesbian will be depicted as being masculine.

Cultural Group: This particular can have some overlap with racial stereotyping in certain situations. This stereotype occurs when a particular cultural group is depicted based on whatever cultural group they belong to. An example of this can be seen in how Muslims often time are depicted as being terrorists in the media.

    The problem with these media stereotypes is that they often frame whatever group is being portrayed in a negative light. I would argue that it almost dehumanizes whatever group is being addressed by taking away the individuality and nuance in personality that a normal human would have and just placing stereotypical attributes to them. These stereotypes can have an effect on how people view a certain group. Some people can become so indoctrinated with the stereotypes after seeing them over the years that they feel to realize that it's not real and start to view and treat people from these groups differently. It has can have a negative impact on that persons self image and self esteem to depicted a certain way in the media.