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| quote: | Originally posted by EvilTree
I was also referring to not just newspapers, but also movies, tv shows etc that portrays characters according to stereotype. |
Of course. So by that logic, Everybody Loves Raymond, The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, Seinfeld, Frasier, Home Improvement, Friends (the list goes on and on) all portray white males according to the popular stereotype of stupid, arrogant, incompetent, impulsive blithering idiots who can barely maintain a relationship or hold down a steady job - right?
I'm curious what you'd have to say about other "stereotypical characters":
- Apu from The Simpsons, a totally honest, hardworking Indian who knows more about American history than any of the other characters on the show;
- Hermes on Futurama, a Jamaican character who they always play the obvious limbo stereotype off of, but other than that, is essentially a practical and efficient anal-retentive capitalist.
- If you've ever watched Malcolm in the Middle then surely you know of Stevie, the genius asthmatic black kid in a wheelchair. Can't quite figure out what stereotype that is.
- For any sci-fi geeks out there I could probably run off a dozen Star Trek characters, including Jordie from TNG (hardcore engineer, doesn't know how to talk to women) and Sisko from DS9 (a basically competent commander with very few obvious character flaws).
- How about detective Ed Green or Lt. Van Buren from Law and Order - sure, they definitely fit the "criminal" stereotypes!
- Or how about Neela on ER, played by Parminder Nagra who also played the character of Jess in the highly hyped movie Bend it like Beckham?
Sorry Yohan but you aren't reaching me here. In fact, the only real stereotype I can see in TV and movies with any consistency is the bumbling white male in comedies and sitcoms.
Maybe there are people like Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock who do nothing but play to the same old stereotypes, but they were only ever cast into the media limelight because they were already very successful in their own groups as stand-ups. They're stereotyping themselves, nobody has written their scripts for them. For the characters that are scripted, on movies and TV, I think if you really actually investigate this you'll see that writers and producers are extremely careful not to give any serious personality flaws to ethnic characters.
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