Dominant Culture & Stereotyping (Slides 195-233) Flashcards
Pictorial Stereotypes/Visual Stereotypes
They are misinformed perceptions that are presented as though they are established facts.
Creators must carefully consider the potential public perceptions of their visuals choices – particularly when the images are combined with text in narrative form.
Dominant Culture
is also determined by who has the most political and economic influence over the whole of society.
Those who control media are the dominant culture.
Donald Duck
and other seemingly innocuous cartoon characters were used in the the 1940s to encourage Latin-American viewers to believe the U.S. was a place whose values and cultural practices should be emulated
Visual imperialism
eludes to the fact photography started to become popular at the same time colonialism did; they aided each other.
Photographs provided visual “evidence” perpetrating myths about race and geography.
Publications such as the National Geographic, with its focus on traditional tribal lifestyles, did little to promote the fact that Africans were advancing in stride with the Industrial Age.
Africa
Photographers tended to focus on themes that often reinforced erroneous notions of an “exotic” or “savage” Africa.
Many of the perceptions conveyed by imagery back then was ethically wrong, incorrect, and permanently damaging.
During the colonial era, indigenous subjects struggled to retain their dignity and composure under the exploitative
lens of European anthropologists.
Dominant, Negotiated, or Oppositional
pictorial stereotypes are always read in one of the 3 ways.
Dominant (There is barely any misunderstanding because both the sender and receiver have the same cultural interests and biases.)
Negotiated (The dominant meaning of a cultural product or concept is acknowledged, but appropriated to the extent that the meaning is changed.)
Oppositional (The consumer understands the literal meaning, but forms their own opinion in a directly oppositional way in relation to
the dominant code and reject it.)
Gender Stereotypes
The media coverage of women constantly reminds viewers of society’s male-dominated view through depictions of female characters as either relying on their physical allure, being dependent on men, or a combination of both.
Print ads reflect pre-feminist culture attitudes.
Does the rise of men’s sexual objectification equal equality?
LGBT
Although the representation of the LGBT community has increased in the media, members of the LGBT are not allowed to freely express themselves when as characters in the media and anti-gay sentiments are expressed regularly.
Effects of Stereotyping
Fear, anger and resentment can by the proliferation of stereotypes.
Is it any wonder that the US public is filled with cartoon images of Muslims?
They are dangerous, leading to discrimination in housing and employment, even to harassment and attacks from strangers.
The schizophrenic stereotyping of Native Americans
They were the noble ones (peaceful, spiritual, mystic guardian of the land who exists in harmony with nature and the original conservationist) at first.
Once conquered, he was depicted as a thief, a drunkard, and a beggar, unwilling to work but willing to accept government handouts).
The Asian Stereotypes
Asians remain inherently foreign regardless of citizenship or duration of residence in the United States.
Film after film portray Asian women as silently suffering doormats or dragon ladies, cunning, deceitful, sexual provocateurs.
Hispanic Stereotypes
Typical stereotypes include: the Greaser, the Lazy Mexican, the Latin Lover, the Mamacita, maids, gang bangers, feisty Latinas, the Mexican Spitfire, and the Exotica.
The African American Stereotypes:
the brute, the Mammy, the Uncle Tom, the chicken and watermelon-loving coon, the pickaninny, and the mulatto.
“To suggest that bad people were racist implies that good
people were not.” Although it may be hard to conceive, there were people who were and still are people both racist and with good ethics.
White Stereotypes
Europeans are not immune to prejudicial thinking.
Typical stereotypes include the notion of "homogeneous whites,” in which Americans of European origin are thought not to be a diverse ethnic group; another holds that they are more or especially racist than members of other ethnic groups.
The original “angry white male,” Bunker was an unapologetic bigot, always spewing politically-incorrect opinions in ways that should be unacceptable by anyone’s standards.
The Victimless Majority Stereotype
it is the belief that European Americans are never victims of
hate speech or hate crimes. Take reality television star Honey Boo Boo for example, and you have proof of that not being true.
But, America (and really the world) has been inundated
with a wealth of VARIED representations of white people on screen. For every Honey Boo Boo, there are scores of
other kinds of depictions of white people of all classes. Those images are the ones which dominate our screens.
