Wednesday, April 7, 2010

MediacStereotypes---o.O???

Based on my personal experience,there are many media transfers the stereotypes, beliefs and values of the society to reproduce the existing order of social life. It seems like media creates the unique pieces of art: movies, documentaries, magazines, music, TV shows and others.Basically, to what we had seen on TV screens or in newspapers is produced to reflect the life of people, it needs to be on such level that people would understand and except.

For an example, women are scandalously marginalized by the stereotypes of the advertising industry. Models seen on television and in magazines are often depicted in demeaning poses that over-sexualize women and girls, sometimes even suggesting that it is okay to take advantage of them. Besides, models are often pictured as unreasonably skinny, and the airbrushing techniques of modern technology make women in the media look impossibly perfect. Sometimes, a model pictured in an advertisement isn’t even a real woman, but a composite of the body parts of several or being photoshop.

Moreover,the homosexual community is victim to raging gay stereotypes in all media outlets. How many times has the overly feminized and always sex crazed gay man been a sidekick to some movie heroine in today’s romantic comedies? Conversely, it is equally common to see gay women portrayed as “trying to be like men.” That why in the cases of gay stereotyping, the homosexual community is made to look like they are promiscuous and morally questionable, which often leads to the terrible bigotry that implies that all gay people will (or even should) die of AIDS. Gay stereotypes in the media are extremely detrimental to the progress of the homosexual community’s fight for equal rights.
As a conclusion, it is very important that people are able to recognize the stereotypes. Especially, children should be taught from earlier that what are the stereotypes that exist in society and how one should understand them. So that they will not able to reproduce the existing stereotype, and, secondly, did not except everything what they see in movies, press or Internet for the pure truth.

2 comments:

  1. I agree that children should be taught to recognize the existing stereotypes. The adults have the responsibility to help children to differentiate the stereotypes so that the children will not be misled.

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  2. Media have somehow restricted our aesthetic perspectiveby reducing a wide range of differences in people to simplistic categorizations.As such, I too agree that media culture should be teach among children.

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