The Scene staff
For as long as the media has existed, it has portrayed “inferior” groups, such as women and racial minorities, in a negative light. Newscasts, movies, sitcoms and even cartoons paint their pictures with stereotypes, creating fear and intolerance of anyone who is different.
Television programs present an abstract view of society, based on the ideologies of the reporters, commentators, writers and directors. This shapes the feelings of viewers toward individuals and groups, especially viewers who are ignorant of other lifestyles.
For decades, when local newscasts reported a murder or robbery, they would show the offending black man’s disorderly mugshot in a rather large box. Crimes committed by blacks were highlighted while those committed by whites were downplayed.
Until the late 20th century, most black actors in films and TV shows were cast as “bad guys” or good-willed but incompetent sidekicks. Black characters often spoke with slangy, undereducated dialects.
If ignorant people used only the media to shape their perceptions, it would lead them to believe that all black people are barbaric, home-invading murderers, or that none is intelligent enough to succeed without the help of a white person.
Many stereotypes have been obliterated by 21st century films that acknowledge the equality and achievements of blacks, but some people have been affected so deeply by “media mind control” that they still think all blacks are angry, stupid savages.
Media stereotyping also has victimized other minorities. Fox News still caters to racist ideologies by hyping up the “war on immigration” with snippets of anti-immigration protests, paranoid threats about foreigners stealing American jobs and comments that blame Latinos for the economic crisis.
Even children’s movies, particularly those made by Disney, contain offensive images of Latinos and Asians. In the movie “Oliver and Company,” Tito, a jive-talking, woman-lusting, street Chihuahua with a Spanish accent, admits he can hotwire a car.
That scene makes it easy for a 5-year-old to associate theft with Spanish-speaking people. Before that child is old enough to use his own reasoning and experience to make a decision, he has made up his mind that Mexicans should be feared, that they can’t be trusted, that they don’t value hard work or morality.
The media also has a history of portraying women as weak and dependent, in addition to racial stereotyping. Television perpetuates the idea that white women are not to be taken seriously by their bread-winning husbands, that black women are loud housemaids or babysitters and that Latino women are fast-talking sex sirens.
After a few formative years watching television, it would be natural for a young girl to conclude that the proper role of a woman is to be silent and submissive. She would think that her only asset is the ability to seduce men to get what she wants.
Many animated movies treat women in the same fashion. We find the flirtatious Bo Peep in “Toy Story,” the sexual Jessica in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” and an entire pack of lionesses that needed one lion, Simba, to save their kingdom from another lion, Scar, in “The Lion King.” They are shown as weak without a male presence.
Perhaps the most disturbing example is “Beauty and the Beast,” in which Belle is verbally and physically abused by her lover, the Beast. Like many real abuse victims, she justifies it by blaming it on his stress. Her sexualized body, reliance on sex to succeed and acceptance of abuse all support anti-feminist ideals.
It is this portrayal and others that help shape a young girl’s definition of womanhood. Yet the stereotypical images are hard to criticize because they’re hidden by innocence and fantasy.
It can be disastrous when one man’s ideas or one corporation’s views can shape an entire nation’s thoughts about groups of individuals. Even worse is the media’s ability to manipulate people’s opinions of themselves.
For every Oprah Winfrey, there are a dozen black housemaids on TV. For every Sonia Sotomayor, there are multiple Dolores characters. It is imperative for U.S. citizens to educate themselves on the lifestyles and beliefs of people who are different on the surface, sift out the truth and find the goodness of humanity in all walks of life.