Sunday, March 1, 2009

Racial and Gender Stereotyping in the Media

2-24-09 MTV- 10:00pm
Television show
From G's to Gents
A show that involves a group of men who trade in there rough backgrounds to become gentlemen.
Racial Stereotype

2-24-09 FX- 11:10pm
TV commercial
Joe's Crab Shack
In talking about food, two guy friends tell the other friend (female) to take her top off, referring to the top on her plate of food.
Gender Stereotype

2-27-09 VH1- 8:00pm
Television show
Black to the Future
A show that tracks past and present events involving black people in the media.
Racial Stereotype

2-27-09 9:05pm
Person conversation with Kevin (roommate)
House
Conversation was about is General Manager, who he believes is sexist.
Gender stereotype

2-28-09 11:44pm
Personal conversation with Matt (co-worker)
Job (Chilis')
Matt had a table that called him a racial slur behind his back.
Racial Stereotype


Though my week was busy with tests and papers, I still had a little for tv. What I noticed for this assignment were stereotypes in the Media.
I watched this show called From G's to Gents. It is a show that gives men from rough backgrounds a chance to become gentlemen. Though the show has a good premise , to me it exploits men of various ethnic backgrounds as young hoodlums who don't know any better. I can actually see someone watching that show and thinking they must all act like that. I think its sad that though the show has a lot of positive good for the men, it still exploits the negative aspect of ghetto hoodlums.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKzQe4OCXXA

There was a tv commercial that came on one night. It was a Joe's Crab Shack commercial, that had a group of friends both men and women sitting at a table. When their food came out the guys told one of the girls to take their off (referring to the top on her plate). Its pretty clever but I feel like it shows no class to women. When you say something like to a women it seems very sexist. I could only imagine if I were with a female family member or friend and someone said that to her, what gives tv the right to say that. Its funny how blunt this commercial is about.

On VH1, there aired a program called Black to the Future. I guess it was some sort of tribute to black history month. It goes through all decades dating back from the 70s' to now dealing with African-Americans. This is not really a racial stereotype but other people may take it the wrong way. The show took people to the past and present on African-American events whether positive, negative or pointless. The show had a lot good but I feel like it was just for entertainment value, not really dealing with the social impact of the event that happened.

I had a conversation with my roommate the other day about his day at work. The conversation started off with disgust about his general manager. He ended up talking about his GM, who is male and is sort of a sexist towards his other female managers; not giving them credit to do anything because of their gender. The conversation we had showed me that things or events cant change everybody.

My friend and Co-worker was dealt with a racial stereotype one night where we work. My friend/co-worker is white and he waited on a group of high school and college kids. The group was a mixture of black, white and hispanic kids. Matt over heard one of the kids say that, "that white cracker dosent deserve a tip, he didnt do anything." When he told me this I felt awful because regardless whether its to your face or not nobody deserves to be verbally traeted like that. As a black person, you may not here people say it to you, but you may feel like they do. In this situation the roles were reversed it proves to me that every race is a target of racial stereotyping.