Sunday, September 29, 2013

Society's Stereotypes

Mean Girls, Madea's Big Happy Family, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, and White Chicks. Those are all well-known and loved movies, but they're all similar in a bad way, all of those movies portray hardcore stereotypes.

In Mean Girls, there is the popular group of girls, who are all mean, slutty, and overly body conscious. The plot line for any Tyler Perry movie revolves around African-American stereotypes, while every Harold and Kumar indulges the stereotypes placed on Asians and Indians, and then of course White Chicks focuses on the rich Caucasian woman.  

When Americans watch movies like these they don't even recognize that what they are seeing is not the truth. Stereotypes have become apart of the culture, but there should be no reason for them.  There are hardly any movies or TV shows that combat the rampant use of stereotypes.  Although, Legally Blonde is an example of how incorrect stereotypes are, because in the movie a blonde sorority girl gets into Harvard Law and becomes successful, according to stereotypes that would never happen, because Elle is both a blonde and she pledged a sorority.  An example of a show that combats stereotypes is a child's show: The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.  In The Suite Life, many stereotypes are broken down, such as the dumb blonde stereotype because Maddy, who is blonde, is the smartest one, whereas her foil, London is Asian, but she's an idiot. 

The sad reality is that stereotypes are now socially accepted and have become a huge part of the film industry due to the changing minds of the American public and their views of humor.  There aren't enough movies like Legally Blonde or shows like The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, because most movies that come out today have the same stereotypes. By choosing to accept and believe stereotypes, we are letting the youth of America know that it's ok to separate everyone because of their skin, hair, or ethnicity.  There is no way that stereotypes will ever be gone from our society; the only thing we can do now is educated people on the falsehood of stereotypes.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

America's Own Kind of Racism

The American Civil Rights Movement happened in the late 50's and carried on into the early 60's. It was 1964 when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 got passed and African-American's enjoyed the same rights as their Caucasian neighbors. Fast-forward 49 years in the future and although everyone has equal rights, racism still exists and it affects everyone through stereotypes.  How can society judge an individual based on what it believes are characteristics that everyone of the same ethnicity face? We see stereotypes everyday and most of us just accept them. Why are stereotypes so common in today's society?

In the Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie, the author comes to terms with the stereotype of a Native American.  It is widely believed that Native Americans are all alcoholics; Alexie brings this to light and acknowledges this problem, while relating it to his own life and battle with alcoholism.  The difference between Alexie and other authors is that he combats stereotypes by using humor. On page 183 of Alexie's book, he recalls the time a police officer pulled him over and racially profiled him, later telling him that he didn't "fit the profile of the neighborhood." You think to yourself, that this could not happen in today's society and that no cop would ever say something like that to a citizen, but you are wrong because racial profiling is common throughout the US especially in states such as Arizona.  If we want to be the "melting pot" of the world, then the people of America need to stop stereotyping people.

Sherman Alexie poses a question for us all in his writing; he asks if racism is worth it, because every single person has faced a stereotype in their life at some point.  Is the stereotype you think someone fits under really worth saying out loud? It's not.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Separated Genes

Genes are passed from parent to child, but does that mean that we turn out like our parents?  Even though we inherit many things from our parents, that does not have a huge impact on how we turn out.  The environment that you grow up in and the conditions you were raised in ultimately determines what type of person you will become; genes do not determine personality.  The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls explores the idea of how children and their parents are different.  After suffering through a painful childhood, where she was loved but neglected Walls expresses her anxiety in raising her daughter the way her parents raised her.  Walls constantly moved her whole childhood and when her family settled down it was never in a nice place and it was never permanent.  In one of the chapters near the end of her novel, Walls shows her concern of becoming like her parents while talking about how she does not want to raise her daughter the way she was raised.  Just because Jeannette Walls shares her genes with her parents, it does not mean that she is the same as them or that she shares her parents personalities.  Unlike the constant moving she faced when she was a kid, her daughter doesn't have this problem because they live in a more permanent home with little to no troubles, proving that she is a better parent.  The link between Walls and her parents stops at physical properties.  Since the late 1980's the APA (American Psychological Association) has yet to determine whether genes can carry important personality traits or whether they develop during childhood.  This is another reason proving that heritage has little effect on the type of person one becomes.