Stereotyping and the Media

A stereotype is a simplified image of a person or an idea.

Psychologically, we need to stereotype because experience teaches us to build up predicted patterns of behaviour. We ‘know’ that dogs eat meat and bite people.

The problem is that:

  • people are not as predictable as dogs and can control or modify their behaviours.
  • stereotypes can be created for us by the media. Few of us have met an alien but we have expectations of alien behaviour based on media predictions.
  • there may or may not be an element of truth in a stereotype.
  • good quality programmes and drama will attempt to break stereotypes.

What media stereotypes can the group identify for:

  • beautiful blonde women?
  • blind people?
  • muscular men?
  • fat people?
  • doctors?

There are a number of available stereotypes for each category identified.

Stereotypes are built up through audience recognition of codes of behaviour e.g.

  • short skirt = sexually suspect and promiscuous
  • sunglasses and pony tail on a man =
  • jeans and tee-short on girl/on boy/ on man =
  • driving of certain makes of car =
  • smoking women/ smoking men =

Stereotypes, codes and conventions do change over time and different audiences can ‘read’ them in unexpected or different ways. See stereotypes and conventions related to smoking in American films and television programmes!

Positive and negative stereotypes

Stereotypes can be negativeso that one primary image is ever offered and it becomes code for a whole series of assumptions about a character. A physical or cultural attribute is a code for a whole series of critical assumptions:

  • fatness is often code for jolly, funny, greedy, personally untrustworthy or generally lazy
  • black femininity is code for sexiness or for a servant/victim. In thirties films it can be assumed that a black girl is also profoundly stupid

Stereotypes can be positive and present an image that is very favourable for certain groups of people:

  • doctors in American TV shows are usually wise, good, noble, caring clever and suffering from a problem or secret sadness
  • lawyers are smart, successful, clever, ambitious and upholders of justice truth and the American way of life

Positive stereotypes can sometimes beak the mould and yet fit into a pattern that is different but identifiable nevertheless:

  • an old lady can be feisty, clever, smart but underestimated by everyone except the audience when combined with the detective mode e.g. Miss Marple or Jessica Fletcher

Generally the danger of a stereotype is that people build a view of others and then behave as thought the stereotype is real.

This occurred in Germany in the 1930s when Jews were presented as dangerous, treacherous, offensive and miserly. All bad human and animal characteristics were associated with Jews.

The most famous film of the genre was Jud Suss in which the main character spent time attempting to seduce the blonde heroine and destroyed her family. In the event, it played on popular prejudice and the ‘final solution’ was fairly easy to implement.

Stereotypes and Sociology

Health warning: You will need to develop these notes with further research, reference to theories, writers, research and recent sociological debate!

Stereotyping and social differentiation is a topic drawn from interactional sociology in the USA. Certain categories of people are seen as ‘victims’ of social stereotyping so that there life chances remain less than those of white, middle class, Protestant males. (WASP).

The main studies of stereotyping concentrate on certain groups who are seen as disadvantaged or advantaged by socially accepted notions of how they should behave.

These groups and categories as they appear on the current specifications are:

  • gender - until recently women were seen as victims, but now male identities are studied, see the Internet
  • age - youth and old age are both subject to the notion of their having been socially constructed
  • ethnicity and race - this starts with the study of Nazi racism and now tends to concentrate on the American black
  • social class - this tends to be a European area of interest as Americans tend to ignore or rarely show lower class people with any degree of authenticity in mainstream drama. Social class is often mixed with ethnicity in the USA.

To develop these understandings it is useful for you to:

  • to recognise stereotypes which are both positive and negative
  • consider the accumulated impact of the stereotypes
  • recognise other forms of stereotyping

Hints and tips for identifying stereotypes:

  • look at media products which are essentially simple in aim or entertaining such as children’s cartoon programmes or comedies
  • try and work out opposite characteristics between characters or groups of characters in a film such as Lady and the Tramp where you have an interesting analysis of gender reflecting functionalist views of the family
  • look for recognisable types which recur in drama after drama and identify the characteristics which are described (posh upper class woman in costume drama, romantic hero, action hero, Cockney wide boy, mother, grandfather, bank robber, villain)

Stereotyping and the Media - 4

Fill in this chart in your own time. Remember that this is a matter of opinion rather than fact and you should be able to support your views.

social category / positive image / negative image
old woman / Miss Marple / Dot Cotton
old man / Last of the Summer wine / Victor Meldrew
teenage boys / Young tearaways in The Bill
teenage girls
working class person / London’s Burning / Keeping up appearances
middle class people
women
men
black/ethnic minority people / The police in The Bill
Nurses in Casualty / drug dealers

You should develop your understandings and readings from Media texts.

As a principle - better quality media productions avoid stereotypes and over simple images and build up awarenesses of characters beyond their appearance/age/ethnicity