Representation in Movies/TV

I may turn this into a series, but today's topic is the representation of men and women in various films and television shows. Last time in class, we spoke about how voices and appearances cause us to draw conclusions about characters to the point where we know exactly what a character will do within five minutes of seeing or hearing them. Stereotyping is the primary cause of this, but to leave it at simply that would be an insult to the meaning of this class, so we'll delve deeper into this by examining the different stereotypes that there are, and why exactly they are problematic.

The first voice is one that indicates some matter of shiftiness or shadiness, and that is your stereotypical black voice. I won't record audio or video on this blog, but everyone that reads this knows exactly which voice I am talking about. That voice never belongs to a police officer or a lawyer, that voice/character is always a gangbanger, someone that can help the protagonist because of his involvement with the city's seedy underbelly, or a low rank thug working for a rich kingpin/boss. This voice adds to the idea that the black male is one to be feared and tread carefully around as it adds this idea of violence and disregard for the law, which is a common stereotype that black men face today with disastrous results, like what occurred in Fergueson, Missouri.

The next voice I'll be discussing is what I like to refer to as the "Foxy Brown." That voice is always associated with black women and comes with attitude, allure, and even more attitude. The negative implications of this voice/character paint black women to be exotic with just enough allure to make someone feel that they want to "tame" her. This isn't a character that settles down, this character sleeps around and gives her opponents all types of "jive." Note, that there is nothing wrong with free love and the like, but to have it consistently associated with black women makes them appear "easy" to a lot of people who can't really handle it when it turns out to not be true. The strength of that voice also takes away the black woman's ability to be feminine unless expressing herself sexually. That voice never has some emotional disposition about any problems it just kicks ass, gets laid, and fulfills male power fantasies all over the United States.

Because I am strapped for time, I will cut this post off at three, but the last voice I will cover is the "Lazy Mexican." That voice always has a very heavy accent, pronounces its words always comically slow or ludicrously fast, and is never associated with "high" society. This character/voice is always a day laborer or someone just trying to make ends meet. They may have even joined up with the aforementioned gangbanger. This voice is harmful because it's never just attributed to a single entity, that voice/character gets copy and pasted to the entire Spanish speaking community regardless of their country of origin or bearings in life. If it isn't negative, it's just neutral, a character/voice that isn't really doing anything of value to the story, its characters, or society in general, which makes it very easy for an unassuming populous to attribute that to every person that "isn't quite black, but has an accent."