Television, American Culture and Sterotypes

[elder999]

Big Don's post in another thread got me thinking:

There is also the prejudice against Southerners and anyone rural, but, that is another thread.

Let’s talk about stereotyping.

Not too long ago, a clerk in the grocery store made fun of my friend’s-nearly imperceptible southern accent. We had been speaking Spanish to someone else, and she told us that she was surprised anyone with a Southern accent could speak a foreign language. By the way, she didn’t speak Spanish or come from a family that did. She’s not a bad person; she didn’t mean to hurt his feelings. She was simply manifesting a popular prejudice that she’d been taught. She has been brainwashed by television, print media and movies into thinking that anyone with a Southern accent is uneducated and unsophisticated. (By the way, Mark is a PhD physicist from Arkansas, and another of those “smartest people in the world” I do stupid stuff with) This is a small example of the power of the communications media. There can be a movie which is set in Maine or Michigan, and if there’s a corrupt, pot-bellied sheriff, he’ll have a Southern accent, ala the sheriff from Live and Let Die, or a host of other movies and TV shows-even the Dukes of Hazard.When this occurs over and over, people begin believing that it’s true. The same could be said for how blacks were portrayed on TV for its first 50 years-ala Jack Benny's butler/chauffeur, Rochester and the ridiculous Amos and Andy.Such is the power of TV and movies.

Sometimes, people or social movements, even with the best of stated intentions, result in hatred and resentment. For example, whenever there is a need to present the evils of racism, the victims are always “people of color”, and the racists are always white. In real life, this is not the case, but you’d never know it from the media. When this goes on for years,, unquestioned and unchallenged, resentments and hatred build. One day they explode. It’s easy for people to see others in terms of stereotypes. That way, they don’t have to think for themselves. However, it is always unfair to scapegoat others, even if they are white males.

Apart from movies, TV is a powerful medium. I’ve just been watching TV for a little over little over a six years, after a ten-year hiatus of no T.V. It’s been shocking, and I’ve noticed a few things. Most people enjoy sit-coms. There is also a campaign-near constant –to stop violence against women, a commendable goal. However, I’ve noticed on many of these TV shows that men are regularly punched, kicked and slapped by women. On the funny show, the audience roars its delight and approval when a man is hit in the crotch. The message being given here is that it’s alright to hit men, especially in the part of their anatomy where their “maleness” is most evident. On the surface, it seems innocent, of no consequence, but in actual fact, it expresses hatred f men. In 2008, when a man hits a woman , it’s domestic violence,. When she punches him, it’s funny. In addition, on these shows women regularly call men “pigs”, and “scum”. Don’t take my word for this. Start noticing yourself how often men are attacked and belittled by women on TV. It used to be Father Knows Best and Make Room For Daddy. Now, if father shows up at all, he’s a bumbling idiot, laughed at by the rest of the family. This has been going on for some time now, and look how it has indoctrinated and emotionally crippled people.

People go to the gym-or dojo-to work on having a healthier body , mind and spirit. We read all the ingredients on food packages to try and eat healthier. We clean our homes and decorate them nicely to have a pleasant environment. Then, we’ll unthinkingly bring in every manner of darkness, lies and filth into our homes and our hearts, all through that little box called TV, and call it entertainment. Movies and television, in and of themselves, are simply technology. They’re neither bad or good., but they’re often used by people with evil agendas. Remember, they never tell you that. They present their agendas as being good. Start paying closer attention to these things, and you’ll begin to notice how often you’e being taken for a ride.

 

[Big Don]

Very nice!
The Dukes of Hazzard movie went off the rails as it painted the Dukes as unrepentant criminals, something that was the exact opposite of what was portrayed in the TV show. The Blue Collar Comedy movies didn't really help, Larry the Cableguy is the WORST portrayal of the rural, southern American as an ignorant oaf. It is portrayed as comedy and yet, is nothing more than prejudice, if you just look at what it really is.

 

[celtic_crippler]

Ignorance thrives when people sit idley by and accept everything they're spoon-fed, and the media has a big spoon.

American's have become lazy in every aspect of their lives. It takes too much effort to gather information, listen to all sides of a story, and formulate an intelligent opion. It's much easier to say, "Oh yeah...it's true because I saw it on TV."

True Story:
Back around '90 I was visiting Canada. I was in a bar and a young lady struck up a conversation with me after hearing my accent.
It took me hours to convince her that Southerners actually had electricity, drove cars and didn't ride horses or wagons everywhere, didn't live in cabins, wore shoes, mostly stayed in school all the way through 12th grade and even had some that went on to college, and that hangings were not a daily occurance.
She really believed all that and more. I could not believe she thought those things about the South. But then again, she believed Mayberry was a real town too. No joke; she did. I told her Andy retired and Barney had taken over as sherrif and ever since the town had gone to hell.

 

[Kacey]

There are ignorant people all over. I was once told (about 10 years ago, maybe?) that I couldn't be Jewish because of my appearance - according to the woman saying this, my nose was too small, my skin too fair, my hair too blond; upon further discussion, it appeared that I was supposed to be short, stocky, and dark - Middle European - or, in other words, I was supposed to to look like Hitler's sister (and quite interesting it is that his Aryan ideal was the opposite of himself... but that's another topic). I have also been told there's no way I could have money problems, as all Jews are rich (would that it were so... at least in my case! But it's not...)

The stereotypes perpetuated by the media do the country a much greater disservice than the stereotypes they have (somewhat) successfully disputed - and one of the problems still extant is that white males are the only racial group that can still be the butt of jokes, and thus the cultural subgroupings of white males can be used as well.

People are people - available in a near-infinite variety - and should be treated as such. But too many people enjoy the coarse humor found in setting themselves above someone else - anyone else - and will use stereotypes, true or not, to set themselves apart from the groups being made fun of - politically correct or not. It is no longer PC to make fun of racial, cultural, or religious minorities - that only leaves subgroupings of those not in the preceding categories. When will the human race grow up?

 

[Cryozombie]

Very nice!
The Dukes of Hazzard movie went off the rails as it painted the Dukes as unrepentant criminals, something that was the exact opposite of what was portrayed in the TV show.

Correct me if I am wrong, but the Duke boys in the TV show carried bows, because they couldn't have guns as they were on Probation for running Uncle Jessie's moonshine...

 

[Big Don]

Correct me if I am wrong, but the Duke boys in the TV show carried bows, because they couldn't have guns as they were on Probation for running Uncle Jessie's moonshine...

Not one time in the entire length of the show did you see Uncle Jessie making shine or the boys running it. Unlike the movie, which starts with a shine running sequence. Which is one of the reasons NONE of the stars of the TV show had anything to do with the movie.

John Schneider, who played Bo Duke in the original TV series, said: "I saw it. It was cute. The car stuff was great. The guys had a terrific, infectious kind of chemistry, albeit a different kind of chemistry than Tom and I had, but still it was there.", although a few months later, he admitted "My gosh...it was terrible! It wasn’t Dukes…. it was true to whatever it was; I just don’t know what that was!"

 

[punisher73]

Not one time in the entire length of the show did you see Uncle Jessie making shine or the boys running it. Unlike the movie, which starts with a shine running sequence. Which is one of the reasons NONE of the stars of the TV show had anything to do with the movie.

True, they did mention there probation alot, but never showed them running the moonshine. When they did "break the law" it was always to do the right thing to help others. Although, there was the one episode that had them using Uncle Jessie's moonshine as a gas subsitute in an alternate fuel source competition. Also, in the movie they had Uncle Jessie smoking dope.

The Dukes of Hazzard movie went off the rails as it painted the Dukes as unrepentant criminals, something that was the exact opposite of what was portrayed in the TV show. The Blue Collar Comedy movies didn't really help, Larry the Cableguy is the WORST portrayal of the rural, southern American as an ignorant oaf. It is portrayed as comedy and yet, is nothing more than prejudice, if you just look at what it really is.

Big Don, I do have to disagree with this part though. The comedians in question are of the same groups as what they are poking fun at. They are using satire and exageration to make a point. On the same note, would comedians like Chris Rock be considered racist for making comments like "there are blacks, and then there are "blanks" (fill in extremely derogatory term)? In both cases it is someone FROM the group in question poking fun. It has been often said, if you can't laugh at yourself...
With that being said though, I think the danger lies in someone watching Chris Rock or another comedian and using that material to justify something that wasn't intended or basing their opinions on a comedian's characture or their subgroup.

 

[celtic_crippler]

Also, in the movie they had Uncle Jessie smoking dope..

Dude....what?...Oh yeah...dude...Willy Nelson played the part...I mean are you that surprised? LOL

Big Don, I do have to disagree with this part though. The comedians in question are of the same groups as what they are poking fun at. They are using satire and exageration to make a point. On the same note, would comedians like Chris Rock be considered racist for making comments like "there are blacks, and then there are "blanks" (fill in extremely derogatory term)? In both cases it is someone FROM the group in question poking fun. It has been often said, if you can't laugh at yourself...
With that being said though, I think the danger lies in someone watching Chris Rock or another comedian and using that material to justify something that wasn't intended or basing their opinions on a comedian's characture or their subgroup.

Unless it's Carols Mencia....he makes fun of everybody! That guy cracks me up.

I agree, we need to be able to laugh at ourselves and most often the jokes are based in some truth (or they wouldn't be funny.) I guess the question would be when does something stop being funny and start being offensive?

That being said, most reasonable people can tell when it's a joke and when it's not. I think problems arise when the material being presented isn't in the format of comedy but fact.

 

[Cryozombie]

Not one time in the entire length of the show did you see Uncle Jessie making shine or the boys running it. .

No, but they talked about it alot.

 

[Gordon Nore]

Aaron,

I think your point about Southern stereotypes is well-placed. My wife is a Kentucky gal who spent now more than half her life in Canada. In her college days, she attended Cornell University, where a professor once chided her in class, "It is clear," Miss Axton, "that you think as slowly as you speak." An excellent student, she none-the-less set to work at altering her accent.

Here at home, Canadians sometimes ask her tedious questions about her heritage and what she sounded like back home. There's often a hint of condescension to these inquiries.

The reality is so different. My late father-in-law was a celebrated scholar of nineteenth century literature and an avid historian of all things Kentuckian. The family home has books piled high in every room. The children in that house grew up educated, interesting, and quited worldly.

 

[Rich Parsons]

Big Don's post in another thread got me thinking:




Let’s talk about stereotyping.

Not too long ago, a clerk in the grocery store made fun of my friend’s-nearly imperceptible southern accent. We had been speaking Spanish to someone else, and she told us that she was surprised anyone with a Southern accent could speak a foreign language. By the way, she didn’t speak Spanish or come from a family that did. She’s not a bad person; she didn’t mean to hurt his feelings. She was simply manifesting a popular prejudice that she’d been taught. She has been brainwashed by television, print media and movies into thinking that anyone with a Southern accent is uneducated and unsophisticated. (By the way, Mark is a PhD physicist from Arkansas, and another of those “smartest people in the world” I do stupid stuff with) This is a small example of the power of the communications media. There can be a movie which is set in Maine or Michigan, and if there’s a corrupt, pot-bellied sheriff, he’ll have a Southern accent, ala the sheriff from Live and Let Die, or a host of other movies and TV shows-even the Dukes of Hazard.When this occurs over and over, people begin believing that it’s true. The same could be said for how blacks were portrayed on TV for its first 50 years-ala Jack Benny's butler/chauffeur, Rochester and the ridiculous Amos and Andy.Such is the power of TV and movies.

Sometimes, people or social movements, even with the best of stated intentions, result in hatred and resentment. For example, whenever there is a need to present the evils of racism, the victims are always “people of color”, and the racists are always white. In real life, this is not the case, but you’d never know it from the media. When this goes on for years,, unquestioned and unchallenged, resentments and hatred build. One day they explode. It’s easy for people to see others in terms of stereotypes. That way, they don’t have to think for themselves. However, it is always unfair to scapegoat others, even if they are white males.

Apart from movies, TV is a powerful medium. I’ve just been watching TV for a little over little over a six years, after a ten-year hiatus of no T.V. It’s been shocking, and I’ve noticed a few things. Most people enjoy sit-coms. There is also a campaign-near constant –to stop violence against women, a commendable goal. However, I’ve noticed on many of these TV shows that men are regularly punched, kicked and slapped by women. On the funny show, the audience roars its delight and approval when a man is hit in the crotch. The message being given here is that it’s alright to hit men, especially in the part of their anatomy where their “maleness” is most evident. On the surface, it seems innocent, of no consequence, but in actual fact, it expresses hatred f men. In 2008, when a man hits a woman , it’s domestic violence,. When she punches him, it’s funny. In addition, on these shows women regularly call men “pigs”, and “scum”. Don’t take my word for this. Start noticing yourself how often men are attacked and belittled by women on TV. It used to be Father Knows Best and Make Room For Daddy. Now, if father shows up at all, he’s a bumbling idiot, laughed at by the rest of the family. This has been going on for some time now, and look how it has indoctrinated and emotionally crippled people.

People go to the gym-or dojo-to work on having a healthier body , mind and spirit. We read all the ingredients on food packages to try and eat healthier. We clean our homes and decorate them nicely to have a pleasant environment. Then, we’ll unthinkingly bring in every manner of darkness, lies and filth into our homes and our hearts, all through that little box called TV, and call it entertainment. Movies and television, in and of themselves, are simply technology. They’re neither bad or good., but they’re often used by people with evil agendas. Remember, they never tell you that. They present their agendas as being good. Start paying closer attention to these things, and you’ll begin to notice how often you’e being taken for a ride.

While I agree with your comments about perceptions based upon data presented be it at home or form TV or other media, there is a large population in Michigan that has Southern Roots and they still speak with a southern accent and many of them had no education and came up for the factory jobs. But this did not stop them from educating their children and buying nice homes and taking a vacation or two. But even after being present in the Midwest for decades they still have a southern accent. So your comment about a movie in Michigan having someone with a southern accent is possible. But it is not your point about the negative stereo-type.