Sandy Liao
ID: 1319087
6/6/2016
SOCY 196A
Professor Bettie
Final Paper: Race and Identity Portrayed in Society (Herman Gray)
In today’s society, media stereotypes are inevitable especially in the news and entertainment industries. One of many reasons is widely due to the majority of white media creators in the industry. People identify with the race when it acts like the stereotype of the norm for their race. For example, Asian acting nerdy, black buy being bad and a “thug,” whites as American good guy. This gives a sense to children what the norm is through movies and how they should act. How races should speak and how other races are represented. Referring to Herman Gray’s lecture on diversity and media representation, he focused on a …show more content…
This is where the fundamentals of unfairness come into attention. Unfairness in race and gender discrimination is caused by lack of diversity. Male characters are portrayed as powerful, strong, and rational. Female characters are portrayed as emotional and sensitive (Lee). One of the most misrepresented race are blacks. Discrimination against African Americans is a perfect example of how races are misrepresented. They focus on crimes, gang violence, and drug use when many of these stories on race are dramatically exaggerated. There’s a lack of attention being paid to the bigger picture of social and economic disparity and increased public support of more rigorous approaches to these social issues. Not only does the media’s reluctance to provide more balanced perspectives of the African-American male population worsen cultural division among all people, these issues authorize judges to hand out more rigid sentences, and the police to shoot indiscriminately, such as the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Donaldson (2015) states, “people of color are individuals, not types,” therefore, our society needs to focus more on balancing the different perspectives and representations being portrayed throughout …show more content…
There are female dominated industries such as, childcare and nursing which are lower paying jobs than male dominated industries such as doctor, business owners, etc. Women are less likely to move up the corporate ladder because they are viewed as far less intelligent than men. Referring to the article, “Your Skirt’s Too Short” by Emily Maguire, she says we need to “broaden the possibilities” and “work on creating a culture in which women are not judged by the length of their skirt or the size of their breasts in which they are safe from sexual harassment and violence regardless of what they chose to wear (Maguire, 2010). Women should be treated equally to men because they share the same qualities in most areas as men and have qualities that some men lack such as the different aspects of physical and mental characteristics. Another degrading portrayal of women in society is mainstream pornography which is “overwhelming misogynous and degrading to women” (Maguire, 2010) and explores the harm it causes to the female performers. In pornography, it demonstrates how men is always dominant and women are used for their pleasure. She points out that the internet has “revolutionized pornography” by removing the need to interact with someone to purchase it – “no porn is unprecedentedly private and unrestricted” therefore, pornography is accessible to people of all ages and the women
ID: 1319087
6/6/2016
SOCY 196A
Professor Bettie
Final Paper: Race and Identity Portrayed in Society (Herman Gray)
In today’s society, media stereotypes are inevitable especially in the news and entertainment industries. One of many reasons is widely due to the majority of white media creators in the industry. People identify with the race when it acts like the stereotype of the norm for their race. For example, Asian acting nerdy, black buy being bad and a “thug,” whites as American good guy. This gives a sense to children what the norm is through movies and how they should act. How races should speak and how other races are represented. Referring to Herman Gray’s lecture on diversity and media representation, he focused on a …show more content…
This is where the fundamentals of unfairness come into attention. Unfairness in race and gender discrimination is caused by lack of diversity. Male characters are portrayed as powerful, strong, and rational. Female characters are portrayed as emotional and sensitive (Lee). One of the most misrepresented race are blacks. Discrimination against African Americans is a perfect example of how races are misrepresented. They focus on crimes, gang violence, and drug use when many of these stories on race are dramatically exaggerated. There’s a lack of attention being paid to the bigger picture of social and economic disparity and increased public support of more rigorous approaches to these social issues. Not only does the media’s reluctance to provide more balanced perspectives of the African-American male population worsen cultural division among all people, these issues authorize judges to hand out more rigid sentences, and the police to shoot indiscriminately, such as the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Donaldson (2015) states, “people of color are individuals, not types,” therefore, our society needs to focus more on balancing the different perspectives and representations being portrayed throughout …show more content…
There are female dominated industries such as, childcare and nursing which are lower paying jobs than male dominated industries such as doctor, business owners, etc. Women are less likely to move up the corporate ladder because they are viewed as far less intelligent than men. Referring to the article, “Your Skirt’s Too Short” by Emily Maguire, she says we need to “broaden the possibilities” and “work on creating a culture in which women are not judged by the length of their skirt or the size of their breasts in which they are safe from sexual harassment and violence regardless of what they chose to wear (Maguire, 2010). Women should be treated equally to men because they share the same qualities in most areas as men and have qualities that some men lack such as the different aspects of physical and mental characteristics. Another degrading portrayal of women in society is mainstream pornography which is “overwhelming misogynous and degrading to women” (Maguire, 2010) and explores the harm it causes to the female performers. In pornography, it demonstrates how men is always dominant and women are used for their pleasure. She points out that the internet has “revolutionized pornography” by removing the need to interact with someone to purchase it – “no porn is unprecedentedly private and unrestricted” therefore, pornography is accessible to people of all ages and the women