“I’m going to treat myself to a pedicure done by a white lady. That’s when you know you’ve made it,” an excited Jessica Huang exclaimed to her husband in the “License to Sell” episode of ABC’s Fresh Off the Boat. With this statement, Jessica Huang deemed the white race the gold standard of human beings and simultaneously demeaned other ethnic groups by equating them with the lowest common denominator. Despite the humorous effect of Jessica Huang’s comment, the statement is a prime example of the racial stereotypes that plague society. According to Annie Murphy Paul in Psychology Today, stereotypes can, and often do, lead to bias, specifically against underrepresented minorities (Paul 1998). With television at the forefront of popular culture,
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One of the three main characters, Odelle Ballard, is a FET [Female Engagement Team] soldier on duty in North Africa. According to co-creators Adam Armus and Nora Foster, Odelle’s story is a play on the popular myth of Homer’s Odyssey (Armus and Foster 2015). The journey of Odelle from North Africa, back to her home in the United States of America is riddled with dire situations and strenuous decision-making. The co-creators explained the reason behind this characterization is that they wanted to tell stories about human beings, not institutions (Armus and Foster 2015). This is accomplished through the focus on the female point of view during wartime. In the pilot episode of American Odyssey, Odelle is taken hostage. During her captivity, she extends her life by providing indirect medical assistance to a family member of her captors. By that time, the focus was no longer on her mission—it was on her will to survive and her human empathy. By implementing this form of characterization that completely erases stereotypes for the sake of demonstrating human experiences, American Odyssey exhibits the goal of creating multifaceted characters. In comparison with Fresh Off the Boat, American Odyssey eliminates stereotyping of underrepresented characters by omission in that both …show more content…
With feminist ideals from the past not always coinciding with modern feminism, some are led to believe that feminism as a whole has gone extinct (McCabe and Akass 2013, 304). The goals of early twentieth century First Wave feminism include opening up opportunities for white women to achieve visibility in the media, domesticity, sexual modesty, and for women to simply exist on the same plane as men (Rampton 2014). Second Wave feminism from the 1960’s to the early 1990’s introduced women of color to the conversation, sexual liberation, class struggles, and a radicalized view of equal rights (Rampton 2014). Third Wave feminism, taking place from the 1990’s to the present-day places an emphasis on the importance of decision-making and the policing of female bodies (Rampton
One of the three main characters, Odelle Ballard, is a FET [Female Engagement Team] soldier on duty in North Africa. According to co-creators Adam Armus and Nora Foster, Odelle’s story is a play on the popular myth of Homer’s Odyssey (Armus and Foster 2015). The journey of Odelle from North Africa, back to her home in the United States of America is riddled with dire situations and strenuous decision-making. The co-creators explained the reason behind this characterization is that they wanted to tell stories about human beings, not institutions (Armus and Foster 2015). This is accomplished through the focus on the female point of view during wartime. In the pilot episode of American Odyssey, Odelle is taken hostage. During her captivity, she extends her life by providing indirect medical assistance to a family member of her captors. By that time, the focus was no longer on her mission—it was on her will to survive and her human empathy. By implementing this form of characterization that completely erases stereotypes for the sake of demonstrating human experiences, American Odyssey exhibits the goal of creating multifaceted characters. In comparison with Fresh Off the Boat, American Odyssey eliminates stereotyping of underrepresented characters by omission in that both …show more content…
With feminist ideals from the past not always coinciding with modern feminism, some are led to believe that feminism as a whole has gone extinct (McCabe and Akass 2013, 304). The goals of early twentieth century First Wave feminism include opening up opportunities for white women to achieve visibility in the media, domesticity, sexual modesty, and for women to simply exist on the same plane as men (Rampton 2014). Second Wave feminism from the 1960’s to the early 1990’s introduced women of color to the conversation, sexual liberation, class struggles, and a radicalized view of equal rights (Rampton 2014). Third Wave feminism, taking place from the 1990’s to the present-day places an emphasis on the importance of decision-making and the policing of female bodies (Rampton