Who Are We Really?: How the Media Misrepresents People
In the media today, different groups of people are represented in different ways. In television and film, white males are most often represented as the most diverse and complex character, not really having a stereotype that his character has to fill. While that’s true for that one type, it’s not true for all types of characters. African Americans find their fictional portrayals as the goofy best friend to the white main character, furthermore, people who are gay see their portrayal as the sassy gay friend or the butch female just looking for fun. No matter what group someone identifies with, the media stereotypes them in a negative way. In Amy Zimmerman’s “It Ain’t Easy Being Bisexual on TV” and Amy Stretton’s “Appropriating Native American Imagery Honors No One but …show more content…
A study was conducted by GLAAD, an organization that monitors the media portrayal of LGBT characters, in which they found the 2013-2014 TV season had “46 LGBT characters in total, out of which there were only 10 bisexual characters.” If that wasn’t a small enough number, “out of that minuscule number of bisexual roles, only two were male characters” goes on to describe just how little bisexuality is actually portrayed in the media. The world in the media is nothing like the world that actually exists, as Zimmerman points out that the bisexuality portrayed is “either a fun voluntary act of experimentation or a mere myth through two tried and true tactics: misrepresenting and oversimplifying bisexual characters until they are either punchlines or wet dream fodder, or simply refusing to portray bisexual characters in the first place.” By reducing bisexuality to experimentation, myth, punchlines and wet dreams, the media makes bisexuals feel invalid or confused, as Zimmerman uses pathos to make the audience feel sympathy for those who are reduced to such demeaning
In the media today, different groups of people are represented in different ways. In television and film, white males are most often represented as the most diverse and complex character, not really having a stereotype that his character has to fill. While that’s true for that one type, it’s not true for all types of characters. African Americans find their fictional portrayals as the goofy best friend to the white main character, furthermore, people who are gay see their portrayal as the sassy gay friend or the butch female just looking for fun. No matter what group someone identifies with, the media stereotypes them in a negative way. In Amy Zimmerman’s “It Ain’t Easy Being Bisexual on TV” and Amy Stretton’s “Appropriating Native American Imagery Honors No One but …show more content…
A study was conducted by GLAAD, an organization that monitors the media portrayal of LGBT characters, in which they found the 2013-2014 TV season had “46 LGBT characters in total, out of which there were only 10 bisexual characters.” If that wasn’t a small enough number, “out of that minuscule number of bisexual roles, only two were male characters” goes on to describe just how little bisexuality is actually portrayed in the media. The world in the media is nothing like the world that actually exists, as Zimmerman points out that the bisexuality portrayed is “either a fun voluntary act of experimentation or a mere myth through two tried and true tactics: misrepresenting and oversimplifying bisexual characters until they are either punchlines or wet dream fodder, or simply refusing to portray bisexual characters in the first place.” By reducing bisexuality to experimentation, myth, punchlines and wet dreams, the media makes bisexuals feel invalid or confused, as Zimmerman uses pathos to make the audience feel sympathy for those who are reduced to such demeaning