Shameless: The Stereotypes Of The Poor Class?

Superior Essays
The TV series Shameless is based on working class family that lives on the South Side of Chicago. The show is based off the dramatic and chaotic life of the Gallagher family. The family of six children depend on the oldest sister, Fiona, to take care of the family due to the absence of the mother and their incapable alcoholic father who comes and goes as he pleases. The unstable family has to cope with the struggles faced with little money and learn how to take care of themselves and also each other. In this paper, I claim that the show Shameless represents the stereotypical ideas of the poor class through the main character Frank Gallagher, for he is portrayed as a lazy, alcoholic father involved with criminal activities. In the following …show more content…
He forms a plan of faking his death, because he doesn’t have money to pay them back. Also, Fiona spends a night with her boyfriend at a hotel and Ian has to handle a bully who keeps on stealing from the store he works at. The main focus is the negative stereotypes of poor class associated through the main character, Frank Gallagher. Media has socially constructed the idea of social class. The media portrays social class in unrealistic ways, specifically for the poor class. In media, the poor class is portrayed in negative views and distorts the way in which people perceive people that are poor that live in the real world. The poor class is associated with negative concepts and stereotypes. “For example, episodic framing of some stories may suggest that most of the poor are underserving because they are welfare cheats, drug addicts, or greedy panhandlers” (Kendall, 2005, p.95). The media portrays poor people as cheats and blame them for their own problems. The poor are blamed for their own failure. Also, studies have found that the poor can be depicted as having “poor health and hygiene, criminal activity, and violence” (Luther, Lepre & Clarke, 2012, p.289). The poor class has not been neglected in the media for the purpose that the media does not want viewers to understand the reality of the poor. If the poor class is depicted in the media the poor …show more content…
The poor class that is portrayed in the media involves mostly negative associations which is unrealistic to the real world. The negative stereotypes of the poor class include, laziness, addictions, criminal activity and violence. These stereotypes give a bad name for the poor class. These consequences of the stereotypes created by media can be dehumanizing to the people who live in poverty and can create negative views of the poor class. That the way media blames for the poor as their problem makes others form their views and opinions based on how the media portrays the poor. These consequences can lead to for negative assumptions and opinions of the poor based on what they see in the media. Not many understand that the media distorts the reality of the poor. The media is very persuasive and distortive of the representation of class which is becoming a significant problem regarding the media representation of class. These negative stereotypes of the poor class have significant consequences that need to be

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