Representations of Essentialism and Non-essentialism within the film ‘Guess Who’.
The values and views held by the majority of society are often reflected within the media. This can be seen by an audience through films such as ‘Guess Who’ which contains representations of various values and perspectives in regards to the intercultural concept of essentialism and non-essentialism. The film ‘Guess Who’ released in 2005, is a comedy based on an African American female who introduces her Caucasian boyfriend to her family. Within the film, the intercultural concepts are explored through the characters, to position the audience to view that essentialist views encourages prejudice of people from different cultures which in turn results in them feeling excluded and alienated to feel as if they are ‘others’, as well as promoting and allowing the failure of variation.
Essentialism or displaying essentialist views often has the power to alienate and create a certain group or culture to feel as if they are ‘Others’. “By Othering we mean imagining someone as alien and different to ‘us’ in such a way that ‘they’ are excluded from ‘our’ ‘normal’, ‘superior’ and ‘civilised’ group” (Holliday et al., 2010). This consequence of essentialism is often represented within the media such as the film ‘Guess Who’. Within ‘Guess Who’ Theresa’s grandfather says to her father “You didn’t tell me he was white!.. Yes I did… I thought you was kidding” (Sullivan, 2005). This scene within the film depicts an essentialist view held by the grandfather, which creates a divide between the two cultures based purely on the colour of their skin. By holding judgement of a person based on the colour skin that they have, fails to look beyond their appearance and the differe...
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...monstrates the effect that essentialist views can have on people, such as encouraging prejudice, which works in the process of ‘Othering’ a group of people so that they feel excluded and can finally result in a failure to promote and allow variation.
References:
Fuchs, S., & Fournier, M. (2003). Against essentialism: A theory of culture & society. Canadian Journal of Sociology, 28(3), 433-436. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/220549562?accountid=10382
Holliday, A., Hyde, M., & Kullman, J. (2010). Intercultural Communication. London & New York: Routledge.
Smiler, A. P., & Gelman, S. A. (2008). Determinants of gender essentialism in college students. Sex Roles, 58(11-12), 864-874. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11199-008-9402-x
Sullivan, K.R. (2005). Guess Who [DVD]. New South Wales, Australia: Twentieth Century Fox Studios.
As muscle-bound figures such as the Terminator and Rambo stormed big screen, it was also during this period that we witnessed the ostensive arrival of “racially sensitive” buddy cop films. Lethal Weapon 4 (1998) directed by Richard Donner is a buddy cop film, which portrays a more subtle ‘modern’ type of racism. In saying so, the film examines inter-racial relationships attempting to diminish racial issues and present characters with equity in order to give comfort and reassurance to a wider ethnic audience. With calls for more minority representation on screen, black-white interracial buddying seemed to make political and financial sense to Hollywood studios (Chan 110). However, minority representation on screen presented a much more complex underlying notion to be represented on screen. In relevance to Lethal Weapon 4, this essay attempts to examine relevant points from Shoham and______ article .
Kleinfeld, Judith. "No Map to Manhood: Male and Female Mindsets Behind the College Gender Gap." Gender Issues 26, no. 3/4 (December 2009). Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed October 22, 2016).
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In ‘Cultural baggage’, Barbara Ehrenreich described her personal experience and opinion about ethnic and religious heritage. Barbara was born in an immigrant family, With all the information she got, Barbara was unable to find her own ethnic identity. While been frustrated and embarrassed for her incapability of locating her own root, she eventually come to realize that she belongs to the race of “none”, those who think for themselves and try new things, and the race of “none” marches on.
Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2013). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (6th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
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Essentialism, made popular by William Bagley in the 1930’s, is the form of education most of us know well from our schooling experiences. It has also been called the “...
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