In 2013, a new Netflix series called Orange Is The New Black was written by Jenji Kohan based on the book by Piper Kerman. The show almost instantly became a hit. The series takes place in a fictional women’s prison in upstate New York. It follows the life of Piper Chapman as she leaves her suburban life and adjusts to her new life in prison. The viewer, while seeing the past and present life of Piper, also gets to experience the past and present lives of the other inmates that Piper interacts with. The women represent a large variety of races/ethnicities, social classes, sexual orientations, and gender identities. Though Orange Is The New Black does show diversity, I would like to argue that despite the representation of diversity, the show portrays its characters in a way that propagates dominant ideologies and stereotypes. This is the one first shows to have a female lead with a large amount of female supporting characters about a women’s prison that has caught media attention around the world. The global recognition comes largely from the show being a Netflix Original Series. Netflix was founded in 1997 with the intention of the website to be able …show more content…
The “male gaze” is a term that expresses the process in which characters, typically female, have been sexualized for the heterosexual males watching the program. Lesbians in the past have been seen as sexual objects for heterosexual consumption (Herman, 2003). Unlike previous shows that have portrayed the “socially acceptable lesbian” as “gentle, sensitive, soft-hearted, soft spoken, absolutely non-butch, and stereotypically feminine” (Harrington, 2003, p. 216), Orange Is The New Black provides a wide range of lesbian characters. These lesbians include women of all races, ethnicities, gender identities, and social classes. These women, though having more multifaceted identities, are still based on
The leading character Piper is privileged self-absorption. The very moment Piper steps foot in Litchfield prison she is treated with more respect from the guards. The protective treatment Piper gets from white male prison counselor Healy, and the keen alertness with which Black characters like Taystee Jefferson is direct white power. Piper is rudely awakened to this reality when Lorna Morello, a fellow white inmate, concludes Piper’s orientation with a smiling comment: “We look out for our own.” Piper’s visible horror at this honest statement of racist preference is met with amusement” (Charlton). Showing that all women are divided by race. Taystee in contrast to Piper, many of OITNB’s characters who are people of color recognize and knowingly direct the dangers posed both by white men like Healy, and by white women like Piper. The portrayals of Black and Latina women constantly threaten to turn into all too familiar stereotypes. Orange Is the New Black does give us a lot to talk about the conversations people of color and white folks have amongst themselves. The different identities and experiences shape those dealings. When confided to a certain lifestyle it’s hard for the women to not feel the need to judge each
The aforementioned is not always easy to do, as interests and beliefs are constantly nourished with new information. It becomes easier to follow the behavior of a popular music artist if exposure derives from friends in a group or growing personal interests. Drugs are prominent in poor Black communities, but gangs are equally dangerous for young Americans. Territorial obsession and superficial pride will warp the mindset of young Black Americans in neighborhoods like Citrus Grove, and sometimes it becomes too late for them to realize what’s important. Although Dexter’s specialty is not the best, Pam Noles uses him to show both the consequences of apathy and exhibiting a flawed mindset. As with false idols, Dexter’s lust for Tamika and projection onto her of everything he wants shrouds his thoughts as he “couldn’t imagine her ever forgetting him”. What is saddest about Dexter and Tamika’s relationship is the underlying truth she refuses to share. When “the last bits of him [flowed] from every part of her”, Dexter’s emotions exploded with rage, frustration, and depression. Even when Tamika prizes keeping her friendship with Peek and attempts to swoon a player, Tamika is disparaged for her erotic behavior by her friend. Crowning the wrong people leads only to disappointment in the end. Acting this way induces confusion. Revering the wrong individual can damage one’s decision-making capabilities. You can lose sight of who you are and what you believe in by performing for other’s benefit and not your
...can also be applied to other groups. She focuses on the experiences of black women as they respond to this limitation, but her underlying ideas can be used to discuss other peoples’ experiences as well, especially in terms of how they define themselves in relation to the controlling images associated with them. While Skylar is not part of the demographic Hill Collins discusses explicitly, she does illustrate the interaction between controlling images and self-definitions, including resistance, and using dialogue and concrete experiences to determine whether knowledge claims are accurate. Most people, regardless of their place in society, experience controlling images, or someone else’s “first impressions” of them, with consequential limitations imposed on their abilities to be who they really are. Thus, it is important to examine how to confront and challenge this.
African American women are considered the most disadvantaged group vulnerable to discrimination and harassment. Researchers have concluded that their racial and gender classification may explain their vulnerable position within society, despite the strides these women have made in education, employment, and progressing their families and communities (Chavous et al. 2004; Childs 2005; Hunter 1998; Settles 2006; Wilkins 2012). Most people agree that race and gender categories are explained as the biological differences between individuals in our society; however sociologists understand that race and gender categories are social constructions that are maintained on micro and macro levels. Historically, those in power who control the means of production
"29 n The Color Purple: Black Women as Cultural Readers." Cultural theory and popular culture: A reader (1997): 310.
Television shows are very pivotal to help understand the different factors that create society. For my analysis, I chose the television show Orange is the New Black. Orange is the New Black chronicles the life of Piper Chapman who is incarcerated in a women’s prison for being a drug trafficker. The show focusing on the themes such as race, sexuality, and gender represent how diverse women in are in society; and gives a deeper understanding to their deviant behaviors.
In Legally Blonde, obvious stereotypes include Elle, Warren, and the handling of gender overall, while less obvious stereotypes include those of the gay community and college life. When analyzing this film from the perspective of the 2016 society, cultural and societal changes become apparent that have since allowed for more representation since the film’s initial release in 2001.
The world of television can either completely hit or miss the mark when it comes to providing its audience a diverse cast/actors. "Girls" is a new HBO show about young, prosperous, and white New Yorkers in their twenties struggling to find their footing in the post-collegiate world. It is a poor example of representation of race, but the show in itself cannot be held responsible for the whole problem of racial diversity of media and popular culture. There has been a lot of controversy about the show's diversity since the first episode, seeing how it is set in the melting pot of NYC and Brooklyn, yet it is prominently white. The shocking part is that despite its meting pot nature, it is very easy to live a segregated social life in New York City, especially if you are a rich white person. The fact that the show is so white should not come off as unusual, yet it does because this generation is more willing to see that change happen in pop culture. Not everyone sees it that way and pop culture still does not represent races equally or at times even accurately. For example, when show do add in minorities they often make them extremely stereotypical to their race. The recurrence in the lack of realistic representation in the show highlights the “whiteness” of stereotypical roles that overshadows real life representation.
Ann Perkins, Jones’ character, is supposed to be an ethnically ambiguous person and in reality, Rashida is biracial (Glamour). Leslie Knope, the white protagonist of the series, frequently uses words like ‘exotic’, ‘tropical’, and ‘ethnically ambiguous’ when complimenting Ann. The ‘compliments’ also act as the only instances where race is spoken about in reference to Ann’s character. One would believe that Leslie’s constant complimenting of Ann is beneficial to viewers with a biracial identity, but there are some serious problems with Leslie’s behavior. There has been an historical and recent fascination with ‘mixed’ children. This fascination has crossed over into fetishizatoin of biracial or mixed children and people. Biracial people are seen less as people and more as a kind of spice that bell hooks mentions in her work “Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance” (21). They are something that helps liven up the blandness of the pervasive white culture. Another harmful aspect of Ann’s depiction relates to her class. In Edison’s work, she notes that “biracial individuals living in a middle- and upper-class environments are more likely to be perceived as biracial (rather than black) than those living in working- and lower-class environments” and that “‘color blind’ portrayals of middle- and upper-class Black and biracial characters support the notion that race no longer matters (at least for middle- and upper-class people)” (Edison, 302; 304). Ann’s character is a successful college-educated nurse which is not problematic until one realizes that her race is never truly discussed. This feeds into the stereotype that race does not matter and that all people in the U.S. have the same opportunities. Again, the lack of racial representation leaves one character the duty of depicting a whole group of
The intimacy of these small politics cannot be discarded when the transition is made to the bigger, public politics (Connell 2009). Movies are not about black people themselves, but about what white people think of blacks, which makes it exceedingly difficult for black women to tell their own, true, stories (Representations of Black People in Film).Our current American culture has not changed in this regard, and black people are still most often portrayed in badly stereotyped
Gay suggests another way characters within pop culture are portrayed as unlikable or at least not powerful, is by being a person of color. As stated earlier, there exists a narrow conceptualization of womanhood and femininity, which primarily mirrors the privileged class, which dominates pop culture in terms of the books we read, television we watch, ads we consume, heroines we aspire to be, and music we listen to. However there does exist different identities of what it means to be a woman. In Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens. Cathy J. Cohen imagines the contemporary view and power of women to be in relation to their homogenized identity. This meaning, to be a woman also depends on other factors of identity; to be a woman in relation to if you are poor or rich, black or white, gay or straight, queer or fall into the dominant class. Luckily, this understanding of womanhood has somewhat expanded. The scope of racial expansion somewhat increases by moving to include Gay’s idolized Black Miss America. Unfortunately, this expansion follows the privilege trend where only a certain type of green girl is able to satisfy the role of Black Miss America. A large issue that Gay has with representation of women of color is that they are tokenized, they are stereotyped, and they are grossly generalized. Instead of this poor misrepresentation of women of color, both Gay and Cohen seek, “a new political direction and agenda, one that does not focus on integration into dominant structures but instead seeks to transform the basic fabric and hierarchies that allow systems of oppression to persist and operate efficiently” (Cohen 165). Gay concludes that inclusion of women of color in pop culture fails to portray them as more than one dimensional characters. This lack of depth is attributed to the lack of respect that women of color face in real life as well. While the
Girls are supposed to play with dolls, wear pink, and grow up to become princesses. Boys are suppose to play with cars, wear blue, and become firefighters and policemen. These are just some of the common gender stereotypes that children grow up to hear. Interactions with toys are one of the entryway to different aspects of cognitive development and socialism in early childhood. As children move through development they begin to develop different gender roles and gender stereotypes that are influenced by their peers and caregivers. (Chick, Heilman-Houser, & Hunter, 2002; Freeman, 2007; Leaper, 2000)
The work's topicality is characterized by the existence of the gender stereotypes in society, having generalization, and does not reflect individual differences in the human categories. Meanwhile, there is still discrimination on the labour market, human trafficking, sexual harassment, violence, women and men roles and their places in the family. Mass media offers us the reality, reduces the distance, but we still can see the negative aspects too. TV cultivates gender stereotypes, offering ideas about gender, relationships and ways for living. Such media ideas attach importance to many people in the society. Consequently, it is quite important identify gender stereotypes in the media, in order to prevent false views relating to gender stereotypes.
1. Charisse Jones and Kumea Shorter-Gooden convey the fact that Black women in the United States still experience racism and sexism today. African American women have stereotypes and negative connotations attached to them causing them to experience oppression. In response to this, they undergo the “shifting” phenomenon where they alter themselves to fit into what society expects and wants from them. Black women undergo behavioral changes and emotional ups and downs in the face of bias. They feel stress trying to compromise their true selves. “Shifting” gives an insight of what it is like to jeopardize one’s true self in order to survive in society.
It should be understood that Morrison's novel is filled with many characters and many examples of racism and sexism and the foundations for such beliefs in the black community. Every character is the victim or an aggressor of racism of sexism in all its forms. Morrison succeeds in shedding light on the racism and sexism the black community had to endure on top of racism and sexism outside of the community. She shows that racism and sexism affect everyone's preconceived notions regarding race and gender and how powerful and prevalent the notions are. Within the community, racism affects how people's views of beauty and skin can be skewed by other's racist thoughts; sexism shapes everyone in the community's reactions to different forms of rape.