Stereotype in Media

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The foundation of our society has been built around stereotypes. From the discovery of the New World, where Native Americans were enslaved and killed because of their culture to the early 1900s, where African Americans were discriminated because of their race, we have lived around stereotypes. Judith Ortiz Cofer wrote an essay to show how media today affects the stereotypes we hear today. She uses latin women as an example of a race that is affected by stereotypes. However, it is not just Latin women who are affected, but all races, genders, cultures and religion. The media today plays a big role in portraying and promoting stereotypes.

Media helps spread stereotypes. Whenever you turn on the television to watch the news or your favorite show, you will find stereotypes everywhere. Even if portraying the stereotype is not intentional, they are there. An example would be the usual story on a crime scene on the news. News channels will show the suspect and talk about what happened, but what they do not know is they are spreading stereotypes. People will view that race or gender as dangerous. Many reportings of African Americans stealing or killing are shown on the news thus creates the stereotype that all African Americans are criminals, which is one of the stereotypes that we have today. Even advertisements use stereotypes like in a Pillsbury commercial, a blonde woman was reading a cookbook and the instructions said separate the eggs. The woman literally separated the eggs by putting one egg in a corner and one on the table. After that is said “ready to bake” and “foolproof”. It implies that blondes are dumb, just like how

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...schools. Whites have a better acceptance rate of getting into colleges and Asians are expected to have higher scores. Society uses stereotypes which creates a disadvantage to certain groups.

The use of stereotypes are always negative, whether they are actually positive or not. It creates a biased society in which we think only based on race. However, we can not blame stereotypes. The media is helping portraying these stereotypes, but the media is necessary in our society. People are easily influenced, but we can not help it, we are who we are and need to made snap judgments. Society uses stereotypes in a bigger way, which usually creates a negative impact, but we the people consist of the society; Society is based on our thoughts and intentions. Stereotypes will not disappear because more will be created, so we must try to live and bear with these stereotypes.

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