Ethnic stereotypes in popular culture
From Freepedia
Ethnic Stereotypes in popular culture involve an overly-simplified, stereotypical or false representation of the typical characteristics of a members of an ethnic group in music, literature, print media, film and the performing arts.
Contents |
Music
In recent years, ethnic stereotypes in popular music have come under fire. This is often associated with Hip Hop culture, but goes back much further; Prince for example was widely criticized for his portrayals of African American women, particularly, in his music videos. Even earlier, The Rolling Stones endured some criticism for their portrayals of African American women in the songs "Brown Sugar" and "Some Girls". Also, the current hip-hop/rap portrayal of African Americans as "gangsta" has contributed to the media pool of misinformation. 50 Cent, for example, tries to live up to this racial stereotype. Also, the current portrayal of women in rap music has drawn a lot of fire recently.
Movies
For years, Hollywood's unofficial but de facto casting policy limited actors of color to character roles based on ethnic stereotypes. These roles ranged from bit parts to supporting roles or secondary leads.
One cliché in American war movies depicting United States soldiers in World War II is that they very frequently create self-consciously "diverse" teams of soldiers that end up as ethnic stereotypes themselves. Central casting will assign each featured military unit a Jewish-American, an Irish-American, an Italian-American, and a caucasian with a Southern or rural accent; in more recent films, these units are also assigned a Latino and an African-American. This tradition lives on in more recent World War II movies such as John Woo's Windtalkers, in which the Native American characters are contrasted against the standard-issue ethnically mixed unit.
In the 1970s, a series of feature films that came to be known as blacksploitation movies brought stereotypical black American culture to the screen. Proponents argued that at least African American actors were getting work in leading roles, opponents believed the perpetuating of stereotypes was more harmful than helpful.
In the 1990s, film director Spike Lee received critism for his portrayals of African-American females based on ethnic stereotypes. In the same decade, Quentin Tarantino was castigated for casting Pam Grier in a 'blackspoitation'-type role (Jackie Brown), particularly by African American male film directors. Feminists rallied to the director's and the actress's defence, countering that these black male directors did not strive to provide work for black actresses.
List of stock film roles based on ethnic stereotypes:
- Asian female prostitute who charges highly
- black maid (similarly, "mammy")
- Mexican maid
- lazy black man
- subservient black man (see Uncle Tom)
- black butler
- British butler
- petty criminal (African American, Latino, Italian)
- prostitute (African American, Latina)
- Mexican sidekick
- Italian gangster
- Jewish lawyer
- Chinese launderer
- Asian computer expert or nerd
- Asian (usually Chinese) cook or waiter
- 'houseboy' (Asian, African)
- Noble Savage (American Indian, African, Polynesian)
- American Indian sidekick
- bearer (African, Asian)
- magical negro
- black bodyguard
- Asian streetracer
- Irish Cop
- Irish Drunk
- Irish Priest
- Arab terrorist
List of significant stereotypical characters in television:
- Hop Sing in Bonanza
- Florence in The Jeffersons*
- Silas in The Big Valley
- Tonto in The Lone Ranger
- Benson in Soap*
- Indian chief in How the West was Won (miniseries)
- Mariko and Fujiko in Shogun*
- Beulah in Beulah.
Note: Although cast in stereotypical roles, both Marla Gibbs and Robert Guillaume successfully played them against type. Yoko Shimada's character was well-rounded and erudite.
List of significant stereotypical characters in film:
- Mammy in Gone with the Wind - Hattie McDaniel, Academy Award winner
- Prissy in Gone with the Wind - Butterfly McQueen
- Suzie in The World of Suzie Wong - Nancy Kwan
- Charlie Charlie Chan series - various actors
- Mr. Moto Mr. Moto movies - Peter Lorre
- Mother in Imitation of Life - (1) and (2)*
- Cook in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? - Isabel Sanford
- Stepin Fetchit in various movies
- Sunshine Sammy, Farina, Stymie and Buckwheat in Our Gang.
Note: Although Juanita Moore plays a stereotypical character in Imitation of Life (1959), the film is largely a satire of the 1934 melodrama and the use of the stereotype is in part ironic.
List of significant stereotypical roles in literature:
- Dinah (Nancy's 'colored cook') in The Nancy Drew Mysteries by Carolyn Keene.
- Father and son in The Last of the Mohicans - James Fenimore Cooper
