Stereotypes in the media

The “ginger” stereotype

Junior Olivia Whiting, a medium-height student with strawberry-blonde hair (more strawberry than blonde), recalls excitedly attending a Sharks game, cheering for the home team and returning home saddened by being the object of a media-created stereotype.

An insolent male fan with a soggy hot dog covered in ketchup charged up to Whiting and yelled, “Ginger, high-five!” as the Sharks scored.

The name Ginger garnered popularity when the show “South Park” satirized that redheads suffer from a fictional disease, called “gingervitis,” that causes them to be inhumane and disgusting, unable to survive in sunlight and have no souls. Whiting has been the target of a few Ginger-related redhead jokes.

“The names don’t faze me anymore. People think it’s funny, but the joke gets old,” Whiting said.
Nevertheless, this is just a single example of how the media have strengthened prejudices in society.

Although the issue of “gingervitis” might seem harmless with its portrayal in a comedic television show, it shrouds the larger, hurtful topics that are commonly seen on the Internet, YouTube or TV.

YouTube contributors suffer criticism

Recently, videos made by males in head-to-toe female garments comically detailing typical phrases stated by females have dominated YouTube. The stream of videos began by a user who parodied seemingly harmless phrases said by most females. But as this video, titled “Stuff* Girls Say” gained recognition, burlesque versions went viral that applied to certain races.

Viewers appreciated the community feeling of these videos until they began creating a racial divide. After a video, “Stuff* White Girls say to Black Girls,” of an African American girl, Franchesca Ramsey, recounting phrases said to her by her Caucasian girlfriends gained approximately 5 million views, these seemingly playful videos turned into racist manifestations for the media to use as bait in their game.

“Some elements in the media are not sore subjects, because they were never in the limelight,” senior Akash Kar said. “Things like ‘Stuff* White Girls say to Black Girls’ appear everywhere with problems, because racism is still a very sore subject to many people.”

Ramsey’s video is proof of how even slightly provocative material is sometimes turned into something disparaging by the media. Bloggers, news sources, and talk show hosts all contribute in overanalyzing these issues and changing their perception in the media. Innocuous videos created on YouTube cause controversy among different communities.

“I think there’s a line that shouldn’t be crossed. You need to be able to draw that imaginary line from what’s funny to what might hurt someone or cause sensitive feelings,” Kar said. “The perfect person would say, of course, that we should never stereotype, but it’s human nature to do so.”

The hypocrisy of the issue

Some students find that people are willing to mock stereotypical people in the media but fearful to do so in a private.

“Some situations are really hypocritical, because people are willing to laugh in private versus public,” said sophomore Michael Eschen. “People feel more comfortable laughing at others on the Internet than at classmates in public.”

Junior Sasan Saadat theorized that the media feels the need to categorize all data circulating among people.

“People make complications and judgments, which the media can distort,” Saadat said. “It’s just so wide and broad that they feel the need to make things fit into boxes. They are trying to make everything fit into these cookie cutter shapes.”

This is most likely where stereotypes such as gingers, dumb blondes and faulty Asian drivers originated from-the media.

“I think it’s difficult when you’re stereotyping on television, because stereotyping doesn’t generally fit our general population,” Kar said. “Television really considers all 300 million Americans. It’s unfair because we’re all different and come from different backgrounds, families and societies.”
Without realizing that these derogatory names are harmful, people belt them out fearlessly, protected by the false armor of the Internet.

“People can gain their 15 minutes of fame by coming up with something that’s funny to bring to light a new stereotype that may not be true, but people just go along with it. Then it becomes popular by getting a lot of views and gaining momentum, even though it may not be something that’s necessarily true,” Saadat said.

The “dumb blonde” stereotype

Although most of the time what people say may be harmless, they should be thoughtful of the feelings of others who are mocked as a result.

Junior Megan Doles is one of the many victims of the dumb blond stereotype.

“Usually I laugh, but it’s annoying. People call me dumb blond all the time. It doesn’t bother me, because they don’t actually mean it. I would never take it seriously,” Doles said.

Perhaps Thumper in the movie “Bambi” said it best, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”

* substituted for another word