stereotypes framed on television..

As much as everyone hates to be stereotyped, it is pretty obvious that television shows use all types of stereotypes, especially in comedies that are there to make us laugh. In a show that’s extremely popular such as the Big Bang Theory, the only non white characters in the show are Raj and his sister. These characters are continuously reinforced as the stereotypical ‘other’ throughout the majority of all shows, for example even though Raj takes full advantage of his new found liberty living in the United States from India, he still has to continuously maintain his identity, meaning the identity of where he comes from which viewers can identify throughout his regular conversations via Skype/Webcam with his parents in India. His parents are also represented to the audience as the most dominant stereotype of indian culture in the western world, that being a family having strict religious values. For example, they continuously pester Raj to marry a well educated indian women rather than just an american girl, amongst other things….

I thought that Raj’s stereotype is a progressive stereotype of Indian Culture, based on that fact that he is well educated with a PHD and has worked his way up the corporate ladder. I also thought that The Big Bang Theory could be an example of plurism (separate but equal). For example, the entire cast is white except Raj and his sister, and the only difference between Raj and the rest of the cast is that he is black and the others are white. Therefore, their friendship with white people is based only on social status.

It is apparent that the use of stereotypes in these ways has a huge impact on viewers who translate these representations of ethnic groups from what they have seen on television into their own lives, not to say that everybody adopts these views into their own ideologies but it has the impact in doing so. A couple of you guys have already mentioned this following aspect of stereotypes... that most stereotypes are such generalizations, are rarely true and I will add… ALWAYS angers the person that is being stereotyped and that will always fuel racist behaviour in society. However it is important to recognize that most stereotype have to function on some level of truth. I think that it is the medium in which they are represented to us that can either make them look good or bad, just depending how you read it as a person. I also thought that this addresses issues that we covered in lectures last week/tutorials on how multiculturalism is represented on television, how is it framed and by whom…