Nice Guy's promotes racial/gender equality?

The film The Nice Guys is a true story because of how it is designed to defy expectations through its portrayal of death, its positive message about environmentalism, and its characterisation designed to subvert stereotypes. Death is portrayed sudden violent, and almost in a comedic light. This reinforces a recurring theme of how people die for stupid mistakes and coincidences, the best examples of this is that when the character Amelia escapes an assassin meant to kill her then proceeds to walk up to a car to ask for a ride out of there only for it to be the assasin’s car. Another example is when the two main characters talk about Richard Nixon coming across someone who was dying in a car crash and telling him he’ll be okay only for him die immediately after that. In both instances the deaths are unexpected and abrupt as opposed to the usual deaths in films that are foreshadowed and give the characters memorable last words.

Another truth the film portrays is a positive message about the environment which is done subversively by not having the movie revolve around environmentalism, but instead having the story gradually move towards it becoming the focus. At the start the environmentalists are shown to be dumb hippies playing dead in the middle of a park to protest, they were mostly used as comic relief. However as the film progresses the main characters slowly realize that the hippies were right and their isn’t ridiculous having the third act revolve around them protecting a porno film containing an environment message exposing the big car companies.

The final truth that the film how it betrays the usual stereotypes of people. Almost every character that isn’t one of the two main characters subverts some stereotype. Holland March and Jackson Healy (the main characters) would be nowhere without Holland’s daughter. She helps get them to find clues and is shown to be competent and useful in the many dangerous situations she is put in despite everyone around her assuming that her character is a naive and helpless child . Another example of this subversion of stereotypes is the character Tally, a black woman who is one of the two biggest obstacles for Holland and Jackson, and is able to trick both of them twice, and whose race isn’t brought up despite the film taking place in the 70s. The final example of this subversion is the old lady who got Holland and Jackson into the case in the first place. At the beginning she is shown to be senile and delusional, but by the end she is able to help the two find the final clue that would help them solve the case.                    

                

Mean School, Mean Girls, Mean Life

The film Mean Girls presents stereotypes of high schoolers, especially in terms of gender. The girls within the film seem to be fake and rude to each other based on what the girl’s outer beauty looks like. Males within the movie are held to the jock stereotype. The movie’s ideology is both promoting and resisting those stereotypes. Promoting with girls and women being prissy and only caring about gossip and looks. It’s resisting when Cady, the lead character, doesn’t really care when she wins the crown at the dance and actually offers the crown to the crowd. The men that are resisting are a moc (man of color) that is very bright and Damian who is the gay character.

The girlfriend group “The Plastics” reinforce superficial stereotypes, since they are the most popular and the most beautiful and the most important. It reinforces that women only care about their looks and that school and a healthy social life is irrelevant. The parents that are within the movie showed why the characters were like that. Regina, who is dominant mean girl, when we first meet her mother you see how loose her parental ways are. She offers the girls alcohol and you see that the mother lives vicariously through her daughter experiences. It shows that girls not only learn their ways from the media but also the important women that are in their lives.

“Mean Girls” also reinforces the ideals of what a real male is suppose to be like.
The handsome main character Aaron Samuel; the stereotypical high school popular jock that attracts the ladies, but without being a ladies man. His character seems to only reinforce how high school works but he still resists the womanizing ways. It reinforces the stereotype that gay males only hangout with women with the character Damien. He is only seen with Janis and Cady and has banter with Janis about his sexuality. Also in the main girlfriend group,there are the stereotypes of the dumb blond(Karen), the rich one(Gretchen),and the queen bee(Regina). These stereotypes tell us there are only three ways girls can be popular in high school. These stereotypes not only reinforce but they are also damaging. Telling girls, especially girls that are in high school that they only deserve attention if they are rich, white, pretty or dumb creates a precedent for girls who do fit the label and girls who don't.

“Mean Girls” has inspired new generations since it’s release in the early 2000s.
This generation has watched Mean Girls since they were little, thinking that high school would be like it is in the movie. As we grew up; the behavior within the movie seem to be over childish and something that people would more likely do in middle school. High School nowadays seems to be just stressful and anxiety filled, not filled with people going out there way to embarrasses you or make you small. Are there people like this in high school? Yes, but people normally shut them down or don't listen to them. Mean Girls has also taught this generation to be themselves and not to pretend so you can fit in a group of people who you don't even like.

Lastly, in most teenagers eyes the movie is seen as a satire, while some of the plots do have truths the way that high school works now has change drastically. The film has taught me that high school stories are only important when they are told in a suburban atmosphere and have barely any people of color and doesn’t include real issues and the importance of speaking about them. Mean Girls has both good qualities and bad qualities. The good qualities is the importance of having a strong female lead character, a gay character, and speaking on the issues of the younger generation that pretending to be something that you're not can ultimately change the person you are, good or bad. The bad qualities of the movie seem to be the lack of diversity, only showing the high school experience from a suburban point of view, and not having more great well rounded characters to balance out the characters that were mostly flat.

There's More To Empire Than What Meets The Eye

Empire, a hit drama on Fox that is centered around the hip hop industry and drama between the family members who built it, exposes a wide variety of stereotypes. The show does not only defy gender stereotypes but it also addresses racial stereotypes as well. Empire is a work of feminism because it is resisting typical roles that women play in the public and private sphere, while also redefining what it means to be a woman in America. In popular culture women are often portrayed as either a wife/mother that is submissive to a man or a sex symbol/seductress that has evil power over men. It is very refreshing to see a complex character such as Cookie Lyon (Taraji P. Henson) that takes aspects from both sides of the spectrum and breaks both stereotypes. While the show is very complex it does a great job at using satire to expose the inequality that is so heavily embedded in American culture.


Cookie Lyon automatically breaks the pure and dainty stereotype for women because in the first episode she is being released from prison. The show becomes complicated when it is revealed that Cookie took the fall for Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard) by not giving him up when she was caught by the cops. This raises the question is she really showing agency since the reason she is breaking one stereotype is for the “service” of a man, another big stereotype of women. It is clear however that regardless of the reason she still isn’t what was once the ideal woman simply because she was not there for her children and family for 17 years, due to incarceration. Cookie also changes the role of a mother by protecting and providing for kids, a role that was originally a “man’s job.”Cookie goes to extreme lengths to help her sons, such as going up against their “evil” dad Lucious and starting her own label called Lyon Dynasty. This shows independence and that Cookie is fully capable of being their for her son and living her dreams. Cookie also breaks the stereotype that all wifes/mothers can’t be sexy. Cookie is both the seductress and the mother, however she uses her “evil powers” over men for the benefit for her son’s. At one point Cookie rekindles a relationship with an old friend to get a song for her son Jamal.




The agency shown by Cookie in Empire is amazing, even though to break a few stereotype others were enforced. I think overcoming this unequal ideology is a give and take relationship in which you have to lose some battles to win the war. Just as in real life women are starting to be made up in their image and not in the eyes of a man. For this to continue works of feminism such as Empire must to continue to be created to show the world that while equality may not be simple it is definitely achievable, we all just have to do our part.

Is Notorious "Big Poppa" Sexist?

Notorious “B.I.G.’s “Big Poppa” is a extremely sexist song, in the eyes of a man and a woman. The ideal man according to this song is someone who is a player and makes fast money, while the ideal woman is a seductress and uses her body as a sexual object to get money for men. In the end, the song says that the more men make the more fame that they have among themselves. With money comes with fame and fame and money comes women. The more a man seduces a woman in a sexual manner the more women will be drawn to them. 

He raps , “The back of the club, mackin hoes, my crew's behind me”. This becomes a significant and striking line throughout the song, because it refers to how men in that day in age and even now treat females and see them as nothing more or less than sex objects and that their not even worth taking them to either a hotel room, their house , or even the woman’s house their good for having sexual intercourse and at that sexual intercourse in the back of the club. He continues on and says “ one of these honies Biggie gots ta creep with/ Sleep with, keep the ep a secret/ I got more Mack than Craig and in the bed. This continues to let women know that, that when you are messing with a male in the industry you become nothing to them but a sex object. You receive no respect from a man unless he wants to have sexual relations and once those sexual relations are over your passed over to the next person in the industry. Many women enjoy being a sex object to men in the industry especially men like “B.I.G”, because they know the benefits with messing with a rapper in the industry. Women do not respect their self either , because if they did then they would not let men such as “Biggie” and his crew screw them. As a women you should never allow a man to discriminate you whether it's through a song or not and it becomes worst , because these women still allow these men to enter their sexual parts into their bodies , but cried about it when it’s all over.

He continues, “Got enough to feed the needy/No need to be greedy/I got mad friends with Benz/C-notes by the layers.” This gives off the “hoodness” of this industries and how it displays among the men that he is around that he has more money than the average person expect his friends in which he put on in this business. Biggie continues and states “ If you got a gun up in your waist please don't shoot up the place/ Cause I see some ladies tonight who should be havin my baby Bay-bee”. This line is striking, because it lets you know that the only thing the industry values is money , their lives and women. Nothing else matters when your life is put on front street and you have no other choice but to survive, in this game you either live or die. 

This song connects to this generation and many generation before hand , the reason being is that artist like Biggie Smalls has set the pathway and foundation for other rappers , artists , even men and women and it gives them the ideal of how a man and women should act and what they reputation is when it comes to society as a whole. Most African-American men and even rappers look up to a legend of Biggie as such , Biggie gives off the style that you can be bigger and size and rock the mic , have all the chicks you please , have multiple sex partners , fall in love and be successful while doing all of that and then some.

Cultural Analysis: Wild Card

The comedians Key and Peele had made numerous knee-slapper videos. The anger translator video they did back in 2012 shows the brute stereotype, where the translator is kinda wild and uncontrollable; like a wild card. This work kinda reinforces the stereotype, even though it is making fun of it. Being in the media makes it so well know to many people giving them the idea. It reflects the identities in society and helps shape how society views some African American men, connects to how a lot of the violence in the media mostly shown on the news is an African American man, or a person of color who is very violent. In the video the Obama character (Peele) is calm and collected, but then comes the translator (Key) who is like showing the feeling on the inside. Even though that Obama is the president, he is under pressure and can’t express that much emotion, even if he is overly excited people would automatically fit him into a stereotype. Not only can this be shown in comedy, people get so much information in media today whether it be songs, movie, a TV show that  people are always making assumptions of others even if they don’t know it.

Hispanic Stereotypes In Family Guy

The TV show Family Guy promotes stereotypes of Hispanics by only showing Hispanic characters with irregular physical features and of way of speaking and by the same character being in stereotypical roles such as a maid and other service workers.

Hispanic domestics are a sample of depictions of American families. One example is the comedy show that a lot of people watch a lot, Family Guy. Family Guy is a show based on a white family with different skills and a way of speaking about others and making fun of their cultures or ethnicities. Here is an example of a stereotype in Family Guy, are the Hispanics and how they’re depicted in the show.



An example of the picture above shows G.I JOSE speaking to each other; and if you have seen Family Guy then you can remember how the Hispanic soldier spoke. He spoke with a Hispanic accent. Other physical features such as his body shape making the character look fat, and also have a moustache with long sideburns, also a black hairy belly and black hairy arms and last making them have one skin color too. It promotes these kinds of stereotypes by showing the lack of intelligence in Hispanics and making them look stupid and also with one skin tone too. They also make Hispanics not attractive either.



Another example with stereotypes in Family Guy are what roles the Hispanics characters play in. In the picture above shows Peter Griffin and Consuela speaking. Typically how it portrays Hispanic characters as maids or other service workers. Such as Consuela above in the picture is in a maid outfit and wearing plastic gloves and with a rag in one hand too. 

These stereotypes are not only evidence in Family Guy. Many other Comedy Central shows, such as South Park and Tosh.0, participate in this trend.

OREO GIRL

Why is this relevant? That's a good question i asked myself the same thing.It is relevant because this is a commercial were a little girl is just worried about her father’s health and just wants him to be healthy. You’d think race shouldn't matter right?!?!? WRONG.

Just recently that happened in a cheerios commercial featuring a mixed race family this is the 21 century their are black and white kids everywhere rather you realize it or not but the fact of the matter is that they should not target any young child for any reason race, religion etc.

In American history black men were known to leave their families and leave the mother to raise the children by herself or stereotypes where the black men would be brutal to the wife or both. Also blacks in general were not on the same level as whites. Whites were seen as more superior than blacks.Biracial couples and or children were rare especially on national TV very few are even broadcast .

People are afraid/ shock to see a happy family. Black people weren't allowed to be in relation with the opposite race(whites). This is where we get to the brute how black men were consider women beaters or that a black man isn't worthy to be with a white woman.

This time in society this shouldn't happen point blank.It should really never be a thought other than look at the cute little girl. I guess some people still have to cope with the thought i guess. But one thing my mama always taught me was that if you have nothing nice to say then don't say anything at all:-).

 

1880 or 2007?

As far as I know, slavery ended in the 1880's but Intel seems to think differently. Back in 2007, Intel released an advertisement in which a white man is being bowed down to by 6 black athletes in an office.

The first stereotype begins with the black men bent over in a ready to race position. I see where Intel is coming from, as they try to represent the super fast technology Intel has to offer but the way they portray the athletes makes this a stereotype because the world sees black men as good, fast runners.

The second stereotype is shown with the white man standing in the middle of the black men being bowed down to in the office. This is the stereotype that white men have power and are usually the boss of the office. 

In a way, this advertisement is also representing slavery by saying "maximize the power of your employees" yet the one boss is white and everyone bowing down to him is black.

Intel claims they meant no wrong in releasing this ad but it portrays all types of stereotypes. They should have defiantly rethought about their ways in representing power and speed.

Asian Girlz

"Asian Girlz" has to be one of the most blatantly racist and sexist music videos I’ve ever seen.Literally every racist and sexist trope that you could possibly fit into a music video has been crammed in in order to fetishize ASIAN GIRLZZZZ!!!! let’s start off with the plot of the music video since it’s easy to sum up with a simple sentence summary. Levy Tran(relatively famous porn star) plays some kind of weird witch that seduces men and shrinks them in order to shove them up her vagina for sexual pleasure….. what can I even say about that? The done to death succubus trope that reinforces the notion that women can only gain any kind of power through sex.There’s also a nerdy looking Asian guy which is pretty stereotypical.I mean I could spend this whole post ranting about the video alone but I’m not going to do that because the lyrics are actually worse than the music video itself believe it or not.With such stunning lyrics like “Bitch I love you” (Pro tip don’t call a woman a bitch when trying to say I love you) ,”Come on sit on my lap Or we'll send you back” (a classy reference to sex slavery) and “Ninja pussy I'm stabbin'” (I really hope that all the people involved in creating this music video and song are unable to get work.). after all the racist and sexist BS that was in this song the band (Day Above Ground) that was responsible for this putrid turd decided to call it satire in the sad attempt to cover up their racism/sexism but Even if it is actually satire it is extremely awful satire.It is really awful satire because there’s nothing in the video or the song to indicate that it is satire.No voice of reason popping in to share pain,instead the band decides to do a shout out to some Asian communities in order to imply that they have Asian friends…..really pathetic guys.

Also instead of giving you a link to the music video itself I decided it would be better to link analysis of the song instead since I do not want to give any more views that wretched video …..

Glee

The popular show "Glee" has every race possible on the show. It doesn't come off as a show with racial stereotypes, but once you start noticing the way the different characters if different races act you know it is. Not only does it have someone of every race, there's also a person of every religion, sexual orientation, and clique or type of person. Even though the show has all this diversity, it does not challenge the "dominant way of thinking." In this blog post I will be talking about how stereotypes are used in it. Stereotypes from race, sexuality, cliques, gender roles, etc. The character Kurt Hummel who figures out he's gay in the middle of the show, is a stereotype. Not all gay men act feminine, or girly. Kurt has no masculinity at all, and is the typical stereotype of gay men. In the show and like in real life the two genders are not treated equally. The men in the show have more power than the women. Instead of challenging the stereotypes the show fits right in, all the gay men act like women and do not have power. The show also has the white people dominant, for example in the "glee club" which gives the show the name Glee. In the club there are 7 white kids, 2 Asian girls, 2 African-Americans, and a Hispanic girl. The show is mainly about white people, with other races as the minorities. The big plots in the show are based around the white people, the white people also get all the main dialogue. African-Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and any other race in the show are the minorities.

Family Matters

Today in America there is a lot of controversy in the racial profiling of young black men. This topic has increased in the past year or two because of huge incidents. The show family matters is an older television show based in the 90s have an example of an episode of "Family Matters" where the son Eddie Winslow got pulled over for a failure to use a signal. His father Carl Winslow is also a cop of the Chicago area in the show and has a few words for the police officers who questioned his son. The show is old and has an old school feel to it so its before all of the Ferguson and Garland incidents but was still relevant and a huge topic in the 80s and 90s. Another reason its relevant to todays life is because there are many people worried about racial profiling in America against black people. A specific moment in the scene is when the black officer asks why his son was pulled over and it was said that he looked like a certain criminal that the police were looking for. The black officer knew the other white officer was lying because he didn't fit the description and he was the in charge of looking for these certain criminals. This also applies to my own life because I've been stopped at least three times by the police in the last year and it was because i was in a big group of people who looked like we were up to no good.

The Stereotype with gays

Key & Peele's sketch, Office Homophobe, promotes the stereotype that all gay people have. Key's character, Latrell, doesn't stop talking about sex. He also would get offended when ever Peele, who is a coworker just like Latrell, would say anything to him. Latrell calls Peele baby girl, Latrell also is overly gay about everything. Where his coworker is how most gay people are. People who are gay are just normal people who like the same sex.

Key and Peele "Black Ice" sketch

I decided to do my cultural analysis on a Key and Peele sketch called "Black Ice." The plot of the sketch is that four newscaster are talking about the horrible weather conditions when one of them brings up the term "black ice," resulting in a heated argument that is about "ice," but is really about race and stereotypes and how white people seem to see all black objects as bad, evil, useful, ext. using black ice as a metaphor to categorize black America.

Story of Gangstalicious

This shows what a typical black rapper has to be in the society we live in. The world looks at rappers as an icon of tough guys who are usually womanizers. Well this story is different in this particular work it shows a gangter rapper by the name of Ganstalicious. It shows his upbringings and how he is such a hardcore ganster. Riley one of the main characters looks up to Ganstalicious as young black kids look up to rappers now. Riley mind changes when he finds out his beloved Ganstalicious isn't as hardcore as he thought. Ganstalicious is actually a gay rapper who pretends to do all these things in order to become famous. If the world knew he was actually gay he wouldn't be the typical black ganster rapper everyone thought he was. Riley found him kissing another guy in the woods and that really hurt Riley, his icon has turned out to be actually gay. This mad Riley no longer a fan, but Ganstalicious lied to him and told him he wasn't gay. This piece shows how society expects blacks musicans to be ganster rappers and if they aren't then they are not accepted as artist and looked down on.

Cultural Analysis: The Exaggeration of Racism and Stereotypes

“But That’s not Racist” is a sketch made by YouTube personality, Dominic Sandoval. In this video, characters put a racist perspective when approaching someone of a different race. The different races featured were Caucasian, African American, and Middle Eastern. When Sandoval approached two African American men, Sandoval immediately fell on his knees pleading for his life and giving the two men his wallet when the two African American men knew it was simply an accident. As the video progresses, the two African American men approached a man from the Middle East and immediately the African American men dropped to their knees chanting for Allah. All in all the stereotypes were exaggerated but what makes these videos funny, about these controversial topics, is how comedians try to “push the buttons” of their audience. “But That’s Not Racist” may exaggerate the typical stereotypes of another race but it also identifies how people see each other based on history.

This sketch uses general stereotypes of the different races identified. In the early 2000’s Americans alienated Islamic people because of the 9/11 attack. Al Qaeda claimed they were Islamic but they were Extreme Jihadists seeking to cause danger to Americans. According to the Pew Research center 60% of Americans are concerned about Islamic Extremism arising in the United States. Because of this statistic 55% of people from the Middle East think it is harder to live in the United States since 9/11. Americans do not realize Al Qaeda was a terrorist group “claiming” Islamic values. This attack has posted a negative connotation on people from Middle Eastern descent.

For most African Americans, slavery is a difficult topic to talk about. In the video two African American men were offended because a Caucasian was giving them orders. The African American men intertwined that situation to pertain to slavery. Then made the Caucasian man feel bad while calling him a “cracker”. Slavery is always a hard topic to talk about because it took so long for people to accept African Americans as citizens and humans. Back in the 1800’s they were taken advantage of and treated brutally. Although it was a tough time in the United States not every African American should recall that notion because not all of the Caucasian race owned slaves and mistreated them.

History has a tendency to make the worst part of an event the perpetual memory of that event. Other comedic sketches such as “White People Can’t Dance” by Dave Chappelle and “The White Face Project” by Eddie Murphy exaggerate components of stereotypes that define a race. Their purpose is to make their audience laugh but to also prove these stereotypes false. The problem is that people make a generalization about others and their opinion is converted into a stereotype. That stereotype thrives on that race for a long time then once a person of that race “lives in the stereotype” they showcase that it is true. In his famous “I Had A Dream” speech, Martin Luther King said “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” The content of a person’s character is the only thing that should define that individual or group rather than stereotypes that generalize the whole race.

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