By default, the lies, and stereotypes that we perpetuate embed themselves into the public mind. As a result, these lies reciprocate themselves into truths because of its embedment into the public mind. As Said described, Westerners get a "book" which they use to compare the different people and cultures they perceive to their own. When our views or beliefs don't align, we then choose to create harmful and hateful stereotypes. However, the solution is simple. If we live looking through the lens that Said described, one that enables a "dynamic perspective" and continues with a "multi-story mindset," then, perhaps, we can abate our own alienating speech.
Showing posts with label Stereotypes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stereotypes. Show all posts
Friday, April 5, 2019
Orientalism - Western Ignorance
Orientalism attempted to answer the question held by individuals in the Middle East - How do we come to understand people that are ethnically, culturally, and socially different than us? Orientalism's physical lens enables an individual from the West to look through and see people from the East indulge in their stereotypes. It also creates an image outside of history that last forever; It creates an ideal other. It's not a description of the context in which Easterners live, but an argument as to why they live in that specific way. Orientalism is the idea that Western people are very quick to make assumptions, judgments, and accusations. The privileged, dominant voice of Western culture reinforces the stereotypes associated with Eastern culture. Therefore, the perpetual use of stereotypes about Eastern culture is unjustified when Westerners are not able to fully comprehend and identify with their way of life.
By default, the lies, and stereotypes that we perpetuate embed themselves into the public mind. As a result, these lies reciprocate themselves into truths because of its embedment into the public mind. As Said described, Westerners get a "book" which they use to compare the different people and cultures they perceive to their own. When our views or beliefs don't align, we then choose to create harmful and hateful stereotypes. However, the solution is simple. If we live looking through the lens that Said described, one that enables a "dynamic perspective" and continues with a "multi-story mindset," then, perhaps, we can abate our own alienating speech.
By default, the lies, and stereotypes that we perpetuate embed themselves into the public mind. As a result, these lies reciprocate themselves into truths because of its embedment into the public mind. As Said described, Westerners get a "book" which they use to compare the different people and cultures they perceive to their own. When our views or beliefs don't align, we then choose to create harmful and hateful stereotypes. However, the solution is simple. If we live looking through the lens that Said described, one that enables a "dynamic perspective" and continues with a "multi-story mindset," then, perhaps, we can abate our own alienating speech.
Friday, February 22, 2019
Hidden Message
Although Keegan-Micheal Key and Jordan Peele's Comedy TV skits "Key and Peele" are generally seen as purely comedic, there can be some main ideas or arguments behind their skits. In the skit "Prepared for the Terries" there are two characters on a plane sitting next to a random man. The two characters who are together are typically dressed differently and have very strange looking hairstyles, as well as speak in a very strange way. The two main characters proceed to explain to the man sitting next to them that they are prepared for "terries" or terrorists.
The obvious satirical device used in this skit would be irony. This would be Irony because it is conveying a message by using an extreme situation as an example of the opposite of their argument, their argument clearly being that people that you may see as strange or different than you should not be stereotyped as dangerous or a threat. The use of irony for this skit allows Key and Peele to keep the comedy aspect of their skit while also portraying the deeper message of the skit.
To go into depth about their argument, it can be said that their argument is that people who don't look like you are portrayed as a threat to your life or crazy. In this skit by Key and Peele, they portray strange looking people who talk and act pretty strange as well, telling a passenger next to them that they are "prepared for the terries" and how they plan to defend themselves from the terrorist. in doing this they bring a 3D printed gun and box opener onto the plane to defend themselves. But in doing this, they put the other passengers at risk and therefore portrays that people that don't look the same as other people are dangerous.
Friday, March 23, 2018
Orientalism in the Shell
Orientalism, or the stereotypical portrayal of Asian and Middle Eastern culture in films and other artistic works, is not very hard to notice once you start looking for it. Movies like Aladdin take on a whole new light. The West has an enormous collection of films, paintings, and TV shows that fall into this trap, but I started to wonder how actual Asian films do in relation to their Western counterparts. Specifically, I thought about the original Ghost in the Shell from 1995 and the remake from 2017. Sure enough, the remake held many examples of what we would think of when we hear "Japanese" city would be. In particular, the remake clutters its city with a seemingly impossible number of holographic displays that I think are supposed to be advertisements, almost all of which contain things that are "Japanese" like people wearing kimono, large glowing koi fish swimming around buildings, or large signs featuring Kanji that would be totally illegible from anywhere except from sweeping helicopter shots that we are presented with. One image that kept reappearing was someone who seemed to have fans growing out of their head. I'm not really sure what that's supposed to be. These things may find their roots in actual Japanese culture, but in this film they serve to do little else than to attempt to create an atmosphere. They serve no real purpose in terms of plot, and really would not be realistic in the world of the film. Here are two identical shots from the remake and the original:
You can see a little bit of the holographic billboards in the background here, but if you notice, the original's skyline looks just like a city. It looks like a futuristic cyberpunk city, but it's still a city. When it comes down to it, the original Japanese creators see their own cities as being just that, cities. There is no reason to flood them with stereotypical Japanese imagery as that won't make it any more of a Japanese city than if it hadn't been there.
Similarly, the remake attempts to shadow the original's opening scene. The movies open on a strike operation being run by Section 9, a division of a Public Security department under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Both scenes essentially result in a window being shot in by the main character, but the scene's execution deviates here from the original. In the original, a meeting is interrupted and a foreign diplomat is assassinated, preventing a programmer from defecting the country, and that's it. However in the remake, the scene involves a meeting between an African leader and a member of a company that is attacked by terrorists and hacked geisha-bots. That's right, robotic geisha. These robots wind up playing a decently large role in the film, being used in later scenes to gather information via hacking, but when you boil things down, this is just another instance of the remake trying to fit as many things that seem Japanese into the film. They rely on that to create a feel of wonder and fascination as much as they do the future technology that is prevalent in both films.
The remake also sneaks other Japanese stereotypes into the remake. The head of Section 9 is Japanese, and he is also the only character in what is clearly made to be Japan to speak Japanese. It feels out of place, and they even changed the character from the original into the stoic tight-laced kind of stereotypical Japanese police chief. The first thing that the main character's Japanese mother (even though Scarlet Johansen plays the main character) does when she sees her is offer tea. The more you dig in this movie the more instances of Orientalism you see, and with the original movie to compare against, each offense just grows in severity.
These two films show that Orientalism has not faded from our media. The original gave a rarer perspective from the actual culture being represented, while the remake shows the American take on it. The remake is just a bad movie in general, but the stereotypes it employs to create its setting create even more barriers that prevent me from enjoying the film. The remake tried too hard to be the original, except bigger and better, and it wound up just being more empty as a result. Interestingly, the fist movie opens with these lines: "In the not so distant future, when the corporate networks fill the Earth with electronic and optical communication lines, but society has not yet been too computerized to erase nations and races..." The city the original portrays is still Japanese, and it manages not to have all the same in your face stereotypical Japanese representations. The remake, with what its producer called an "international world" embraces Orientalism completely and fills its film with stereotypes. Orientalism is alive and well.
Similarly, the remake attempts to shadow the original's opening scene. The movies open on a strike operation being run by Section 9, a division of a Public Security department under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Both scenes essentially result in a window being shot in by the main character, but the scene's execution deviates here from the original. In the original, a meeting is interrupted and a foreign diplomat is assassinated, preventing a programmer from defecting the country, and that's it. However in the remake, the scene involves a meeting between an African leader and a member of a company that is attacked by terrorists and hacked geisha-bots. That's right, robotic geisha. These robots wind up playing a decently large role in the film, being used in later scenes to gather information via hacking, but when you boil things down, this is just another instance of the remake trying to fit as many things that seem Japanese into the film. They rely on that to create a feel of wonder and fascination as much as they do the future technology that is prevalent in both films.
The remake also sneaks other Japanese stereotypes into the remake. The head of Section 9 is Japanese, and he is also the only character in what is clearly made to be Japan to speak Japanese. It feels out of place, and they even changed the character from the original into the stoic tight-laced kind of stereotypical Japanese police chief. The first thing that the main character's Japanese mother (even though Scarlet Johansen plays the main character) does when she sees her is offer tea. The more you dig in this movie the more instances of Orientalism you see, and with the original movie to compare against, each offense just grows in severity.
These two films show that Orientalism has not faded from our media. The original gave a rarer perspective from the actual culture being represented, while the remake shows the American take on it. The remake is just a bad movie in general, but the stereotypes it employs to create its setting create even more barriers that prevent me from enjoying the film. The remake tried too hard to be the original, except bigger and better, and it wound up just being more empty as a result. Interestingly, the fist movie opens with these lines: "In the not so distant future, when the corporate networks fill the Earth with electronic and optical communication lines, but society has not yet been too computerized to erase nations and races..." The city the original portrays is still Japanese, and it manages not to have all the same in your face stereotypical Japanese representations. The remake, with what its producer called an "international world" embraces Orientalism completely and fills its film with stereotypes. Orientalism is alive and well.
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
A Service Trip, a Cartoon Character, or a Hollywood Blockbuster
A service trip that costs more than it gives, a history squeezed into a cartoon character, a Hollywood blockbuster that perpetuates the fetishization of one or more cultures- Orientalism in all forms is toxic and all too common. As a child I was attracted to the cartoon movies with female leads. I grew into this notion that the Disney classic, Mulan was a signal of the media becoming more progressive and inclusive.
One of the strongest reasons Orientalism is still heavily normalized in the Western world is the lack of motivation to change our ignorance surrounding the history, cultures, and countries of Asia. Ignorance is the very basis of Orientalism, moreover it’s the basis of discrimination, prejudice, stereotypes, and other disparaging social and institutional barriers. We as students know how the majority of public education (predominantly early education) treats the expansion of perspectives and cultures, as a tourist attraction worth a week of class. Something to skim through, memorizing specific names of warriors, rulers, religions, inevitably flowing back into the Eurocentric perspective. We notice classes such as Latin American History, Native American History, Women in History, African American History, are all elective classes. There are only 30 colleges and universities with an "Asian American Studies" as an elective, usually found in a minor curriculum. Even in the cases of elective classes trying to fit in an entire region’s history into a semester long class, vital pieces of our global puzzle are bound to be skipped over, left behind, and underrepresented.
I am not at all trying to say our public education is the sole reason Orientalism still exists. The root of the issue is an unmotivated majority. Westerns are so used to having this one single narrative of every Asian culture be retold over and over again that it becomes normal to be ignorant.
I have fed into Orientalism. I have thought, accepted, and assumed without research, without true knowledge or a larger grasp, and have thus fed into the acceptance of ignorance, stereotyping, and erasure of cultures. One person's decision to learn more can become a sea of self-expansion and open-mindedness when enough people stop to self-reflect. Asia is the largest continent on this planet. The idea that Western culture or Westerners can squeeze 48 countries and 100,000 years of history into a service trip, a cartoon character, or a Hollywood blockbuster is due to normalized passivity and ignorance.
One of the strongest reasons Orientalism is still heavily normalized in the Western world is the lack of motivation to change our ignorance surrounding the history, cultures, and countries of Asia. Ignorance is the very basis of Orientalism, moreover it’s the basis of discrimination, prejudice, stereotypes, and other disparaging social and institutional barriers. We as students know how the majority of public education (predominantly early education) treats the expansion of perspectives and cultures, as a tourist attraction worth a week of class. Something to skim through, memorizing specific names of warriors, rulers, religions, inevitably flowing back into the Eurocentric perspective. We notice classes such as Latin American History, Native American History, Women in History, African American History, are all elective classes. There are only 30 colleges and universities with an "Asian American Studies" as an elective, usually found in a minor curriculum. Even in the cases of elective classes trying to fit in an entire region’s history into a semester long class, vital pieces of our global puzzle are bound to be skipped over, left behind, and underrepresented.
I am not at all trying to say our public education is the sole reason Orientalism still exists. The root of the issue is an unmotivated majority. Westerns are so used to having this one single narrative of every Asian culture be retold over and over again that it becomes normal to be ignorant.
I have fed into Orientalism. I have thought, accepted, and assumed without research, without true knowledge or a larger grasp, and have thus fed into the acceptance of ignorance, stereotyping, and erasure of cultures. One person's decision to learn more can become a sea of self-expansion and open-mindedness when enough people stop to self-reflect. Asia is the largest continent on this planet. The idea that Western culture or Westerners can squeeze 48 countries and 100,000 years of history into a service trip, a cartoon character, or a Hollywood blockbuster is due to normalized passivity and ignorance.
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
Legally Blonde
A trailer of the film Legally Blonde
Legally Blonde is an American Comedy Film from 2001. To begin, the film follows the life of Elle Woods, a fashion merchandising student. After being broken up with because she wasn't "serious enough" and would detract from her boyfriend's image, Elle decides to attend Harvard Law School. After struggling to fit in and be accepted into a new world, Elle eventually rises as a successful Lawyer who ends up happy in the end of the film. As a result, this film follows the general guidelines of what is defined as a comedy. However, Legally Blonde is not only one and a half hour of laughs, but a challenge to stereotypes and labels in society.
For starters, Elle is introduced to the audience as what someone would immediately label a "sorority girl" and a "blonde." These stereotypes are often used in film and television to create comedy. She immediately begins to challenge these stereotypes when pursuing Law. "Blondes" are depicted as unintelligent or simpleminded. Elle's studying and academic characteristics oppose these assumptions. Once Elle has been accepted into Harvard Law School after relentless work and dedication, the comedy continues. She walks in dressed in all pink with a "SoCal" vernacular. With little hesitation, students and professors at Harvard begin to comment and ridicule her appearance. Not only is emphasis put on the labels Elle embodies, but a new set of stereotypes are introduced, East Coast, Harvard graduates. This contrast between the characters produces comedic moments as they clash.
Eventually, Elle is able to establish herself and reach success. Her dedication to education and her career challenge the stereotypes society often laughs at. She gains respect and confidence in herself in comparison to the beginning when she is left heartbroken and alone. While Elle may be an extreme depiction of labels like "blonde" and "sorority girl," the film uses comedy to introduce them and to tell society to stop pushing individuals into these categories and to break away from the habit of judging those who step outside of what is considered normal. Legally Blonde may be a comedy detailing the life of Elle Woods from "blonde" to a Lawyer, but it continues to highlight and propose possible solutions to society's judgments by just being yourself.
Friday, November 10, 2017
Stereotyping Beloved
The reason I like Beloved is because there are no stereotypes involved. All the characters are complex, contradictory and all the interactions are tense, longing and real.
For instance, from the beginning it is clear that Denver is lonely. She has no friends, spends all her time in 124, and is jealous of Paul D for attracting the attention of her mother. However, she is simultaneously afraid of her mother, her only companion, and really longs for her father.
Furthermore, it is clear that Sethe is strong willed and independent. She runs away from Sweet Home and gives birth on the road with only the help of Amy, a white girl. But she is also overcome with memories that threaten her sanity. She is a loving mother but she is also a murderer.
The community that Sethe, her children, and Baby Suggs live in is one of unity and tight bonds. Stamp Paid says that he never has to knock at most doors before he goes on in. But it is also one of jealousy and hurt: when they see how well-off Sethe's family is they don't warn them about the four white people coming to kidnap.
I think that this book helps to reveal the many nuances in people and in life. I think that if you passionately hate a group of people, be they a minority, a political group, a religion, then you are mistaken or misinformed. People are not simple enough to be characterized as evil or good. Binaries like these are social constructs that create dangerous simplifications. They get rid of the reason to try to understand people individually. They get rid of any need for critical thought or analysis. They make it easy to hate. When we recognize that people are difficult to comprehend we open up a place for them to be the one defining and not the defined.
For instance, from the beginning it is clear that Denver is lonely. She has no friends, spends all her time in 124, and is jealous of Paul D for attracting the attention of her mother. However, she is simultaneously afraid of her mother, her only companion, and really longs for her father.
Furthermore, it is clear that Sethe is strong willed and independent. She runs away from Sweet Home and gives birth on the road with only the help of Amy, a white girl. But she is also overcome with memories that threaten her sanity. She is a loving mother but she is also a murderer.
The community that Sethe, her children, and Baby Suggs live in is one of unity and tight bonds. Stamp Paid says that he never has to knock at most doors before he goes on in. But it is also one of jealousy and hurt: when they see how well-off Sethe's family is they don't warn them about the four white people coming to kidnap.
I think that this book helps to reveal the many nuances in people and in life. I think that if you passionately hate a group of people, be they a minority, a political group, a religion, then you are mistaken or misinformed. People are not simple enough to be characterized as evil or good. Binaries like these are social constructs that create dangerous simplifications. They get rid of the reason to try to understand people individually. They get rid of any need for critical thought or analysis. They make it easy to hate. When we recognize that people are difficult to comprehend we open up a place for them to be the one defining and not the defined.
Tuesday, November 8, 2016
Eternally Fitting the Description
"And you are not the guy and still you fit the description because there is only one guy who is always the guy fitting the description" (108).
This line stood out to me specifically not only because of the sadness in it but because of how it ties to what is going on in our contemporary world. Donald Trump supports the ¨stop and frisk.¨ However, the only people he feels that should be checked out are people of color. This is also known as racial profiling. It is sad to know that in 2016 the world is still controlled by stereotypes and fear those around them. I, personally, have never been stopped and frisk. Then again, being a middle class white girl I don´t ¨fit the description.¨ I can´t imagine the constant paranoia just walking down the street or in this person´s case, driving in a car at night. I understand that everyone wants the world to be safe but there needs to be an easier/less offensive way of doing it. Targeting certain races is not going to push a country forward but launch it back several decades. We have come this far and we have the ability to continue forward but that means we as a society need to adapt to the changes the world is making in order for everyone to live equally.
This line stood out to me specifically not only because of the sadness in it but because of how it ties to what is going on in our contemporary world. Donald Trump supports the ¨stop and frisk.¨ However, the only people he feels that should be checked out are people of color. This is also known as racial profiling. It is sad to know that in 2016 the world is still controlled by stereotypes and fear those around them. I, personally, have never been stopped and frisk. Then again, being a middle class white girl I don´t ¨fit the description.¨ I can´t imagine the constant paranoia just walking down the street or in this person´s case, driving in a car at night. I understand that everyone wants the world to be safe but there needs to be an easier/less offensive way of doing it. Targeting certain races is not going to push a country forward but launch it back several decades. We have come this far and we have the ability to continue forward but that means we as a society need to adapt to the changes the world is making in order for everyone to live equally.
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Us vs. Them
Edward Said defines Orientalism as a pattern of making certain generalization about the part of the world known as the East. He specifically states, “Orientalism was ultimately a political vision of reality whose structure promoted the difference between the familiar (Europe, West, “us”) and the strange (the Orient, the East, “them”)” (3). He continues on to say that Orientalism is a theory to most people, but it needs to start be looked at as reality. The stereotypes that follow it prove that the theory are real today. The idea of Orientalism creates an inverse relationship between the East and West. The East is portrayed as unorganized and chaotic and the West is analyzed as superior and great.
The stereotypes and suggestive differences are evident in the present-day Western culture. Due to Orientalism, the East will never be equal to the West. A typical stereotype is that laborers are paid less in the East than in the West. I think not only is this stereotype true, but the West utilizes their cheap labor to improve their own economy. The West clearly embraces the stereotype and even takes advantage of it. Also, in pop culture, it is evident that there is clear division between the East and West. The way that movies portray the East is mostly violent and the government there is unorganized. Meanwhile, the West is displayed as cheerful and well established. I think that today people have an Orientalist mindset even if they claim that they have put previous judgments behind them.
Thursday, November 5, 2015
America's Heart of Darkness: The Middle East
During the years of European imperialism in Africa, Joseph Conrad saw the Congo as Europe's (specifically Belgium's) heart of darkness. In modern day America, we have our own heart of darkness: the Middle East.
Take Iraq, for example. In 2003, American troops invaded and conquered Iraq. We invaded Iraq under the pretense of disarming Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, ending Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, and freeing the people of Iraq. This scenario and rationale is very similar to that of the Belgium's in Heart of Darkness.
The U.S. invades Iraq to destroy weapons of mass destruction and to "free" its people, and Belgium invades the Congo to "civilize" its people. Hypocrisy is easily identifiable in both cases. Iraq, in fact, had no weapons of mass destruction to threaten the world with, and many Iraqis greeted the American troops not as liberators, but as enemies. America claimed that it waged war on Iraq to stop potential nuclear war and to free an oppressed people, but obviously neither of these reasons were true. In the case of Heart of Darkness, Belgium never actually "civilized" the Congo, or even really tried to do so.
So why, if not for the reasons that they stated, did Belgium occupy the Congo? And why did America occupy Iraq? Well, the answer is pretty simple. They did it for money. Belgium couldn't care less about "civilizing" the Congo. It only conquered the Congo for its ivory. Money and profit at the root of this question. America went to war with Iraq for oil. Official statements do not matter; America used Iraq and the rest of the Middle East as a scapegoat for 9/11 and jumped at the chance to go to war and make a profit off oil. As soon as the U.S. could open up areas of Iraqi energy sectors to foreign investments after the war, it did so. American oil companies made enormous profits.
As a side effect of Belgium's ideology of "civilizing" the people of the Congo, many people throughout Belgium came to think of the Congolese very one-dimensionally; they thought of them as beasts that needed to be tamed. As a side effect of America using an entire region as a scapegoat for one terrorist act, many Americans have developed completely unjustified prejudices against anyone of Middle Eastern descent. This is exemplified by Ahmed Mohamed, a boy who was arrested for having a muslim-sounding name and brown skin (he built a clock, brought it to school, and people though it was a bomb, so he was arrested).
Take Iraq, for example. In 2003, American troops invaded and conquered Iraq. We invaded Iraq under the pretense of disarming Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, ending Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, and freeing the people of Iraq. This scenario and rationale is very similar to that of the Belgium's in Heart of Darkness.
The U.S. invades Iraq to destroy weapons of mass destruction and to "free" its people, and Belgium invades the Congo to "civilize" its people. Hypocrisy is easily identifiable in both cases. Iraq, in fact, had no weapons of mass destruction to threaten the world with, and many Iraqis greeted the American troops not as liberators, but as enemies. America claimed that it waged war on Iraq to stop potential nuclear war and to free an oppressed people, but obviously neither of these reasons were true. In the case of Heart of Darkness, Belgium never actually "civilized" the Congo, or even really tried to do so.
So why, if not for the reasons that they stated, did Belgium occupy the Congo? And why did America occupy Iraq? Well, the answer is pretty simple. They did it for money. Belgium couldn't care less about "civilizing" the Congo. It only conquered the Congo for its ivory. Money and profit at the root of this question. America went to war with Iraq for oil. Official statements do not matter; America used Iraq and the rest of the Middle East as a scapegoat for 9/11 and jumped at the chance to go to war and make a profit off oil. As soon as the U.S. could open up areas of Iraqi energy sectors to foreign investments after the war, it did so. American oil companies made enormous profits.
As a side effect of Belgium's ideology of "civilizing" the people of the Congo, many people throughout Belgium came to think of the Congolese very one-dimensionally; they thought of them as beasts that needed to be tamed. As a side effect of America using an entire region as a scapegoat for one terrorist act, many Americans have developed completely unjustified prejudices against anyone of Middle Eastern descent. This is exemplified by Ahmed Mohamed, a boy who was arrested for having a muslim-sounding name and brown skin (he built a clock, brought it to school, and people though it was a bomb, so he was arrested).
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