Homosexuality and stereotypes

There is something I've noticed quite a bit in our American culture. Being completely gay, lesbian, or heterosexual is almost more acceptable and taken seriously than bisexuality. I've also noticed that bisexuality is often trendy among younger teens, making those who are actually bisexual fade into the crowd. Now, I'm not saying that those who claim to be bisexual aren't, but I've noticed that many young girls will call themselves bisexual even though they have no interest in the same sex. Basically they are just faking it because their favorite celebrity claims to be. Celebrities such as Megan Fox, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry claim to be bisexual, but are they really? Or are they saying so just for a publicity stunt? A female friend I have has had a steady girlfriend for three years and has had boyfriends as well. She is actually attracted to men and women, even if she tends to prefer women over men. She always complains to me how the trendiness of bisexuality in the media makes her relationships look like stunts for attention. Now I see the glamorization of homosexuality in media to have good and bad points. Some good points would be the exposure and acceptance that homosexuality has now in media. It is okay to be gay in Hollywood, which is quite a span since the 20's and 30's where being gay was seen as completely nuts and often portrayed in extremely camp fashions. As we enter 2012, I see more portrayal of gays and lesbians in sitcoms, television and literature. It is great! But, there are downsides to this glamorization. Some negatives would be how those who are indifferent to homosexuality views homosexuals based on what is presented to them through movies. Now those who accept homosexuality view the outrageous and hilarious ways gays are presented in movies as a way of mocking gay stereotypes from the old days of Hollywood. It is all for fun and not to be taken seriously. But, those who really have no opinion of gay culture see these outlandish stereotypes and take it as backup for their hatred of homosexuals. Many see these ways that the media interprets homosexuals as truth for every gay and lesbian. This is often seen with bisexuality. Since homophobic individuals see bisexual celebs and see it as a trend, they will not take those who are actually bisexual seriously. Perhaps we should take sexual orientation a little more seriously and not just throw around therms that don't apply to a certain individual.

Bisexuality hasn't just been seen in today's culture either. In the 70's, bisexuality was brought to light with the glam rock era. Musicians such as Marc Bolan, David Bowie and even Mick Jagger were all accused of having same sex relationships or affairs. 

I guess my point is that sexual orientations should be taken with more seriousness than it seem to be. The lightheartedness can still leave gays and lesbians in a place where they aren't taken as seriously and heterosexuals because of the trend label thrown on them. 

Children's sitcom shows and presentation of wealth

Though I stopped watching channels like Nickelodeon and Disney years ago, I have noticed a trend whilst flipping through the TV channels. Out of sheer curiosity, I watched an episode of a show called ICarly, about some girl who goes to school with her two friends and has her own internet show. Not only does the show have horrible writing, it also depicts a very unrealistic "apartment" that the girl Carly lives in. This apartment has a fancy elevator, huge rooms, a huge view outside, large fancy kitchen, and everything else to imply that Carly and her brother must somehow be VERY wealthy to afford. But that's not it, Carly also goes to a school where everything is state of the art, and all the children are decked out in designer clothes (product placement too). Though the show doesn't say anything about wealth or income, it is implied that Carly and her friends are wealthy. A lot wealthier than the children who are probably watching the show. Though I was really young, I remember that shows in the late 90's like Even Steven or Boy meets World all depicted middle class average families. Now it seems as we dive into the 2010's, families are being depicted as wealthy and luxurious. The women in these shows always have the best makeup, clothes and hair,  just for attending school. Though the actresses (and actors) are probably in their 20's in reality, in the shows they're depicted as young teenagers. Another example would be this show called Wizards of Waverly Place (trust me, I'm not proud of admitting that I've actually heard of/watched these shows). The home of the main characters, the little restaurant they own, clothing on their back and lifestyle all indicates wealth. This new show on Disney "Victorious" (thank god I never watched this one, I just researched it hee hee), is about a girl who goes to an art school. The school, her home, and her clothes all show that she is wealthy. I have noticed out of all these shows on children's television, no one is depicted as being average middle class, with problems that expand beyond scoring that guy or chipping a nail. I feel that these messages of "if you're wealthy, you're happy" is bad for children, especially those who come from poverty. I feel that television shows for children should be made to make them feel good about themselves, but instead we present them with the ideas that everyone else is wealthy but you. This relates to what was discussed in class about the depiction of wealth in the media. The American dream is to be wealthy. The wealthy are always discussed in media, while the poor never seem to exist.

Just some examples of shows I've found. I have found about 15 all together but I will only post some. You will see the trend. 

[1]

[2]

[3]

 [4]

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See, what did I tell you? Too many shows about rich kids on TV. Now, don't get me wrong, there is nothing WRONG with kids who come from wealthy families, I'm just saying that this trend of shows shows children that being wealthy means being popular and being happy.

Citations

[1] http://www.thecriticalcondition.com/2010/01/27/icarly/

[2] http://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail?pid=134689

[3] http://www.disneydreaming.com/disney-tv-shows/wizards-of-waverly-place/

[4] http://www.partybus.bz/Suite_Life/index.html

[5] http://www.fanpop.com/spots/austin-and-ally/images/27870795/title/austin-ally-photo

Ashton Kutcher as "Raj"...

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I just found this article about five minutes ago while I was browsing around the UK news site daily-mail.com. Apparently Ashton Kutcher stars in a commercial where he is depicting a very stereotypical Indian man in a dating video along with some other characters. Here is the video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DLdobzj_9_I

Now, as I watched the video, I noticed all the stereotypical ways he was depicting the Indian man. First, he says that he is a Bollywood Star, and I've noticed that Americans have been conditioned to associate Indians with Bollywood. The way he painted his skin darker to portray someone of Asian descent  strike me and remind me of the depiction of black face that we saw in The Jazz Singer. Even though I know this commercial wasn't purposefully made to taunt Indians or anyone else, it shows how we as a country are so conditioned to seeing white portrayal of other ethnicities that we hardly notice that something is borderline racist until an article tells us it is. I have noticed this trend in other movies as well. In the 2007 film, The Love Guru, Mike Meyers portrays a Hindu man in a very stereotypical white veiled view.  Here are screenshots from the movie.

[2]

[3]

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By the way, the actor in the last frame is actually the man who plays Gandhi in the very famous 1982 movie. Kind of funny how he goes from playing a wonderful man who defies all stereotypes to playing a stereotype many years later. My findings relate to the articles in America On Film about stereotypes of Native Americans and Blacks. There is a section on portrayal of Asian Americans on Film too. The stereotypes in all of these sections relate to the stereotypes I see in portrayal of Indians in film. Americans always seem to depict Indians as being magical, spiritual, violent, and obsessed with Bollywood and belly dancing. Indian women are always sexualized in American culture too. Kind of how Latina woman and Asian women are depicted as exotic and sexy in American Culture. The media is unfortunately a large source of where Americans get their ideas of people from other countries. If you ask many Americans about Indian women, they will think of someone like Aishwarya Rai, one of the most famous Bollywood Actresses shown in American television.  She is always depicted as being very sexy in films so Americans get the sense that all Indian women are like this and start to treat foreign women as objects instead of individuals based on the movies they see. I think we as a people need to start seeing everyone as individuals instead of letting ourselves clump different people into groups.

Citations

[1] http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Entertainment/20120503/ashton-kutcher-online-indian-ad-120503/

[2] http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/25213879/ns/today-entertainment/t/love-guru-cinematic-bed-nails/#.T6NG7tViZ1w

[3] http://mimg.sulekha.com/english/the-love-guru/stills/the-love-guru29.jpg

[4] http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-