To be honest I don't really hold that
strong of an opinion on stereotypes. I grew up with a lot of people making
comments to me on Italian-Amerian stereotypes and, while people may not handle
it in the same way, I learned to laugh about it and move on. I see stereotypes
as a neutral thing. On one hand they are useful in identifying someone quickly,
on another hand they can be used in the negative aspect of out casting a group
of people (example for recent prejudices include Caucasians, men, black
Americans, Hispanic/ Cuban legal citizens, people who follow
Islamic rituals, police, and the higher and lower economic classes). However
some people who have gotten stereotyped frequently eventually used that as a
comedic advantage. Look at Jewish comedian Mel
Brooks who maked fun of his own Jewish stereotypes. If you want to look
into his work I suggest starting with The
History of The World Part One.
For design and representation, it
really does depend on where you are going with it. Sometimes stereotypes can be
used positively in political art/comics and comedy and it can work to help get some messages across and create a few laughs.
In animation exaggeration of features (ex. the curvy hour glass figure of a
woman and the strong upper bodied man) can make them easy to recognize and
memorable in the sense of simplification. Now when it comes to race that IS a
tricky thing to go by. However I believe people are free to go by how they wish
when it comes to design if it is their own. It's there right to express their
character how they wish. Heck, if I wanted to right now I'd draw myself to look
like Italian stereotype Mario from Super Mario Bros. or a "greaser"
in the 50s if that's how I wish to portray myself.
When it comes to a personal issue of
being stereotyped I have been stereotyped in more than one manner. One of these
stereotypes I will not go over though due to it being a confidential and being
a very personal private issue. I've been stereotyped for being a guido (which
is a modern day equivalent of calling an Italian-American W.O.P.), a homophobic
Catholic (I come from a Catholic family), and a racist and overly religious
republican. Now the last one is the only one that has bothered me growing up. I
can say as a person with friends of different backgrounds and ethnicities, not
identifying myself with religious labels or rules, and being ftm I don't fit
into the negative stereotype that has been sweeping the political field on the
right wing. In a separate incident, some people who I once called my friends,
would make fun of me for being Italian-American, while I could laugh at the
accent as a joke, I stopped laughing after being only addressed as a guido and
a W.O.P. I found it to be very obnoxious, so of course I cut my
ties. Other than those two particular incidences, I have not suffered in
my work or my personal life because of it, and laugh about it and joke about it
to this day. After 14 years of my life in speech therapy I learned that words
can be taken in any context but it's up to you to choose how to take them and it
goes with imagery too. I can say that it does apply to my life in the real
world. So in long story short, I have been affected by these stereotypes but
I've had more positive experiences than negatives all just because of the way I
handled the situations.
I will say that you all are welcome to disagree, I encourage intellectual diversity!
No comments:
Post a Comment