Media Influence on Stereotypes

What you see is non always what you lease In a society highly influenced by the media, stereotypes be used sometimes in a comedic way. In Harold and Kumar go to White Castle single of the main themes the mental picture is poking fun at is how stereotypes affect the lives of the both main characters one being of Korean decent and the different Indian. The movie opens introducing the first character Harold. The audience sees that he is an Asian male profitings in a cubicle for a banking company.The scope turns to Harolds co- bring iners who ar both albumen in an office that is nicer and bigger to that of Harold, discussing how they are passing to have fun and per centumy for the weekend when one of them has much organize to do, so one of them suggests having someone else do it. The background gives the impression that the 2 clean-living co-workers are the main characters of the movie as the introductory flick utters primarily the cardinal co-workers and have the approximately dialogue in the push throughline intro however, later the audience go out notice that they are not seen again until the end of the movie.What this scene is sh declare to do is to make humor out of a normalized stereotype of the Asian Ameri stick out concourse. As this scene leave behind be analyzed, the normalized stereotypes of Asians in society is highly recognizable in Ameri feces culture and media, as it negatively privileges the Asian group while obscuring Ameri keisters jeopardy of their own part in society. In todays worldly concern well-nigh battalion are born with an individualism already launch for them. Generalized perceptions or a stereotype of a single group has instigated prejudice.With cultural representations already de destinationined by the outside world, many sift to catch fire such(prenominal) representations in order to form their own identity and not what was given to them. It has increasingly to a greater extent difficult for one t o break such representation collect to itemors in society normalizing these representations with the use of the media. The media has shape a sinewy tool in promoting such representation of groups. Stereotypes evade the whole world we live in and are unavoidable.No matter what we do, depending on our personality, attire, or even our hairstyle everyone fits into some sort of stereotype even by a little. The definition of a stereotype is a standardized whim or idea of a group of people (Hurst). dismantle though most stereotypes arent unbowed there is a reason wherefore they exist and come about to thrive. Stereotypes have flourished continually as the world has flex more and more globalized. Especially in the United States one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world.As stereotypes exist they have consequently affect the way that a particular individual or group lives in society. One particular representation that volition be analyzed is the stereotypes of Asi ans in popular media, the movie Harold and Kumar go to White Castle and along with my own personal experiences being in the group within Asian Stereotypes will be used to assess the topic. Back at the beginning of this news report an introductory scene was described of the scoot Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. Even though the scene is only about a few proceedings many representations can be noted.The scene implements key normalized stereotypes seen in the macrocosm eye. The particular stereotype of Asian group has been connected to the term position Minority which applies positive traits as a stereotype. The traits include qualities such as being impregnable working(a), intelligent, studious, productive, and in like manner inoffensive people. Also known to increase their well-disposed status through merit. The biggest opposition to the view is that it exaggerates the success of Asians. This false sanction given by the stereotype c everyplaces up true problems that are approach by the Asian community.The belief that Asians are harder workers and thus leading to higher(prenominal) earning jobs has led to a more difficult train of climbing the work ladder into higher wage jobs, otherwise known as the icing ceiling phenomena The definition The Glass Ceiling refers to an invisible barrier that limits the level to which a woman or another member of a demographic nonage can advance within the hierarchy in an organization. It often is a barrier that portrays Ethnic Americans in addition to women when trying to reach upper management levels in many companies (Hester, 2007)Corresponding to the glass ceiling phenomena, the type nonage stereotype has been hoped to been the cause that Asians must acquire more culture and work more hours than their white tete-a-tetes to earn the same amount of money. We will go back to the same scene mentioned at the beginning and continue. The scene described before shows Harold the Korean descendent character work ing doggedly in his cubicle filling out forms and papers and he is thusly approached by the two co-workers mentioned earlier that were contemplating how they are going to party over the weekend when they have work to do.Afterwards it shows the two co-workers giving Harold a lot of their papers and folders then persuading Harold to do the work for them with Harold then unenthusiastically accept the task. Afterwards the scene shows the two co-workers in this short dialogue co-worker 1 Wow That was amazing I cant believe how easy that was Co-worker 2 Dude, how do you think I get all my shit done? Those Asian guys just love crunching numbers. You plausibly just make his weekend. (Both leave laughing)Then the camera pans over to Harold as he shouts Fuck The co-workers connect the traits of the stereotype to what they just did and sarcastically believe they did Harold a favor. What can be shown here in relation to the model minority stereotype is that Harold now has to do more work t han is required of him for his white counterparts. However doing this extra work will not earn him more money or any merit while his white counterpart will be doing less work and receiving the same credit as Harold is.The dialogue shows that the co-workers jokingly believe they are doing Harold a favor due to his traits which allows him to do such tasks however, the ending of the scene shows Harold shouting Fuck which can be seen as epitomizing reaction of Asians frustrations towards how this stereotype has affected them. The scene shows revolution towards the note of the model minority. This shows that even though the model minority label credits Asians with strong qualities in the end negatively affects them.What does the scene show about the white co-workers? The scene shows the co-workers of Harold irresponsibly passing off their work for someone else to do. This characteristic shows laziness in the white co-workers. This part of the scene was a way to laugh at both Harold an d also the two white co-workers. Why was this funny? The thing is that its sometimes true that these kinds of situations occur that is where the audience connects the humor in the situation. The scene reveals an abnormal of how Americans are usually viewed.Americans have been known to be hard workers through flake for freedom through the revolution to rising to one of the most powerful countries of the 20th century. Time goes on being on top, strong qualities can be seen to be fading away. The polarity is seen as Harold the Korean is hard working while the white co-workers are not. In the scene the white co-workers are laughing away semi-sadistically as they leave the building after(prenominal) taking advantage of their Asian co-worker. The significance of this is that the laughing disguises the white co-workers insecurity of their own work ethic is not as strong.Using the model minority stereotype has in a way been used to exploit as shown in the scene with the white co-workers u sing the stereotype to use Harold as a work horse. Even though the two white co-workers cant represent Americans it can represent a whole antithetical stereotype to be uncovered America has had a history in dealing with Asians in the past. Around the 19th century a term known as the Yellow Peril developed as a fear to the increasing number of Asians would immigrate to the United States and would fill the solid ground with foreign culture, speech, and even take away jobs from Americans.The fear that the hard working Asians would take away Americans position in the working world, a satire to the response of that fear is shown in the scene as it shows Harold has been used as a crutch to hold up the co-workers in power. In Amitava Kumars Language, a violent example is seen when Kumar describes the murder of Vincent Chin who was dispatch by two white autoworkers in Detroit. During so he was called a Jap and told Its because of you motherfuckers that were out of work. (p. 05, Critical Encounters With Text). Chin was off due to his ethnic identity which in some correlation was believed to mystify those auto workers out of work. Chin was murdered because in the view of the autoworkers was that he was somehow associated with the ethnic group that had replaced them. It could be that the people who replaced them were more efficient, harder working, or demanded lower wages. Whatever it was, they did not confront the face they themselves had anything to do with the fact they were out of work.Which is something that has become a problem in society is that people blame each other and do not choose to confront how they could have caused a certain event. The model minority stereotype has also affected my life personally being of Korean decent. Being part of the model minority stereotypes has caused to build expectations since we are expected to live up to our peers which fall into that category. In elementary school, I remember asking my teachers for abet and noticed som e reluctance in doing so. Then I cut my teachers dish uping other students seeming more inclined to help.This situation made it seem to me that I had to work a little harder than my peers in school. In high school, some teachers took personal offence if it seemed as I underperformed on an assignment believing I wasnt trying or was being lazy. Even though if I tried hard and didnt do well it was disappointing to see teachers lose faith due to a misinterpretation. All of these things were built upon the general assumptions brought on by the model minority stereotype, has made it so it was abnormal to not follow the trend of such a view.Assumptions are natural impulses that most cannot avoid to do. As man beings no matter what we see, there is some sort of impression that most of us come towards even without knowing the person. Some of these assumptions are maneuver from varying reasons including friends, family, face, hair, ethnicity, attire, gender, and the media. We analyzed how a particular scene in the film Harold and Kumar go to White Castle exemplifies a generalized assumption. Also a brief personal account on how the stereotype has affected me.Stereotypes induce unfairness as it classifies groups based on assumptions. Awareness of the consequences of stereotypes will help the problems associated with it. Stereotypes will continue to die down as long as the world is becoming more and more globalized. So therefore groups and cultures in America will become more connected with each other as time goes on causing familiarity, bringing down assumptions on a group and with this the concept, true equal opportunity will continue to become stronger.Works Cited Jon Hurwitz, Danny Leiner, Hayden Schlossberg . Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. (2001) Amitava Kumar. Language, by, reprinted from Passport Photos by permission of University of atomic number 20 Press. (2000) Hurst, Charles E. Social Inequality Forms, Causes, and Consequences. 6. Boston Pearson E ducation, Inc, 2007 Ruth Hester, published May 21, 2007 http//www. associatedcontent. com/ member/248276/the_glass_ceiling_and_its_effect_on. html? cat=3 Amy Kashiwabara, 1996 http//www. lib. berkeley. edu/MRC/Amydoc. html