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2.2.0

STEREOTYPES

The word stereotype was invented by a French printer, engraver and type founder named Firmin Didot (1764-1836). (Stereotype, 2001) Stereotype which in printing refers to the metal printing plate created for the actual printing of pages as opposed to printing pages directly with movable type and used the process extensively, revolutionizing the book trade by his cheap editions. (Firmin Didot, 2001)

Holt A, n.d.

Fig.1 A comical represeantation of stereotypes. Source: http://thrdgll.tripod.com/stereotypes.htm

A "stereotype" is a generalization about a person or group of people often in a negative or prejudicial manner. (Grobman G, 20
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1990) It could be one of the worst feature of the human nature since it is we develop stereotypes when we are unable or unwilling to obtain all of the information we would need to make fair judgments about people or situations. When this happens we would not be sure what has happened and stereotypes in many cases allow us to "fill in the blanks." It is because the total picture of the situation is not available. Thus, to make it complete, we often create a stereotype. Our society often innocently creates and perpetuates stereotypes, but these stereotypes often lead to unfair discrimination and persecution when the stereotype is unfavourable. (Grobman G, 1990) For example, if a girl has to walk through a park late at night and encounter three young guys wearing junky clothes, she would definitely not feel safe even though they did not threaten her. However, if the same girl encounters three senior citizens wearing coats and walking with canes, she would definitely not fell threatened. (Grobman G, 1990) Why is this so? The answer is simple. We have made a generalization in each case. When we go to the roots of these generalizations, these are experiences we have had ourselves, read about in books and magazines, seen in movies or television, or have had related to us by friends and family. However, it is proved that these stereotypical generalizations are reasonably accurate in many cases. Yet, in virtually every case, we are resorting to prejudice by ascribing characteristics about a person based on a stereotype, without knowledge of
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the total facts. By stereotyping, we assume that a person or group has certain characteristics. Quite often, we have stereotypes about persons who are members of groups with which we have not had firsthand contact. (Grobman G, 1990) Television, books, comic strips, and movies are all abundant sources of stereotyped characters. For much of its history, the movie industry portrayed African-Americans as being unintelligent, lazy, or violence-prone. As a result of viewing these stereotyped pictures of African-Americans, for example, discrimination against African-Americans has been encouraged. (Grobman G, 1990)

2.2.1 Stereotypes conveyed in Television and movies Stereotyped characters can negatively influence the way we view real people in society. Television tends to depict racial groups , as well as genders, in the same manner. More often than not these groups are stereotyped in a negative way by television. People who watch large amounts of television begin to view these people negatively in real life. They base their opinions on how they see these groups on television. Positive stereotypes can also be found by viewing television. However, there are far fewer positive stereotypes then negative ones.

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2.2.1.1

Gender Stereotypes

The majority of gender related studies focused their attention on women. Very few studies involve male stereotypes. Studies have shown that women are portrayed on television as passive, being dominated by men, governed by emotion, overly emotional or dependent.

Movie posters, n.d.

Fig.2 Angelina Jolie as the hero in Tomb Raider. One of the few movies in Hollywood that a women given a heroic role. Source:http://www.sciencefictionmuseum.org

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Women are also depicted as less intelligent then men and generally weak. The roles which women are assigned tend to be marital and family oriented. In addition, women are rarely shown to be able to successfully combine marriage and employment. There are few women in the heroic role than men except for few stereotypical characters like Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider and Jenniffer Lopez in Enough. This could be availed as a recent trend and perhaps a positive impact on the prolonged dominancy of the males in the industry as well. However, still, men tend to be shown as more dominant, more violent and more powerful than women. Men on TV and movies are more likely to disparage women than vice versa. They drive; drink and smoke more, do athletic things, and make more plans. They are found more in the world of things than in relationships. 2.2.1.2 Racial stereotypes

The practice of racial stereotyping through the use of media has been used throughout contemporary history by various factions in the societies to attain various goals. The practice is used most by the dominant culture in this society as a way of suppressing its minority population. (Gray S, 1996) In the contemporary world, the most affective way in which stereotypes are perpetuated is through the mediums of film and television. (Gray S, 1996) For example as mentioned before, the way that the African-American are being portrayed in the American society constantly bombard American children
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with negative and unrealistic portrayals of African-American life or deny the existence of African-Americans in a true American society at all. Movies like The Birth of a Nation (1915), Boys n the hood (1991) and Menace to society (1993) are good examples of racial stereotypes.

Myspace.com, 2003 Fig. 3. Poster of the movie Boyz n the hood (1991). A movie portraying the violence and criminal acts of the African Americans. Source: http://www.myspace.com

Television and movies play a vital role in the way the people generalize about a certain group people. It is not only the African Americans. For example in movies, the Italians are generally depicted as Mafia hoodlums. The Egyptians are seen as the deserters. People from Middle east are portrayed as terrorists or oil sheiks. (Gray S, 1996) 25

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2.2.1.3

Positive stereotypes

Children are the ones who tend to benefit the most from television. Although there is a concern about children learning negative stereotypes, a lot can be learned by watching television. Children can learn about various occupations by seeing a variety of careers being portrayed by characters on television. Script and schemes for social situations are learned based upon television prototypes. Critics have endlessly praise Sesame Street for its ability to incorporate various racial groups into its show. Children are able to see different racial groups interacting in a positive way with one another. An increase in positive inter-group attitudes has been identified among preschoolers.

Hoback M, 2005

Fig.4. A scene from the famous children TV show Sesame Street. Source: http://www.salon.com (Semester 8, Design Reflective Practice) Entered to journal on 18 July 2006

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2.2.3

Role of Stereotypes in design

Organizations often need designs that communicate messages to specific groups. The danger in this is that stereotypes may evolve once a message, product or service is too strongly associated with a particular group. The stereotypes mentioned early in this topic denote such blatant and dangerous stereotypes. For example, Arabs are now pictured and represented as terrorist. Most of the time, these stereotypes are created for propaganda and there are some that exist today in mainstream culture which we dont even recognize and then there are those that are yet to take shape. (Heller, 2004)

Keep this horror from your home n.d. Fig. 5. Japanese soldier, with knife

and sharpened teeth, attacks a white woman Source: http://bss.sfsu.edu/internment/posters.html

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The above poster demonstrates the brutality of Japanese soldiers during the World War II. Attacking a white woman possibly depicts that this poster is directed towards the Japanese attack to Pearl Harbour in 1941. In war conventions, it is a severe crime to molest abuse and kill women and children. However, this poster show that the Japanese deviating from it. When these kinds of posters are illustrated, people who watch it would definitely create hatred attitude. This would create violent and unruly perceptions and would believe that the Japanese had no mercy and no respect to the humanity at that time. Therefore, this is what the designer has expressed and has used a vivid stereotype to create hate among the society towards Japanese. It is not so much that graphic designers are powerful, but that stereotypes and time worn symbols are the designers tools. We are sensitive to negative and offensive stereotypes but generally speaking, we rely on commonly understood signs to communicate to our vast audiences. (Heller, 2004) As mentioned before, graphic designers are prone to use stereotypes. But it is a question whether they could determine if their work might help to create new stereotypes or even cater to existing ones. In response to this, it is obvious that if we are using the existing stereotypes, which could be avoided unless our client says, this is what I want. If so, then we
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would have a case for not doing so. However, if the client insists on sticking strongly to stereotypes, then we would have no choice. And again, it extensively depends on the stereotypes that we are using. (Heller, 2004) We designers also must be very careful in the workplace as well as the place we are working. (Heller, 2004) According to Steven Heller, the co-chair of the MFA Design Programme of the School of Visual Arts and author of over 90 books on design, if the organization or the company that we work strongly emphasize to create stereotypes, promote existing stereotypes or being used by others to create stereotypes, most of the practitioners with a good sense of humour would say dont do it. We should have the strength to say that my work promotes mediocrity or is mediocre. We should not do it. (Heller, 2004) It is also very important to know and get acquainted with the responsibility of the designers community on a whole once stereotypes begin to take shape. To know this, it depends on the message that is being delivered and the goal of the message. (Heller, 2004) If it is simply saying most teens wear baggy wear baggy pants and extra large sweat shirts, it is more about style than ideology. Stereotypes are bad when they support ostensibly venal ideologies. (Heller, 2004) This means when it is obviously influenced by bribery. Otherwise, they are part of the communication vocabulary, and in a way are symbolic of their respective times. (Heller, 2004)
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However, it is believed that companies or organizations benefit from stereotypes and want to keep then part of the mainstream culture since all advertising is about catering to a target market. (Heller, 2004) Whether is Yuppies or Guppies and whatever the brand or company, they become generalizations of a group of individuals. They are useful as marketing tools. (Heller, 2004)

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2.2.4

Reference cited and Bibliography

Gray S, 1996, Recognizing Stereotypical Images of African Americans in Television and Movies. Retrieved July 18, 2006, From http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1996/3/96.03.05.x.html Grobman G, 1990, Stereotypes and prejudices. Retrieved July 18, 2006 From http://www.remember.org/guide/History.root.stereotypes.html Heller S, 2004, Defining the role of Stereotyoes in Design. Retrieved July 18, 2006, From http://thecreativeforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=170 Hoback M, 2005, Sesame Street. Retrieved July 18, 2006 From http://www.salon.com/sesamestreet.htm Holt A, n.d. Stereotypes that never caught on. Retrieved July 18, 2006 From http://thrdgll.tripod.com/stereotypes.htm Movie Posters, n.d. Lara Croft Tomb Raider Retrieved July 18, 2006 From http://www.sciencefictionmuseum.org Wikipedia, The free encyclopaedia 2001, Stereotype. Retrieved July 18, 2006 From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype Wikipedia, The free encyclopaedia 2001, Firmin Didot. Retrieved July 18, 2006 From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firmin_Didot

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2.2.5 Fig.1

Picture credits Holt A, n.d. Stereotypes that never caught on. Retrieved July 18, 2006 From http://thrdgll.tripod.com/stereotypes.htm

Fig.2

Movie Posters, n.d. Lara Croft Tomb Raider Retrieved July 18, 2006 From http://www.sciencefictionmuseum.org

Fig. 3

Myspace.com, 2003, Boys n the Hood. Retrieved July 18, 2006 From http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction =user.viewprofile&friendid=35479086

Fig. 4

Hoback M, 2005, Sesame Street. Retrieved July 18, 2006 From http://www.salon.com/sesamestreet.htm

Fig. 5

Keep this horror from your home n.d. Retrieved July 18, 2006 From http://bss.sfsu.edu/internment/posters.html

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