Music N' More: Movie Stereotypes

Ever seem to notice there are certain, yet subtle stereotypes in the movies? Like if there has to be an action hero, it has to be someone big, buff, muscular and slightly good looking? Or if there are villains, they are either A.) Russian, B.) Middle Eastern terrorists, C.) European in general or D.) Gangbangers? Also, it seems that sometimes the "action hero" of a movie might always be a white male. In the last few years, we've seen people like Denzel Washington take on lead roles, and also female actors like Kate Beckinsale take on lead roles and even actors from other countries taking the lead role, such as Antonio Banderas in Take the Lead. And last time I looked around, not every hero of the movie has to be white. Look at Jet Li in Kiss of the Dragon. He was in the lead role as a Chinese government agent. Pretty sexy!!!

Here are some common stereotypes of men in the media
Men in Media

Movie Stereotypes
The Joker
-Always joking around, appeals to boys, but research has been done to prove that humor in movies made by guys only heightens the guy's masculinity. Women love funny guys

The Jock
-Must always fight someone else to avoid looking like a weakling. Wins the respect of the guys and the love of the ladies

Strong, yet Silent
-Wants to be in charge, succeeds with the ladies. This unfortunately sets a stereotype saying that men need to be in charge, be in control and that talking about their feelings is a sign of weakness

"The Big Shot"
-His professional status as something defines who he is. This sets a stereotype of being successful, that a man must be socially successful and powerful economically

The Action Hero
-Engages in fighting, violent behavior. Strong, not exactly silent. Muscular, not always good looking, tough

Some General Movie Stereotypes
More Bad Movie Stereotypes

Characters in movies that are from Africa are uncivilized or are some sort of warlord
-This can be offensive to people who are from Africa who might hold a highly successful job

Women can only talk about men
-During the 1980s, it seemed like every movie that came out that had women as friends showed them talking about guys. Not all women want to talk about guys. They're probably not as important as some think. Most women will talk to friends about how their day was, what their kids if they have any, what kind of day they had, etc

White people are more knowledgable with Asian culture than actual Asian people
-WTF? Sometimes movies, especially American-made ones, if they deal with a foreign culture, they will try to make the Caucasian actors in that movie seem like they know more about the culture being dealt with than those actual people. In the case of The Last Samurai with Tom Cruise, it was made to appear that he was a better Samurai tha the actual Japanese-born Samurai. And what basically goes to show is that in some American movies, the only roles Asians can get are that of villains, that the heroes are always white

Gay people are either psychos or die first in movies
-For some reason, years ago, gay characters in movies really raised eyebrows, considering some people did not want their kids seeing stuff like that in movies and asking questions like "Mommy, why is that guy kissing another guy?" or something like that. Back then, any character in a movie who was gay either got killed by something or was a rampaging, psychotic killer.
-But nowadays, with gay rights becoming such a big, hot button issue, more movies are including gay characters being shown in positive lights. Such as the character Greg Kinnear played in As Good As It Gets. He played a gay artist named Simon Bishop.

Dying seems to be better than being disabled
-Movies just love highlighting the fact that it would be better to be dead than lay in a bed like a broken doll for the rest of your life. But a good thing that comes out of this is that Hollywood loves to show people overcome something with sheer willpower, despite outside forces and surroundings. Such as in Kung Fu Panda, an overweight panda performing martial arts, or the character Mikey in The Goonies throwing his inhaler away because he does not need it.

Everyone has to be white in fantasy movies
-Yeah, there seems to be a strong racial bias against people of color or race in fantasy movies. Have you ever noticed that in fantasy movies, like Lord of the Rings, there's probably no people of color or any other race/ethnicity to be found? In fact, the only black actors were the ones playing the Orcs, the monster creatures in there. It was hard to tell they were black considering they had 3.5'' of makeup on. And in the Harry Potter movies, those movies show people of all races and ethnicities. You even hear an American accent in there, showing that Hogwarts is an international school. You see Asian students like Cho Chang, a few Indian students, a few black students, students from all walks of life.
-Example: in the first five Harry Potter movies, Lavender Brown is a classmate of Harry. But in the 6th installment of the movie, there is a big change: Lavender Brown has suddenly become a white girl with British accent. Either she had an operation to change her skin tone or they just changed her race from black to white, and if that's the case: TOTALLY RACIST!

Ok, someone explain to me why in the first few films, the character Lavender Brown is a beautiful black girl but then in the more recent films, she suddenly changes to a somewhat strange looking white girl with an British accent?

'The Magic Black Person'
-I replaced the word Negro with black person. Sounds less offensive. In movies such as The Green Mile, black characters, such as John Coffey, whose initials strangely mirror the initials of Jesus Christ, is shown with magic powers from up above. sometimes blacks in movies will be shown as having goals that revolve around helping the white man, they'll be shown as prisoners, janitors or farmers

I can never seem to get through the end of this movie without crying. I cry at the part where this character is being executed

Latina maid
-Such as Maid in Manhattan, the lead character, Marisa Ventura, was a pretty Latina lady working as a chambermaid in a posh New York hotel. In most movies where there is a Latina maid, they are usually shown as short, chubby, compact maids between 30 and 40, with a slightly noticeable Latin accent. Some actresses who are Latina unfortunately get typecast into being maids. Such as lovely Latina actress Lupe Ontiveros, who has been cast as a maid 150-300 times! And in movies, if they should come across something bad, like a dead body, or something strange, they will do the sign of the cross and say a prayer in Spanish.

Fake Asians
-Back then, in the 1930s and 1940s, when movies were being made and there was an Asian role to be filled, white American or white British actors or actresses would step into the makeup tent to get made up to look Asian, by having their eyes taped, their skin tinted slightly yellow and having thick black eyeliner applied around the eyes to give it a garish Far East look.
-This can be considered offensive in today's world, when so many of the actors and actresses in movies and on TV are of Asian descent. Check out Hawaii Five-O, at least 2 or 3 of the actors on that show are Asian, such as Masi Oka, who is a Japanese-born actor playing Max Bergman, Daniel Dae Kim, who plays Chin Ho Kelly, who'se originally from Busan, South Korea, or Grace Park, a beautiful American-born Asian actress. Or on Law and Order: SVU, the character Dr. George Huang is played by an American-born Chinese actor named B.D. Wong

He's no more Asian than I am. That's offensive!

More Movie 'Action Hero' Stereotypes
The Action Hero of movies
wikipedia. I hate to use this site, but it's the only site that seems to have what I was looking for

-Typically the hero of the movie
-Sometimes good looking, muscular, charming
-Good with the ladies
-Sometimes a reckless regard for safety or the law (i.e. Dirty Harry, Rambo)
-Every guy wants to be like him
-These 'heroes' include

Wesley Snipes