“The World of Stereotypes” -Short analysis

Simone Ross
Apr 12, 2023
8 min read

Updated: Apr 19, 2023

Our world is a world that revolves around the world yesterday. Everything we do can be reflected in our surroundings, everything has a cause and a repercussion as we can see in a film, movies, or ads, they reflect an exaggerated representation of the already wrongs of our world. That’s the case with many of our favorite movies. We don’t think we are going to be affected for the rest of our life by this. We think of it as a fun activity, something simple we can enjoy. We don’t think of what is happening while watching a film, and when we do, we only pick the obvious things on the surface. If we took the time to see the meaning behind every one of the storylines in our favorite movies, we would realize how these, in the long run, have changed our minds in some way. Movies usually depending on the genre are based on the common things of our world, things such as gender and race which are valid points we all are different and we can’t ignore those details, the wrong of it is how Hollywood seems to point out only the negative side of it in an attempt to make the common or known by others right as we often find pointy edges that can be classified by others as completely usual or even just part of our society when in reality, is not right and it shouldn’t be normal. Life is set to us as others live it, and we make the decisions we could change it or not. As you may have realized, life in our society is very racist and has a specific way of functioning.

You were taught how to differentiate a cat from a dog or your mom from your dad. You were taught by society to make assumptions about people or how to classify them inside your head so it makes sense, good or bad. These assumptions mark much of how we work as people in the future and today, how we got to think in such a way can seem a mystery but is not one. When you are growing up you are absorbing information you are like a human sponge that learns all the good and the bad especially when you are little. Depending on what you watch or see online, through tv, or the simple ads on youtube. You are going to shape your likings and understand better. Because that is how is being shown to you. Significant influences like social media, tv, radio, pictures, and Hollywood have taught us unconsciously how to think and behave we live in constant manipulation by not only the tv but the places like your closest shopping market, this happens in a slow but progressive fight to place things on fitting categories. The writer of the article “In living color race and American Culture” Michel Omi claims society has implicitly designed the stereotyping we follow today through Hollywood, and he is right. The way he portrayed our world was realistic, and he used examples of movies that couldn't be fought back then and are the basis of many great films today too. Michael Omi believes we are being controlled by Hollywood and its funny “casual” associations of black with the incapable or lower class, Asian as Chinese, Hispanic women as easy and moody and Asian women as pleasing, and Hispanics in general as Mexican aggressive or crazy. "In our society, one of the first things we notice about people when we encounter them (along with their sex/gender) is their race." We are presented with many examples of why our society follows these norms and how we got to be inflicted into the world of stereotypes in the first place, one of the most interesting topics is how many times African Americans are treated as less capable than White Americans by the masses.

As well as Mitu Sengupta, the writer of the article. “Race relations light-years from the earth,” thinks, many awareness movies about the African American fight for rights in this country are overcome by a White “distant figure” who helped them succeed an example she uses that is not so much about implicitly African Americans but minorities in general, or people of the “Third World” usually poor like in Avatar the famous movie that came up 2009 it follows two unhealthy popular patterns, destroying aliens or strangers and becoming leaders of the minorities or oppressing people. Hollywood constructed stereotypical representations we follow today with

no realization of such and is affecting our fast-growing society an example of this is Michael Omi and his “obvious” Hollywood stereotypes like Nancy Kwan in The World of Suzie Wong (1961), the stereotype is Asian women are all gracious or prostitutes with “hearts of gold” willing to do anything to please others, ignoring the truth about these women who have suffered and are passionate, strict and decided about the way they handle life. Women in many different cultures look for ways of outgrowing the male figure instead. We can use the Hispanic culture. Hispanic women are often portrayed as sexy, harsh, moody, and easy for a white male. "White men could seduce racial minority women, but white women were not to be romantically or sexually linked to racial minority men.". Michael Omi has a great theory about implicit racism and often shows how racist and sexist Hollywood can be in the music industry and how segregated it is, and the cinema industry with all the discrimination towards minorities.

These stereotypes we have been shown since we are little are affecting the new generations who unlike us have additional access to hate and are more susceptible to be influenced by the wrongs of the media and entertainment industry for the simple fact that they have more access. Sengupta's argument about racial injustice in the cinema world talks about the theory of the “White Messiah'' and the “White guilt fantasy.” in films, such as classics and new ones, and is often described as the need to portray a white person as the undercovered savior because of their incapability of acceptance of the world, in a way to please the small number of privileged people who were raised with a hateful point of view that at the long run shapes our minds to agree or disagree. These movies are often produced by White Directors, who don’t have much of an insight into the type of life the characters the film is based on. The movie “Gone with the Wind” is not specifically based on the life of a person of color but does touch on the subject of slavery and oppression in multiple ways. Gone with the Wind is a classic if you are one of the types of people who only goes through the surface of things I would say there is nothing more than a simple tragic love story in the old South we know from history in the middle of the civil war but like everything in our world that is open to a deep analysis, we can see more than the tragic story of Scarlett O’Hara, her sexual desires hoping to be met in a very reserved era in time and her struggles to keep a plantation during the Civil War as a woman. The movie takes place in the 1860s around the time the civil war is breaking in the South where we can see the dresses the girls wore and the thick accent they even today have.

This young lady was in love with a guy that was to be married and his name was Ashley Wilkes she is obsessed with him and ignores the “pure” feelings of Rhett Butler a rich man who honestly seems too old for her, with a very interesting attitude. A man who is not very likable in others’ eyes because of his modern attitude. He is the typical white male who is pictured as the savior in all types of movies. Rhett Butler does anything in his power to make Scarlett fall in love with him to make her his but she is very much inflicted by the idea of being with Ashley. After the war broke and Scarlett's life was dissolved almost to nothing, the spoiled girl who had black servants that were portrayed as happy with the idea of not having freedom and uninterested in the problems of their fellow slaved people was working her sweat and tears to save her father’s plantation. We see the big plantations, who were built from the unrecognized hard work of African Americans and the absurd amount of money the white masters had around that time, chaos was brought to the world by the freedom of those who never had it before. This movie made slaves look like they were almost happy with their title, with slavery and its controversy is hitting everyone because of the painful realization of stereotypes and the world of people of color. “One does not have to ask if the Slaves saw it the same way. The movie sidesteps the inconvenient fact that plantation gentility was purchased with the sweat of slaves (there is more sympathy for Scarlett getting calluses on her pretty little hands than for all the crimes of slavery)” Some people may say the wrong side of the movie is Scarlett's relationship with the family sleeves only and others may disagree because how sexualized and romanticized were the struggles of a woman around the time. Like pointing out she was married 3 times and couldn't get away with it or how after so much work she still needed a man who I may add wasn’t good, to save her. The African-American Servants were written as simple and content dedicated to the white masters ignoring their struggles “Glorifies slavery in the American South” as critics say there are many “Discussion of its historical context and announcement of its racist depictions” now we see it for what it is, unlike the people in 1939 who many critics pointed out needed this environment in the film.

These types of movies harmed the world even if it looked like this was what the world needed around the time, because of the break of world war two and women having to go out into the world and work, it would’ve been way better if they didn't present the male figure and savior that was Reth Butler. “Scarlett's confusion is between her sentimental fixation on a tepid “Southern gentleman” (Ashley Wilkes) who she was very inflicted in dating/marrying and her unladylike lust for a bold man (Rhett Butler) a rich man with a masochistic personality. “The most thrilling struggle is not between North and South, but between Scarlett's lust and her vanity.” this movie gave hope to the women around the 1930’s only to take it away showing them a brave young lady who the end was no one because she needed a man this set up various standards we follow and live by today like women are weaker than man and how their work is undervalued just because of their gender. Many people live by this set of stereotypes today almost 100 years later, women shouldn’t work and men should always provide if he doesn't do so he is not a man if she doesn't do so she is not being a good woman. It goes both ways.

These movies overlooked sexual abuse, slavery, dependence, and the lack of internal value to please society, and just now years after our grandparents and their parents have been building with those sets of minds we realize how wrong it was all. After reading all the critics of the famous movie “Gone with the Wind” and analyzing the articles of both Michael Omi and his theory of Hollywood and implicit racism and Sengupta who wrote about the “White Messiah” theory in films I can come up with the strong conclusion that the world of Hollywood produces stereotypes such as gender, class, ethnicity, and race that mark our way of living because of how they reinforced the negativity years back and today.

Work Cited

“In Living Color: Race and American Culture” By Michael Omi. Signs of Life in the

USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers. Edited by Sonia Maasik and Jack

Solomon. 10th ed. Bedford/St. Martin's, 2018. 200-206

Sengupta, Mitu. “Race Relations Light Years From Earth by Mitu Sengupta.” Ryeberg

Curated Video, Ryberg.

ryeberg.com/curated-videos/avatar-race-relations-light-years-from-earth

Gone With the Wind' and Controversy: What You Need to Know.” The New York

Times By Jason Bailey, Published June 10, 2020. Updated July 26, 2020, www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/06/10/movies/gone-with-the-wind-controversy.amp.html.

“Gone With the Wind Should Not Be Erased, Argue Film Historians. But It Should No

Be Watched in a Vacuum” By Mahita Gajanan, Published June 12, 2020

https://time.com/5852362/gone-with-the-wind-film-history/