Racial Gender Stereotypes Portrayed in Film

Thorough out the years, we have seen Hollywood create a number amount of stereotypical roles for actors. One exceptionally common role among women is the “gorgeous klutz”. This stereotypical role is portrayed in several movies like The Mummy and The Devil Wears Prada. The “gorgeous klutz” is your typical perfect, beautiful women; except for that she’s clumsy. As far as Hollywood is concerned, awkward, clumsy girls are seen as foolish or less intelligent than others. They do a fantastic job at making us viewers feel as if we’re exactly like this character being portrayed. For example, the famous Hollywood klutz can be seen in Anne Hathaway’s character in The Devil Wears Prada. At the beginning of the movie, Hathaway’s character is an eager woman wanting to personally work for a powerful fashion magazine editor, Miranda Priestly. Throughout the movie, Hathaway is seen as a normal yet clumsy girl for the minor awkward situations she gets herself into. Although this movie is loved and pra...

One of the most common stereotypes towards all people of color, ethnically and diverse groups, are racial acts of painting of the skin. This blatant act of racism consists of a white male or female, painting their face a darker skin-tone; in order to imitate a specific ethnicity. Although there are countless reports to people participating in black-face and brown face, yellow-face is also among the common stereotypes in Hollywood. The common misrepresentation among Asians is that they have yellow skin. Although there may be some truth to this, “skin color ranges from yellow tan to a dark brown depending on the region you live in” (Odyssey). Despite the color of your skin, no person outside of your ethnicity is allowed to imitate or mock someone by the color of their skin. An example of yellow-face being prominent in Hollywood is in the movie Aloha , released in 2015. Aloha is set on the island of Hawaii where caucasian actress Emma Stone, reveals her character as a south pacific isl...

Latinos are often misrepresented in Hollywood. The misconception that is portrayed in these films are often focused on stereotypical roles; such as, “the maid”. For some odd reason, Hollywood loves to cast Latinos as “the help”. Such roles overwhelmingly focuses on actual representations that many people deal with in their everyday lives. These roles have been characterized in Pop Culture. For example, the famous movie Maid in Manhattan , starring Jennifer Lopez, focuses on the life of a maid who falls in love with the wealthy white man. I feel as if this role is demeaning towards Latinas, as they are being portrayed as nothing more but of a maid; which is not true. We are powerful women who are capable of anything. Another show that was quickly criticized is Eva Longoria’s, Devious Maids. Latinos expressed that this show was a “wasted opportunity” for many Latina actresses. Some have expressed that an all Latina leading show could have trumped the common stereotypical roles created ...

In this era of Hollywood, audiences have seen the many stereotypical hispanic roles of a narco-criminal. There are many Spanish-speaking actors who willingly take on this role as a drug lord to give a more realistic persona for these Hollywood films. These roles have gravitated towards hispanic actors based off the very popular, Colombian narcoterrorist, Pablo Escobar. Pablo Escobar was the leader of the Medellín Cartel where he was given the title as, “The King of Cocaine.” Many popular actors like Alice Braga are known to play such roles. Alice Braga, stars in the USA Network show Queen of the South, an adaptation of the famous Mexican telenovela La Reina Del Sur. Her character, Teresa Mendoza, is forced to run and seek refuge in America by starting her own cartel. Although these characters are an adaptation of what is happening in real life, hispanics are not the only ethnicity that are capable of running a cartel. Although it’s more prominent to occur in Mexico, Colombia, etc, the...

There is no doubt that racial stereotypes negatively affect how we perceive others. These types of negative stereotypes are usually depicted in film and television. It’s easy for audiences to pick up these racial perceptions of others and incorporate it into their everyday lives. Since this is normalized in Hollywood, us audience members need to understand just exactly what racial stereotypes are being depicted into such films and need to be acknowledge them. The one racial stereotype against black men is “the Magical Negro”. This character tends to be played by African American men with “special powers who make appearances solely to help white characters out of crises” ( ThoughtCo) . This reinforces the argument that these characters aren’t as valuable or important as the other characters depicted in these films. They are deemed as uninteresting. For example, the movie Evan Almighty , Morgan Freeman played the role of God. God, a supreme being, is played by a famous black male. This ...

Nobody is born ignorant nor racist. Racism is passed down through older people by teaching the younger generation stereotypical claims. The same goes for Film/TV; by portraying false assumptions about a specific race or gender. An example stereotype that is portrayed in many films and television, is the “Awkward Indian”. A famous stereotypical role is, Apu, from The Simpsons . Apu is an Indian convenience store owner played by a white male actor, Hank Azaria. Azaria portrays this character with a heavy, thick Indian accent. Throughout the series, creators fail to mention that Apu is Hindu. This can lead to major religious controversy which can then depict Hinduphobia. Although there is some unfortunate truth to this, the main problem with this role is that it’s a modern day stereotype for brown face. Even though it’s only a cartoon, it continues to be offensive and racist.  

In recent years, there has been an increase of racism showing in Hollywood films. Many famous films are guilty of perpetuating racial stereotypes that reflect on common prejudices. For example, the most common perception of Asians is the “small-eye” stereotype. Even though this stereotype is used for prejudicial behavior, this is a false assumption. An example of the “small-eye” stereotype being used, is character Mr. Yunioshi, from the 1961 movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s . Mr. Yunioshi, a charismatic caricature, was portrayed through this common stereotype during the scene where he kept bumping into all sorts of objects. This scene refers back to the “small-eye” stereotype and gives the portrayal that asians are hard of seeing based on their “small-eyes”. You would think that Hollywood would end it here; well, you’re wrong. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, Mr. Yunioshi was played by white actor, Mickey Rooney; making this role an example of yellow-face in a popular Holl...