Race, Gender and Media Reflections

 For class this week, we myths about social expectations about men and women and how they are perpetuated in specifically entertainment media. A big topic of this unit was SCWAMP framework, or  Straight, Christian, White, Able-bodied, Male, Property Owner . The idea is that films enforce these ideologies subliminally through its characters and their relationships, themes, story and other instances. Lind analyzes the Twilight  series and how it enforces all of these tropes, which I found interesting, yet very far-fetched in a sense. However, I cannot deny that these themes are present in a lot of older media, however hidden they may be. A show I am watching  currently is The Sopranos, which is a very complex show told through its characters, yet does also reinforce a lot of the SCWAMP themes.  The first one which is very obvious is that the show is very male-dominated. While Tony's wife Carmela plays a central role in the show, a lot of the other female character...

For our class this week, we   addressed the ways Latinx people and their stories are framed in mass media and considered how to make these portrayals more equitable and inclusive. This topic is especially important to me as my girlfriend is of Mexican descent. Her culture and heritage are very important to her and I have gotten to learn so much more about Latin/Hispanic culture through her. There are a ton of stereotypes of Hispanic people in the media, some being good and some bad. A very common frame is that Hispanic workers are usually agricultural and work low-paying jobs. While that is true to an extent, it tends to be portrayed across mass media so much that many people develop an identity of Hispanic people in that lens. Another common and unfortunate frame is that they are immigrants who came to American illegally, don't speak English and are involved in some sort of drug trade, which leads to negative views of Hispanics altogether. My experience has been very different. I ...