Homework 8 - Stereotypes and moving forward

In all likelihood, most people have experienced a period of their life where they are on a daily basis affected by stereotypes and societal pressures without any awareness of their presence. Whether that effect may exacerbate our privilege or become detrimental to our personal identity, there is little doubt that people and their desire to “fit in” have effects on others. In various forms of media, this gives a lot of potential power from creators to shape the culture of their audience and their own interpretations of themselves. Only recently has the notion of this power been relayed to society on a mass level and although individuals react to this in different ways, the awareness that this has brought is ushering in a completely newfound way of thinking and perhaps the most healing way of thought.

As an example of “healing reteaching”, Pop Culture Detective is a personal favorite channel to watch due to the creator’s patient and careful explanations of harmful stereotypes in media. Soon after watching his videos for the first time several months ago, I realized that I was suddenly looking at entertainment and storytelling through a bit of a different lens than before. “Adorkable Misogyny” in particular was a significant help in realizing the behavior I was not only condoning in television, but also in reality.

I have a lot of hope for the future; not necessarily in terms of people changing their discriminatory views, for new types will always emerge with time, but hope towards the ones who are affected. Being able to gain an understanding and skill set of the world they live in is a powerful mechanism not just for protecting oneself against what we’re exposed to, but also to move forward in consistently new and better ways.