“The fundamental argument is that if mainstream media do not tell us what to think, media discourse certainly tell us what to think about. . . references a particular way of thinking about blackness: It is not about being black, but being thought of as black” (Ross, 1996: XIX-XX). Flipping through the pages of magazines, newspapers and even television and the movies, one can be assured that she or he will be inundated with images which try to impress upon the observer ideas about cultural ideals and norms. But what do these images really say about what is valued as the norm in American society?
White is commonly used as the proverbial yardstick from which nearly all aspects of American culture are measured. Evidence can be clearly seen when looking at the sorts of representations expelled by popular media about how black should be thought of; which is either one of two things. First as the “us” versus “them,” most easily recognized by taking the behavior of individuals and applying it generally to African-Americans as a whole. The other, which is more obvious, is the image of African-Americans who fit a beauty ideal that calls for “Caucasian” features (seen mostly in the majority of mainstream magazines, television, and film). Rarely in pop culture magazines does one see images of dark skinned African-American women. The majority of African-American icons are light skinned with hair either toned down to a light brown or simply bleached blond. Two examples include Halle Berry and Beyonce Knowles. As the above quote expresses, the media is a very powerful and influential force, which allows its audience to view a world of its making by the distortion of the cultural reality. “Popular mass media plays a significant role in the transmission and maintenance of cultural identity. . . repetitive display of cultural norms and values. . . become seen as simple “truths”(Ross, 1996: XIX).
What is disturbing about the media images is the idea that they are actually reflecting back accepted “cultural norms,” by creating a cultural identity through which one portion of society (namely white) is portrayed as being the norm. Take, for instance, the magazine advertisements shown on this website or those found in all mainstream magazines; what sort of images stare back up at you? Or, tune into television. Who speaks to you from beyond the screen? Mostly, white women and men in a variety of jobs, depicting in varying degrees what defines sex appeal or at the very least, what is considered attractive in our society. Elasmar, Hasegawa, and Brain (1999) conducted a content analysis of prime-time television programs. Their findings indicated that African-Americans represent only 8.9 percent of the actresses and actors in such programs, but represent nearly 12 percent of the population. With attention focused on the whiteness of American culture, the media is able to produce stereotypes of African-Americans modeled after the white America. “The stereotype reinforces. . . commonly held negative stereotypes about a group. . . helping to build a consensus of public opinion toward, at best, tolerance or indifference to oppression. . . “ (Spector, 1998: 41).
What is perhaps the most striking about media images of African-Americans is the lack of diversity, whether it is models or portrayals on television, film, or news media. In contrast to being limited to the beauty ideals identified with Caucasians, African-Americans are also routinely portrayed in the role as being the departure from the norm. The criminal, the scammer, and the impoverished are all familiar to the genre of negative stereotypes trying to emulate or portray the experience of African Americans. They draw on racist fears and mass generalizations applied to a wide variety of people to create stereotypes which are accepted as fact. More importantly perhaps, what these negative stereotypes allow for is the continuation of one ethnicity (in this case Caucasian) feigning superiority over another, while still maintaining a social hierarchy upon which they not only control, but also reap advantages from.
Media is exceptionally good at creating images that depict negative stereotypes of minorities to a wide audience. Newspapers in particular have a tendency to identify African-Americans when reporting text and images that involve criminal behavior, poverty and welfare, drug/alcohol addictions and the homeless (Martindale, 1996). In terms of magazine advertisements, Stevensen and Swayne (1999) found that 51 percent of African-American models are portrayed in blue-collar professions, slightly higher than Caucasians. These stereotypes usually hold true for televised news casts as well, where footage of criminal behavior frequently shows an African-American male being pursued or arrested by male Caucasian police. These stereotypical images of African-Americans can be broken down even further when looking at the role of gender. How African-American men are portrayed in comparison to African-American women reveals to viewers ways to separate and think of the two, and in which contexts to place them.
It is overwhelmingly predominate that any sort of criminal behavior in media (from violence and intimidation to drug/alcohol abuse and imprisonment) can frequently be associated with African-American men. In comparison, African-American women are shown more as welfare recipients; most with children to support, or as victims of violence or abuse. While it is true that there are some African-American women who have or are victims of domestic violence, or who are living on welfare with or without children, it is important to note that this is not representative of all African-American women, and should not be a basis for discrimination. Likewise, while there are some African American men who do participate in criminal behavior, or suffer from drug or alcohol addiction, there are many that do not. What is ignored and implied with these images is that crime and victimization are primarily black problems, with very few images to counteract these negative portrayals. It not only reinforces such racial stereotypes, but also overshadows involvement in such areas by other ethnicities, especially whites.
Media influences our perception of both the world and the people in it. It conveys to a wide audience a set of principles by which to evaluate those we come into contact with. Asian-Americans have long considered themselves disproportionately excluded by entertainment and news media, or given only superficial exposure, and rightly so! Some studies have determined that they receive less newspaper coverage than other minority groups (Biagi & Kern-Foxworth, 1997). In recent decades, however, the focus of such media criticism has shifted from the exclusion of Asian-Americans to the negative portrayals of Asian-Americans in media. These portrayals are frequently rooted in gender as well as race, and present unrealistic and dangerous images of Asian-Americans.
Asian-Americans have traditionally found themselves excluded from mass media. In terms of news media, they receive less coverage than most other minority groups. Asian-Americans have received fewer total newspaper column inches in recent decades than African-Americans, Native-Americans, and Latinos (Biagi & Kern-Foxworth, 1997: 92). Asian-Americans are frequently neglected in the news, even when the report discusses race relations. While they constitute three percent of the U.S. population, Asian-Americans are mentioned in only one percent of all news stories (Biagi & Kern-Foxworth, 1997: 88, 94). When Asian-Americans do appear in news media, they are frequently portrayed as outsiders, criminals, or victims of political violence. Frequent use of the term “oriental” to describe many diverse Asian ethnic groups, as well as the mockery of Asian words and names in news headlines creates a sense of Asian-Americans as exotic and permanently foreign. This, and clichés such as “The Asian Invasion” (used to describe immigration of Asians to America) contribute to a sense of Asian-Americans as outsiders (Biagi & Kern-Foxworth, 1997). In terms of crime, one study found that the largest percentage of all newspaper coverage devoted to Asian-Americans included accounts of crimes committed by them. This was followed closely by accounts of Asian-Americans as victims of boycotting and violence by African-Americans (Biagi & Kern-Foxworth, 1997: 93).
There are gender differences in these portrayals as well. Asian-American women have frequently been stereotyped as exotic and docile. When female Chinese distance runners gained popularity and success in the early 1990’s, some newspaper journalists conjured up tales of their secret to success: drinking turtle’s blood (Biagi & Kern-Foxworth, 1997: 101). Asian-American marital relations have also been presented negatively. One magazine article offered a quote by a non-Japanese woman implying that all Japanese marriages involve abuse and strict traditional Western values (Biagi & Kern-Foxworth, 1997: 101). Likewise, Asian-American men have been portrayed negatively in news media. In decades past, Asian-American men were frequently presented in the context of gangs. Today, one oft-observed image of Asian-American men includes the “Korean grocer.” Such an image portrays these individuals as stingy and prepared to swindle their consumers at every opportunity. This image has contributed to black violence directed at Asian-Americans (Biagi & Kern-Foxworth, 1997). Other images include the violent perpetrator, the technocrat, and the sumo wrestler.
In entertainment media, Asian-Americans have found themselves largely excluded from Western film and television. The Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) notes that Asians are frequently downplayed to supporting positions, and rarely given lead roles in television or film. Even when the content of the film is Asian, the protagonist is usually white (MANAA, 2001). MANAA criticizes the film industry’s history of excluding Asian actors and actresses from hit television shows and movies. It has also traditionally been common for white actors and actresses to play Asian characters by taping their cheekbones and temples, a process known as "yellowfacing" (Shim, 1998). When Asian or Asian-American actors and actresses are cast in roles in entertainment media, they are again frequently portrayed in a negative image. Like in news media, they may be portrayed as foreigners or villians/predators (MANAA, 2001). Numerous racial slurs go unnoticed and Asian names are frequently a target for mockery; for example, "Long Duc Dong" in the film Sixteen Candles (MANAA, 2001). Asian-Americans are also portrayed as ultra-intellectual and technocratic, or magical and supernatural.
In entertainment media, gender differences between Asian-Americans are most obvious in "stock characters." For Asian-American women, these stock characters take two major forms: the submissive "china doll" or "lotus blossom" and the scheming, hypersexual "dragon lady" (MANAA, 2001). The submissive Asian woman is presented in such works as "Madame Butterfly," and she is yeilding, subservient, and exotic; qualities the Western world favors for women (Yellow Myths, 2002). The scheming, hypersexual Asian woman is presented as a backstabbing siren. These images are inherently negative and extremely unrealistic. Like Asian-American females, male stock characters generally take two forms; one chaste, one hypersexual, villianous, and aggressive. The Asian-American man, whether an active or passive hero, is portrayed either as sexless or villianously oversexed (Yellow Myths, 2002). Another common stock character, both for women and men, is the martial artist. This image is predominantly negative when the protagonist of the film or television show is Caucasian.
In advertising, like in entertainment and news media, Asian-Americans are both understudied and negatively portrayed. Taylor, Lee, and Stern (1995) note that virtually no research has been published on Asian-Americans in media. Their content analysis study of magazine advertisements determined that Asians and Asian-Americans comprise 4.0% of all magazine models, a slight overrepresentation. However, they also found that these models were highly skewed toward business and technology magazines, with over 75% of them pictured in advertisements for technical products (Taylor, Lee, & Stern, 1995). Asian-Americans are frequently depicted in all forms of media as the "model minority;" the preferred symbol of American minorities (Shim, 1998). Such portrayals of Asian-American women and men do not allow them a personal or family life, or human flaws. The best media portrayals of Asian-Americans, African-Americans, other minority groups, and even Caucasians is a realistic one that emphasizes the positive. Exposure to the positive aspects of diversity may create tolerance, and tolerance is one thing sorely lacking in Western media portrayals of minorities. Although positive portrayals of Asian-Americans are becoming more common in celebrities such as ER's Ming-Na Wen and The View's Lisa Ling, there is still a long way to go.
All of the lenses that Sandra Bem describes in her 1993 text, The Lenses of Gender, are applicable to the portrayal of sex, class, and race in the media. However, the lens that seems the most applicable to our topic is that of androcentrism. This lens explains the way in which men are used as the norm, or that which is superior, while women are left as an inferior deviation (Bem, 1993). This is similar to the way that media labels Caucasians as the norm or standard, and Asian-Americans and African-Americans as deviations.
Part of the difficulty that we had with the topic we chose regarding minorities in the media is the simple lack of their presence. A majority of the images used in advertising and pop culture media are of Caucasian men, women, and children. To show just how pervasive this unequal representation is, a study published for Children Now (1998) cites interviews which show that even children recognize the inequal representation of minorities in the media. Moreover when images of minority groups are seen, they are often in advertisements for government assistance programs, anti-drug and alcohol campaigns, and other roles deemed less valuable socially. (Holtzman, 1949).
Representation in this disproportionate and inequal manner can be detrimental to individuals, as well as our society as a whole. It leaves us as the viewers with a perception of those minorities as negative or unusual, thus creating a natural order in which we place people. Data collected by Murphy (1998) indicates that exposure to sterotypic portrayals of individuals carries over to other contexts. What we experience in our immediate surroundings, what we find ourselves growing up with, and having been born into, we assume to be the natural order of society. The order of nature created by the media places Caucasians at the top, and is followed by Asian- and African-Americans.
The gender polarization lens which Bem (1993) uses to describe the societal view of men and women as opposite is likewise applicable. In this case, instead of a division between men and women and the roles appropriate to them, the media has created a set of images and rules to separate Caucasians from all minorities. As pervasive as the media is in our lives, it has created a drastic division in the way that different ethnic and racial groups should be. Obvious in images of dress, social roles, language, and even foods, Western media has created different and unequal life representations for different groups of people. Those who do not fill these roles or expectations become aliens within their own lives. Discrimination is perpetuated, and the value of minorities is lessened, by our own willingness to accept these labels.
The three lenses that Bem (1993) describes in her book, biological essentialism, androcentrism, and gender polarization, systematically reproduce male power just as our acceptance and continued support of the visual, audio, and printed media reproduce the power and status that Caucasians have in this country. As consumers of these mediums, we internalize their messages and strive to create a world that corresponds to them. We must recognize our own unwitting contribution to racism and sexism before we can challenge elements of media that perpetuate them.
References
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