Media plays a huge part in conditioning what we believe to be societal norms. Almost all television families are seen as a working middle-class family with married, heterosexual parents, at least two to three children, and living in a nice home. Shows that try to depict the lives of people of color, portray many negative images. The children come from broken homes, their families are living in poverty, and they are very physically aggressive. In addition in television shows that do not depict African Americans in this light, it is still made obvious that it is rare for a black person to be “doing well.” For example, television shows and movies like Clueless, Beverly Hill 90210, various soap operas, etc. show one to two blacks amongst a sea of white characters who are doing well for themselves. Furthermore, many shows like to make themselves seem “diverse” by casting one “token” black person in the series. Boy Meets World, Vampire Diaries, True Blood, and High School Musical, are a few among hundreds of programs who are guilty of doing exactly this.
Also, the media and society choose to portray what they believe it means to be male or female. Women are expected to be ultra feminine and men are expected to be deeply and undeniably masculine. Feminine women and masculine men are also expected to be sexually attracted to each other, get married, have “vanilla” sex, and have babies. The man is usually expected to “bring home the bacon” and the woman is expected to take care of the cooking, cleaning, and children. Anything that falls outside of these categories is considered queer and not a part of the normalizing factor. For example a woman not wanting kids, a couple deciding marriage isn’t for them, a gay couple living together, and a person who is gender-queer would be people who do not fit into normal factors
It seems as though people do not even attempt to understand people who are different from them. For example, if a person is openly gay, many people shy away from them. It is even worse in certain communities and cultures. In the black community, an openly gay woman is accepted before an openly gay man is. This is because men in our community are seen as the epitome of masculinity and to see one who is acting femininely is a huge turn off. The media plays a huge role in how we perceive people of different races and social norms to be which is very unfortunate. A change needs to be made in how things are depicted, but we have to speak up first..
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