Week 8 ~ Stereotypes

From art and other content that I've seen I think it's hard for artists to avoid stereotypes, specially racist and sexist ones. I think a lot of films and comics tend to turn to stereotypes for character development because it's easier for them to have a character that follows a typical storyline and makes it faster for audiences to understand what these characters are about. I think it's important that a lot of people beginning to understand why this is wrong and why media and comics need to change this. It's lazy for them to just resort to using stereotypes just because they "don't have the time".

I think stereotypes could be used to some extent, but it shouldn't be something that defines characters as a whole or dictates their part in a story.

I feel like it's hard for artists and directors of films and animations to stay away from such typical and sometimes racist stereotypes because they perhaps don't understand the cultures that these characters may come from, they only see a layer of it. They see what the whole world generalize that culture, or the most attractive things, things that stand out. Things that can be romanticized.

I can't say I have been affected by stereotypical representations in comics, mostly because I have never been involved in comics so it's hard for me to think of any characters, but definitely from other types of media. I'm a Colombian woman. There are so many different kinds of people in Latin America but I understand for so long people have imagined latin women to be these "exotic" curvaceous women with dark hair and tanned skin. Which there are many women like that, but it's wrong to think that all Latina women are supposed to be like that. I'm just speaking from experience. I've been told in the past that I look white and people are surprised when they see that my mom has darker skin than I do. I've also been called exotic by people, and a spicy Latina. I've been asked if I can dance and when I say I don't, I've been told that all latin women do. I think this ignorance is the result of media portraying one kind of woman as Latin. It's great to see representation in the media, but when such heavy stereotypes are used it's disappointing because a lot of women don't fit into that mold. It ends up making some of us feel like we aren't "latin enough"

I remember reading a part of an interview with Sofia Vergara and apparently she was told to dye her hair darker because she didn't look spanish enough with her natural brown hair.