Racial Stereotypes Essay
Stereotypes are a world–wide phenomenon, used to simplify the advanced social world that we live in. Cardwell (1996) describes a stereotype
as '...a fixed, over generalised belief about a particular group or class of people'. The two most problematic stereotypes in modern society that I
have chosen to focus on are gender and race; these stem from a long history of social roles which I aim to explore within the essay. Research has
suggested that although the modern world seems to be improving in many ways, it still appears almost impossible to liberate it from stereotypes
that appear deep rooted within society.
The media reinforces existing stereotypes thus leading to propaganda, it depicts a skewed representation of the genders and races. Content
analyses have found that the media is saturated with gender and racial stereotypes, Entman and Rojecki (2000), for example, found 89% of
black female film characters are shown using vulgar language, whereas only 17% of white women are. People are exposed to these misleading
stereotypes daily. Evidence for exposure to the media was conducted by Collins and Shover (1993) who found that advertisements occupy almost
60% of the newspaper. Further research has suggested that these advertisements deeply influence people's perceptions of each other –using the
medias stereotypes as a template for different social groups.
Sexism has a long history of inequality between the genders. Although now women are in a significantly better place today
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Racial Stereotypes Essay

  • 1.
    Racial Stereotypes Essay Stereotypesare a world–wide phenomenon, used to simplify the advanced social world that we live in. Cardwell (1996) describes a stereotype as '...a fixed, over generalised belief about a particular group or class of people'. The two most problematic stereotypes in modern society that I have chosen to focus on are gender and race; these stem from a long history of social roles which I aim to explore within the essay. Research has suggested that although the modern world seems to be improving in many ways, it still appears almost impossible to liberate it from stereotypes that appear deep rooted within society. The media reinforces existing stereotypes thus leading to propaganda, it depicts a skewed representation of the genders and races. Content analyses have found that the media is saturated with gender and racial stereotypes, Entman and Rojecki (2000), for example, found 89% of black female film characters are shown using vulgar language, whereas only 17% of white women are. People are exposed to these misleading stereotypes daily. Evidence for exposure to the media was conducted by Collins and Shover (1993) who found that advertisements occupy almost 60% of the newspaper. Further research has suggested that these advertisements deeply influence people's perceptions of each other –using the medias stereotypes as a template for different social groups. Sexism has a long history of inequality between the genders. Although now women are in a significantly better place today Get more content on HelpWriting.net