Stereotypes- class discussion

Today we did an activity and had a discussion about different stereotypes that are used to represent different people. A stereotype is a commonly held public belief about specific social groups or types of individuals.

For the activity we had to choose a group of people and find 5 examples of them in film or television and we had to write about how they are portrayed. I decided to choose men as my group because I thought I would be able to find lots of examples but I just couldn't. I was able to find 3 examples and my first example was the 'Oven Pride' ad. In the advertisement the woman says, 'It's so easy even a man can use it'. This advert portrays all men as people who can't do any housework. This advert has had alot of press because lots of people have being saying that it is sexist towards men.
My second example was the Feminax advert. In the advert a women is sat beside a guy on a sofa with period pains. She then pulls a lever and the guy shoots out of the window, hence she has got rid of the pain so this portrays the man as being the source of the pain. This advert has also had some press as it is also seen as sexist as well.
For my third example I chose the comedy show 'Two and a Half Men'. Charlie Harper is a character from the show and he is portrayed as a man who drinks, gambles, and is obsessed with good looking women.

After we did the activity we had a discussion on everyone's work and what examples they had come up with for the group of people they had chosen. After we had the discussion we watched a television show called 'The Surgery'. The show basically had one presenter who talked to a group of youths about certain topics happening around the u.k, such as, racism, discrimination and U.K and USA culture. During the show, the groups of youths seemed to have relatively different opinions on racism because one person said that they believed racism was on the decrease but another person completely disagreed with it and said that racism was on the increase. I think it comes down to what sort of area you live in. You could be someone who lives in an area where racism is common or you could live somewhere where it doesn't happen as much.