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Stereotyping in America’s Media Essay

Updated September 13, 2022
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Stereotyping in America’s Media Essay essay

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Stereotyping in America can lead to dangerous situations where people ridicule other people and even start harming some of them out of fear. When I was younger my mother practice Paganism and whenever she wore her pentagram in public, someone would ask her if she worshiped the devil. She always had to explain that she did not and what the pentagram stands for, but there were people who did not believe her and kept calling her a devil worshiper. Hollywood and the news are teaching prejudice against the different which leads to bullying people of different ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation or identity in not just children, but it also enforces the prejudice in adults too. The stereotyping of religions and ethnicities in media hinders the growth of the American people.

One of the most common stereotyping of religions in Hollywood is the stereotyping of Pagans or Witches. Hollywood refers to Pagans, or Wiccans as Witches they portray them as ugly and evil creators and are often portrayed as devil worshipers. Wicca is another name for Paganism and is the more commonly used term, but Pagans do sometimes call themselves Witches, it depends on the practitioner. Paganism and Wicca is the worship of many gods and goddess and is a nature-based spiritual religion that dates back before Christianity. Pagans do not believe in the Christian version of the devil and the god of the dead is not an evil being, he just rules over the dead. Much of the fear and stereotyping is from the past and the fear of the unknown.

The fear in the past is a factor in how Pagans are stereotyped in Hollywood. Between February 1692 and May 1693 Salem, Massachusetts and some surrounding towns experience mass hysteria against witches, it became known as the Salem Witch Trials. Fear of the unknown and prejudice against witches that stems from the witch trails and they play a large roll in how Witches are seen in our society today. Witches are sometimes depicted as ugly old women, or they are seductress that are overly beautiful and will seduce you to the darker side or use you as a part of a spell. Hollywood movies often link anything that has the name Wicca, Pagan, or Witch with the devil or satanic rituals with animal or human sacrifice.

In the movie “Hocus Pocus” it portrays them as either ugly or overly beautiful and that they are evil and worship Satan, it portrays them as more of a joke. In the tv shows “Bewitched” Samantha uses her powers selfishly and “American Horror Stories: Coven” Fiona kills another witch to cure her cancer, which both is something you do not do as a Witch. There is a saying or law among Wiccans and Pagans called the Rede “An It Harm None, Do As Ye Will”, or the Threefold Law “Three, times what thou givest, returns to thee.” Pagans do not want to hex or harm another being because it does more damage to themselves. The pentagram, a five-point star encased inside of a circle, is often linked with evil and when a person wears it many people assume that they are devil worshipers because they wear one. The media also like to joke about being a Pagan, things like that it is not a real religion or make fun of how they perform spells.

When Pagans are portrayed and ridiculed as evil and are devil worshipers, or that the religion is a joke, they find it offensive and insulting. When a person comes out that they are Pagan many are asked if they worship the devil and are treated like an evil and Satan worshiper. Which has many students in school think that if anyone has a style or wear a pentagram that they are all Pagan or Witches so they all must worship the devil because Witches worship the devil. The media teaches prejudice against other religion which leads to the fear and stereotyping of Muslims and Arabs.

Then we have Muslim and Arabs which are stereotyped by Hollywood and the news in a negative way. Muslims or any person whose religion is Islam are often portrayed by the media as terrorists and bombers that are out to kill and destroy America, which installs fear in the American people. This stereotyping is very dangerous because many Americans get incited by the negative way Muslims are talked about in the news and they get it in their head that every single Muslim is out to kill them. The prejudice and fear against Muslims intensified after 9/11 and over the years has gotten much worse to the point that many justify in harming any Muslim near them (Vega). When humans fear something they become dangerous and began to attack anything that resembles the source of their fear.

In the wake of so much fear against Muslims many Americans develop Islamophobia, which is the fear of the religion Islam. Islamophobia is often called “anti-Muslim hate” which refers to the system of discrimination that society has, in law and with policies, that target persons who practice the Islamic faith, mostly Muslims (Islam). The hate targeting of Muslims leads to attacks on the Muslim community. When a man looks like the stereotypical Muslim male or the woman wear a hijab the often get harassed and treated as a terrorist. For example, a NYU female student was approached and harassed by an older white male. The man told her “Happy holidays”, which had confused her, so she kept walking, he then stated “Yeah, happy holidays,” again “It’s 9/11,” she was harassed on the anniversary of the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers because she was wearing a hijab (Arkbar 2015). Even when a male resembles the stereotypical look of a Muslim male, even if they are not Muslim, are harassed and often called terrorist and told to leave the country.

With the prejudice that all Muslims are terrorist and out to kill and destroy America affects every person. With movies and the news portraying Muslims as terrorist children learn to fear Muslims which leads to bullying their peers and how they treat Muslims will worsen over time. The harassment toward Muslims gets out of control when Americans becomes violent with them. Many will justify that when they become violent with the Muslims that it is to protect themselves and the country. Muslims are not the only ethic group of people to be stereotyped by Americans.

Another ethic group that media portrays in a negative light is Mexican, Hispanic. Mexicans are natives of Mexico and Hispanics are natives or the U.S citizen descendant of Latin America/Spain. They are portrayed by the media as job stealers and are a factor in the American people high unemployment rates. Mexican immigrants are often thought that if they are here, they are likely here illegally. Mexicans and Hispanics are often depicted as violent criminals and are gang members and drug dealers, which is insulting to the people who are here legally and are not criminals. Hispanic people are often stereotyped as lazy, uneducated, and lack work ethics, while the women are portrayed as either overly sexualize or passive virgins. Mexican and Hispanic men are drug dealers and are here illegally (Alejandro).

The discrimination against Mexican and Hispanics hinders how society welcomes or does not welcome immigrant. For example, President Trumps idea of building a wall to separate the United States from Mexico, puts a barrier not just between the countries but also the Mexicans that live in the U.S and the U.S society. If American society always sees, in movies or the news, that Mexican and Hispanic people are lazy, uneducated, illegal, and out to get jobs, then the discrimination will not get better.

Stereotyping hinders the growth of not just Americans but all people from every country. The way Hollywood and the media portrays a certain type of people affects how American society sees those people. If people are portrayed and stereotyped as killers, drug dealers, job stealers, or devil worshippers, then it affects how Americans will react to people that is outside of their norm. For Americans the stereotyping of religion puts fear in their minds than a person reacts violently to person of a different religion or ethnicity. Then the fear of the different will not go away and the violence will continue to get worse.

Work Cited

  1. Akbar, Farah, “NYU Asks Students to Help Report Harassment Targeting Muslim Community’, NBC News, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/nyu-asks-students-help- report-harassment-targeting-muslim-community-n476581
  2. Alejandro, Lara, “Mexican-American stereotypes in film”, Jan 30, 2018, https://theaggie.org/2018/01/30/mexican-american-stereotypes-film/, Accessed 27, Oct 2018. Web.
  3. Perier, Christopher, Shutterstock, Royalty-free stock photo ID: 657666013, New York, New York. – June 10, 2017: Protester holding a ‘No More Muslims’ sign at a march against Sharia in Lower Manhattan in 2017.
  4. By Vera Petruk, Shutterstock, Royalty-free stock photo ID: 740307499, Wooden pentagram, open book, glass bottles, flowers, candles and runes on witch table. Occult, esoteric, divination and wicca concept. Alternative medicine vintage background.
  5. Islam, Namria, “Soft Islamophobia”, Religions vol. 9 no. 9, pp 280-296, Sept 15, 2018, Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative (MuslimARC), doi:10.3390/rel9090280 , Accessed 24, Oct 2018.
  6. Vega, Tanzina Host by “For American Muslims, 9/11 Shaped Careers, Politics, and Identity”, Produced by PRI and WNYC, Sept, 11, 2018, https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/ american-muslims-september-11-careers-politics-identity, Accessed 24, Oct 2018, Podcast.
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