Racial Stereotypes in TV's "Family Guy"

Featured here are three clips from television's "Family Guy" which depict various racial stereotypes: the bad Asian driver, the athletic African-American, and the Muslim terrorist. "Family Guy" frequently depicts these same stereotypes, as well as others, and these are three shining examples.

The first clip combines the stereotypes of both Asian and female drivers, both reputed to be careless and dangerous. The Asian woman, who speaks heavily-accented, broken English, cuts across several lanes of traffic without signalling, causing several crashes. The clip reduces all women, all Asians, and all Asian women to bad drivers who endanger others. Coming from a satirical television program, this is meant to be humorous and unrealistic. However, if this stereotype were to be acknowledged by the Department of Motor Vehicles, it would probably result in unequal testing methods for Asians and women. Perhaps an employee of the DMV will personally treat Asians and women unequally after watching this clip, even subconsciously.

The second clip makes assumptions about both black and white athletes. The white runners are given a head-start because they are assumed to be athletically inferior to their black counterparts. The clip also assumes inherent athleticism in African-Americans by depicting all of the black runners beating the white runners, despite their head-start. The clip also shows the white runners as being afraid of black men, despite it clearly being a race and the black men clearly being fellow runners. The clip shows all black men as being fast runners, and all white men as being afraid of black men. Again, this is meant to be funny and not "serious." But it could nonetheless discourage white athletes, or enforce the belief that all black men are fast.

In the final clip, Peter references his "Palestinian alarm clock," which shouts "Allahu Akbar!" ("God is Great!") and then explodes. Not only does this reinforce the stereotype of Muslim terrorists, but it also reduces all Palestinians to being both Muslim and terrorists. Not all Palestinians are Muslim, not all Muslims are terrorists, and not all terrorists are religiously-affiliated. After the 9/11 attacks, the Arab/Muslim terrorist became an extremely pervasive stereotype, which besides the obvious offense, also equates Arabs to Muslims. That same mix-up between Arab ethnicity and Muslim religion occurs in this clip, which laminates the Muslim terrorist stereotype onto the Palestinian nationality. This stereotype depicts Islam as being a violent, intolerant religion, and has already caused severe prejudices to arise in the real-world, like heightened screening for Arabic, Middle-Eastern, or even just dark-skinned people at airports.

"Family Guy" is a satirical show which makes fun of just about everyone at one point or another, but that should not prevent viewers from consciously recognizing and dismissing these stereotypes when they appear on the show. It is unreasonable to expect viewers not to laugh at things that are funny, despite the irreverence of the humor. But it is certainly not unreasonable to expect viewers to distinguish between satire and reality. It is OK to laugh at racial jokes if one remembers they are just that: jokes. Unfortunately, these stereotypes are often believed and disseminated in real-life, causing prejudice and hate. "Family Guy" is by no means the only distributor of racial humor, but it is an extremely popular, influential source for that humor. I personally love "Family Guy" and would change absolutely nothing about the show, but that is because I believe it to be my own personal responsibility not to let satire color my actual opinions of people and races.

There are precedents of TV humor resulting in real-world discrimination. "Southpark" is notorious for its anti-Ginger humor, stating people with red hair and freckles (Gingers) are creepy and soulless. The episode entitled "Ginger Kids" aired in 2005, but just as recently as 2010 their were real incidents of beatings of red-haired students. There was an event on the social media site, Facebook, called "National Kick a Ginger Day" which resulted in such beatings. Below is a news report about one such incident.

Such past incidents make it clear that while these jokes may be funny, it is far too easy for them to become much more than just jokes. It would be equally wrong to simply censor out potentially-offensive material, but it cannot be disputed that such humor is often far from harmless. Television writers and directors are almost never held at fault for the damage their programs cause, nor should they be held at fault necessarily. Just as it is each citizen's responsibility to restrict themselves from crime when no one is watching, it should be each viewer's responsibility to carefully evaluate their own thoughts and opinions. Racism may be influenced by entertainment and popular media, but at the end of the day, racism resides in the heart and mind of the individual.

The Beauty Myth in America's Next Top Model

 
One of the largest purveyors of the beauty myth today is the modelling industry. One of the industry's more popular outlets is television's "America's Next Top Model." The show is hosted by former supermodel Tyra Banks, and pits aspiring female models against each other for a prized modelling job. The show focuses completely on the models' appearances, and represents all of the most reductive views of femininity.

The models themselves are all what one might call "textbook" beautiful. The modern science of beauty measures bone structure, ratios of size and spacing of facial features, and symmetry. In that regard, all of the contestants on ANTM may be called beautiful. However, behind the make-up and elaborate costumes, all of the models are rail-thin, even to the point of looking emaciated. Occasionally throughout the shows more than dozen seasons, models of a more normal weight have appeared. Their weight was almost always a topic of focus for the other models and the show's judges. Instead of being considered closer to the average weight, they were thought of only as heavier than the other models. The models are also almost unanimously tall, and few contestants under perhaps 5'10" ever make it onto the show.

The extremely thin models, especially the more lightly-skinned ones, often have pallid complexions, looking sickly. During the time between photo-shoots, many of the models are downright unattractive. But the show, by only representing these women's body-types, assures the viewer that this form of beauty is the one to be desired. The judges, and Tyra, by choosing the underweight, symmetrical, tall models are suggesting to people what is beautiful and what isn't. They could choose anyone to be the contestants, and yet the models are almost all of the same height and weight. They are enforcing the beauty myth by telling women that to be beautiful they must be thin, and wear lots of make-up.

The prize of each season is simply another modelling job, albeit a glamorous one. It is a well-known fact that the modelling industry is a host to eating and weight disorders, and many models pursue unhealthy routes to weight loss. So essentially, the model who wins ANTM has only won a guarantee of continued pressure and expectation to look a certain way and maintain that look. And just as steroids have been widely used in professional sports as a way of keeping up with the competition, unhealthy dieting habits have been made necessary to compete in modelling. If the purpose of the beauty myth is to halt the progress and diminish the power of women, certainly there is no better way to do so than to force women to sacrifice health for the sake of beauty.

Models are the epitome of desirable femininity. Their job is simply to appear, to be alluring. ANTM does nothing to change that. The models are judged on how photogenic they are, how well they can pose. Personality, intelligence, ambition are all unnecessary to success in modelling and in this modelling competition specifically, though not all successful models necessarily lack those traits. Tyra Banks frequently refers to herself as being empowered, and encourages the models to empower themselves through their attitudes. But the show simply forces the models to fit in to preconceived notions of beauty. The models are judged not by popular opinion as in American Idol, but by judges already heavily indoctrinated in traditional concepts of desirable beauty.

Another important part of the beauty myth is that it pits women against each other as rivals, competitors. By making women view each other as competitors, they focus less on their issues with men and their treatment in society. ANTM literally forces young women to be more desirable than their counterparts, and to no one's surprise, the show often features bitter quarrels between the women. The models must compete for their spot on the show, and so instead of fighting preconceived notions of what is beautiful, they simply argue with each other while trying to maintain their physique.

Tyra Banks had her own famous struggle with weight, and she sometimes brings out her old fat-photos as reminders of what can happen when you let yourself go. Never are the photos looked at as beautiful in any way, but merely as grave warnings. In many cultures throughout history, Tyra would have been more desirable, or beautiful when she was overweight- since girth indicated fertility. But fertility is no longer an issue in our society, and so Tyra's former weight is something to be feared rather than admired. Tyra sets an important example for women, telling them that being overweight is not beautiful, and that losing weight should be a top priority, a feat to be admired. It is truly puzzling to see a woman like Tyra, who has been on both sides of the divide between beautiful and ugly, encourage women so vehemently to simply fit in. ANTM offers women nothing in the way of alternatives to traditional beauty.

America's Next Top Model should probably not be faulted for simply representing the collective opinions of the modelling industry as a whole, but it precisely such superficial concerns that Wolf identifies as inhibiting women's progress. ANTM has made some attempts at moderation of the rigid standards in place, featuring shorter models one season, but even so, it largely conforms to passive femininity and traditional ideas of beauty.