Stereotypes in American TV Shows

In America, stereotypes have been prevalent in the film industry. Primarily, the minorities have been negatively cast for a long time. For example, African Americans have been stereotyped as violent, more prone to crime, poor, and as white's domestic workers.  Moreover, minorities have been underrepresented in core TV roles. Women have also been victims of TV stereotypes, where they have been cast in home contexts than in working environments. Below are some of the American TV shows that depict negative stereotypes.

The Office, US

The Office is an NBC TV show starring Steve Carrell as Michael Scott, a manager who heads a paper production company, Dunder Mifflin. The sitcom's first episodes promote gender stereotypes, depicting women as incompetent leaders. Michael Scott heads the firm, and his deputy is Dwight Schrute, a male. On the other hand, female characters play subordinates, with the show further promoting stereotypes by having a female secretary, Pam Beesly. Further, when Michael Scott leaves the firm, he is replaced by a male, his deputy, Dwight. And after Dwight is demoted from the manager's position after shooting a gun in the Office, he is replaced by creed Branton, a male. Therefore, the show promotes gender stereotypes.

Cops

Cops is an American TV show which first aired on Fox before being picked up by Paramount Network before its final cancellation. The TV show promotes racial stereotypes, where it depicts black people as criminals and Hispanics as violent. In its pilot episode, the first three arrests are made on black people. In subsequent episodes, the series maintains the dominant image of black people as more prone to being criminal offenders, with fewer white suspects being apprehended.

Breaking Bad

Many people consider AMC's Breaking Bad as the best American TV show. However, the show depicts racial stereotypes, portraying people of color as drug dealers and violent criminals. For example, Walter White, a white drug dealer, is portrayed as having a likable demeanor and hardly engages in violent activities. However, other drug dealers like Tuco Salamanca, a Mexican, are depicted as being extremely violent, as witnessed in their first meeting where Tuco killed one of his bodyguards using his bare fists. Besides that, Gus, Fring, a Hispanic, is cast as a drug criminal.

How  the Stereotypes have Impacted Society

Gender Roles

As aforementioned, the Office, a US TV show, portrayed women in subordinate positions while casting men in leadership positions, with no female serving in the firm's management positions. Gender roles stereotypes perceiving women as incompetent leaders have adversely affected efforts of attaining gender equity and female leaders. For example, only 4.8% of Fortune Global 500 companies have female CEOs (Steffens et al., 2018). Additionally, in Europe, women represent 15% of Executive Committee membership of Europes top 100 firms (Steffens et al., 2018). Therefore, this gender stereotype has hindered gender equality in our society.

Racial Stereotypes

The racial stereotypes depicting people of color as criminals have had negative consequences in these communities, including facing high incarceration rates, racial profiling, police brutality, and deaths than the whites. For example, blacks have 2.5 times more chances to be killed by police officers in the US than whites, while black individuals fatally shot in the US are twice as likely to be unharmed than whites (Peeples, 2020). Therefore, these stereotypes have promoted social injustice in our society.

How TV Stereotypes Have Influenced my Life

Despite enacting efforts to appreciate diversity and be culturally competent, the TV stereotypes portraying the Arabs as terrorists had in the past influenced my perception of the Arab communities. In the past, I felt insecure in the presence of Arabs, as I associated them with insecurity. However, I have become more culturally competent and realized the power of stereotypes in shaping my life.

Stereotypes are prevalent in American societies. For example,  the US film industry has mapped real-life society into televisions, with some TV shows and films promoting stereotypes. These stereotypes have had adverse effects on their victims. For example, gender stereotypes have hindered women from progressing in the career world, while racial stereotypes have made black people be targets of police brutality in the US. Therefore, we must realize the potential impact of promoting stereotypes and enact measures to fight them.