Week 8: Cultural Representations

After reflecting on this week’s assigned readings, there are a number of ideas and perspectives that jumped out at me.  To start off with, I found it interesting that the article mentioned that the Dick and Jane images began around the time of World War 2 because I feel like these stereotypical images began much prior to this time period.  This thought made me reflect on where I had received these ideas since I was obviously not born during that time and I realized that any of my “knowledge” on these images really stemmed from images I picked up through movies and television.  When I think about hit television shows that have a main character that is defined through their being an English language learner, the only show that I could think of is “That 70’s Show”.  The character “Fez” is not only portrayed as dumb and perverted, but also he is the least liked character among the friends in the group.  In reality, this image being displayed doesn’t really surprise me yet it does make me feel guilty about the subliminal messages I have been receiving strictly from watching television since during a really critical time in my development.

A quote that was really influential in my reading was in Tayler-Mendes’ piece when he mentioned the necessity to raise awareness “about power inequality hidden behind taken for granted knowledge and transforming society so that the powerless become agents of changing their own world”.  I think this sentence was formed so beautifully because it really slaps you in the face and tells you that there is something that everyone can be doing to change the way stereotypes litter this earth.  Not only is it the “powerless” or minority groups that need to be reacting, its everyone that needs to start caring more about the images we portray.

Of course I have been blindly reading textbooks all of my life, but I have never taken a minute to reflect on the picture and how they are being received.  It almost sickens me to think that I have been so naïve as to not even realize that these images are being framed to display the stereotypical images that companies want us to believe at an early age. The article mentioned that body language, physical positioning and even clothing on certain racial groups broadcast the exact image that we receive in various ways throughout the media. I found it interesting that throughout their research they noticed that English as a foreign language learners had a very difficult time questioning these images when in reality it is their cultural groups who are being diminished by this unfortunate habit companies have with their advertisements. These topics are all very controversial so I think this week’s discussion will be very insightful since it is inevitable that everyone will have very different opinions and I look forward to hearing them in class.