English Language VI
Debate 10: Traditions and Mass Media
Members:
C:
ST-LVIC-G10-1
ST-LVIC-G10-2
ST-LVIC-G10-3
ST-LVIC-G10-4
A:
ST-LVIA-G10-5
ST-LVIA-G10-6
ST-LVIA-G10-7
ST-LVIA-G10-8
ST-LVIA-G10-9
Discussion Leader:
DL-LVI-G10-1
· ST-LVIA-G10-5
I think it would be interesting to start the debate with what do we think about the representation of minorities (LGBT, POC…) in mass media. Maybe we can discuss how they are portrayed and if the representation is enough or the casts/characters in television, for instance, should be more diverse.
· ST-LVIC-G10-4
+ ST-LVIA-G10-5 For instance, what do you think about the lack of representation of racial and ethnic minorities in American media? I strongly believe that minorities (black, Hispanic, Asian American, etc.) are, on the whole, proportionately underrepresented in the media relative to their population. And most of the time, the minority characters that do exist tend to be secondary to a white protagonist(s), often sidekicks, best friends, «first to die,» etc. This absence of people of color sort of implies that the stories of minorities are not important.
Consider the popular show Friends, for example.
· DL-LVI-G10-1
Hi there. Sorry for the late reply, I have spent a while in Scotland. My name is DL-LVI-G10-1 and I study Law with Spanish. I am from Scotland, in the United Kingdom. Are you all from Valencia, or different towns outside of the city? What do you study?
· ST-LVIC-G10-4
+ DL-LVI-G10-1 Hi DL-LVI-G10-1! Nice to meet you! I’m ST-LVIC-G10-4 and I study Translation at the Universitat de València. What do you think about this topic or the representation of minorities in mass media? Thank you for taking your time to reply.
· ST-LVIA-G10-5
+ ST-LVIC-G10-4 I totally agree with what you said, movies like Black Panther, for instance, are going to have such a positive effect because of the amazing representation of black culture it offers. Most of the times characters who are not white are rather a «tool» used by the white characters to ensure their personal growth or, as you said, they are just sidekicks most of the times. If we analyze FRIENDS, for instance, there’s an obvious lack of representation, as all characters are white and straight but also I think we need to put a bit of perspective into that. FRIENDS is quite old and in the 90s the representation issue wasn’t as important as it is right now. Still, there’s at least one non-heterosexual couple and (for the time) I think it isn’t as problematic, although I think there should be at least a few characters who aren’t white. I think How I met your mother would be more of a subject of debate than FRIENDS because the representation problem is the same and the show is quite modern. Opinions on that? And what about the influence good representation has on society?
· ST-LVIC-G10-1
Hi there! I’m ST-LVIC-G10-1 and I’m studying Translation at the Universitat de València too. Sorry for the late reply, but getting used to this format is a bit challenging for me. I totally agree with what has been said! The representation of minorities in mass media plays such an important role in our society, as it is a way of normalizing the differences we, as people, have (whatever they might be). And I am totally for what ST-LVIA-G10-5 said, films such as Black Panther have an outstanding impact and I believe might set a path for future, more diverse media. Personally, I’m not a huge TV fan, but I’ve watched HIMYM a few times and I was appalled with the underrepresentarion of minorities and the quite recurrent sexist theme. It’s humurous, I get it, but whenever I face a situation like that I try to change the roles and I think that it would have been really controversial if any of the female main characters acted as some of the male counterparts did. What do you think?
· ST-LVIA-G10-5
+ ST-LVIC-G10-1 Hi! I haven’t watched more than a few episodes of HIMYM but I think if any of the characters would have taken more «masculine» roles they would have been probably branded as some kind of women failures. I read an article stating how Robin is quite negatively considered by the public because she does not follow classic gender roles, as she does not want to get married and have children at the beginning of the show. In fact, the public also demonizes her because Ted is considered a «nice guy» and she is the mean one for rejecting him, which reinforces, even more, the idea of considering as negative those female characters who step out of the path expected for them.
ST-LVIA-G10-9
Hello everyone! My name is ST-LVIA-G10-9 and I study English Filology at University of València. I’ve been reading all your comments and I completely agree with everything you said. As I haven’t watched any episode of the last serie you mentioned, I would like to answer to ST-LVIC-G10-4 about the lack of represetation of racial and ethnic minorities in American media.
I think American media represents how American society is structured. I mean, racial minorities are not considered as important as white people, for example. In my opinion, that is the reason why some series and TV shows casts don’t show equality and none seems to care. But, sadly, it is not only in American show where we can see these differences. For example, in Spain we had one famous serie called Aquí no hay quien viva and all the characters were white and with very different roles.
· ST-LVIC-G10-1
+ ST-LVIA-G10-9 Hello, ST-LVIA-G10-9! I see where you are coming from and I agree with your statements to some extent, but I don’t think that comparing HIMYM or Friends to ‘Aquí no hay quién viva’ would be fair. Despite having a relevant number of immigrants, the population of foreigners in Spain is lesser if we contrast it with the one in the USA. Just taking into account the racial diversity in the United States, it would be unfair to compare it with the one in Spain, in which the racial richness is lower. Besides that, the historical aspect is not even analogous. The racial profiling and disregard in the US has its base in ancient times, when slavery was current. I believe this perception can be seen recently with the rise of racism between the Americans.
As I see it, the misrepresentation of the black, latino or Asian community could be supported by ancient hatred and the contemplation of many Americans that white supremacy is valid; whereas, on the other hand, I believe that the unrepresented racial variety in our society could be explained by the lack of a larger native population that is not white, as the majority of that chunk of inhabitants are first generation immigrants, with a dual nationality.