My blog entry to my class for the week:
I felt as though there was a lot of synchronicity
surrounding our class this past week. For example, in trying to come up with
ways to approach the topic of stereotypes, I am acutely aware of the power of
these labels, these words and images that are associated with this important
topic. While many in the class can
easily brush these things aside, I do recognize that some cannot. Stereotyping
hurts. I don’t say this theoretically, but as someone who has at different
times in my life has had to endure hurtful assumptions made about me, my
family, or with cultural groups that I identified with. Until I found my “voice”,
I let it slide, but it was hurtful. During those times, I never sought to
actively challenge what was being said, that is, challenge folks on their most
wrong of assumptions. Whoever came up with the adage “sticks and stones may
break my bones but words will never hurt me” lied to us. These cognitive
shortcuts hurt, they wound, and some of the most painful occurrences that we
can endure never leave a physical mark on us. The damage is all done on the
inside. That being said, I felt that we could talk about some of these things
in class, but I didn't want to write them out. These things have a “power” all
their own, and thinking about this for some time, I didn't want to give them
any more power than they already had and put them out there in print. And yet,
there has to be a way to discuss them, even if only to give us pause and reason
to consider. Several of you had mentioned in your latest writing entries about
the power of media and how our views of the world are shaped and reified by
various communication processes. And so, as you well know, I used the media as
a way to guide our conversation, specifically thinking about Disney and then certain
films in general. Do I personally think that Walt Disney was evil? That the
cartoons that many of us had viewed growing up were being made as intentional
propaganda? No and no. What the films discussed do provide us with is a glimpse
of social acceptance and standards from back when they were made. Characters
and people are presented in specific ways to tap into those symbolic codes and
societal views that were already out there. Generally it is understood that in
art forms, there are many messages being produced, some are more evident than
others. It’s up to the viewer to ponder these things. They are products of the values and social
mores of their times. Thus, we can learn from this medium and explore a
potentially explosive topic in an easy going manner. Think about it, and I’ll
let you wrestle with the implications. And then we briefly discussed films depicting
certain myths about the South. We then watched a documentary dealing with
Appalachia. What films would you have added to this list I presented?
Part of what I’m getting at is that these mental shortcuts,
these incorrectly applied labels can contribute to other concepts and
constructs. Stereotypes help reinforce attitudes and behaviors that we have
towards OTHER groups of people. It justifies our behaviors against groups we
already dislike or mistreat. It contributes to stigma and to prejudice. Stigma
and prejudice, now there’s a mouthful, more than a mouthful. And it happens to
be a focus of my own research interests. For purposes here, let’s say that
prejudice applies to race, and stigma applies to deviant behaviors, identities,
and disease/disabilities. Long story short,
these concepts (stigma and prejudice) can function in many ways, but I want to
keep this short. Consider these three possible functions of stigma and
prejudice:
·
Exploitation and domination, that is, keeping
people down,
·
Norm enforcement, that is, keeping people in,
and
·
Disease avoidance, that is, keeping people away.
Some groups must have less power and fewer resources for
dominant groups to have more. Ideologies develop in order to legitimize and
perpetuate these needed inequalities.
This is one of the basic functions of stigma and prejudice (keeping people down). Social norms must
be enforced in order to bring conformity to the group (keeping people in). Stigma
and prejudice function here as a means to make those “deviants” conform and
re-join in group status. Think of it as shaming someone into coming into party
or position line. Stigma and prejudice
also serve to help define the group (rules, identity, acceptable behaviors) and
serve to show the consequences of non-compliance. In thinking of behaviors consider non-normative
sexual behavior or identities, political deviations, religious belief, even
obesity, mental illnesses and substance abuse. The dominant group defines and
enforces what is considered to be unacceptable.
Disease itself seems largely rooted in stigma. The obvious example that
comes to mind is HIV/AIDS related stigma. It’s the topic of my dissertation.
But other conditions are stigmatized as well: mental illnesses, cancers, skin
conditions, physical disabilities and deformities, blindness and paralysis (keeping people away). We avoid what we
fear and do not understand. And so we place distance between ourselves and
those we perceive to be ill. (Phelan J.,
Link, B., Dovidio, J, 2008)
Acknowledgement is the first step to recognizing where we
are oriented. Go back to the set of
questions I asked you to consider about stereotypes. What have you heard? Where
do you think they come from? Do you think stereotypes are harmful to persons
from that group? How do we take steps in overcoming these exaggerations /
distortions of reality? Should we even bother? What would be the benefits of
overcoming these attitudes? Are there any drawbacks to doing so?
Have a great week everyone.
Namaste’
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