Instruction
Guidance: We live in a world in which only a daily basis we are inundated with images of men, women, LGBTQ, and numerous other groups. On an individual level, these representations may seem harmless but when through repetitive exposures, reductive narratives, and stereotyping--among other techniques--these representations can create stereotypes about men, women and others. In addition, the power of these representations is precisely that they create the conditions for viewers to reduce the complexity of 'real' people to the representations that we uncritically accept.
The purpose of this paper is to analyze any of the representations listed below in order to convince the reader that these representations can be harmful and to illustrate the causes and consequences of these representations so as to come up with solutions.
Topics
8) The representation of war
Here's the outline for the paper, so please format your paper according to it.
Introduction: In the introduction, you should try to convince the reader that the representation you have chosen is an important one by providing a couple of pieces of shocking data that might get the reader's attention. At the end of the introduction, you should provide a thesis that says something like the following:
Since 2001, Hollywood movies have represented the terrorist as a Middle-Eastern man who is violent, speaks an unfamiliar language that sounds like gibberish to the audience, and who single-mindedly pursues his irrational goal of killing 'innocent' Americans to satisfy his religious 'duties.' Through the use of decades-old stereotypes regarding Middle-Easterners, straw man ad hominem, and beginning the question fallacies, Hollywood movies create the conditions of discrimination and violence towards members of the Middle-Eastern community. The most effective way to fix this problem is by....
2) In the second part of your essay, you should pick FIVE MOVIES OR TV shows and analyze their representation of whatever group you have chosen. Here's how you should structure this section.
The movie X depicts a gay character who ....(briefly summarize the plot)
(Next Paragraph) This representation is cliched because it repeats the same stereotype and in doing so creates the perception in the minds of viewers that the members of the LGBTQ community are....
Again, make sure that for each movie/TV show, you summarize briefly in one paragraph and analyze the representation in a different paragraph.
Try to look for sources that will help your argument Do the same for each of the movies/TV shows you have chosen.
4) Causes of the Reductive Representation: For this section, come up with THREE reasons why we continue to perpetuate these harmful representations.
3) Consequences: In this section, you should analyze the consequences of the representation. Look for statistical data that shows the effects of the representation on people. Be specific and use facts.
4) Solutions: In this section, you should make recommendations for improving these representations.
Length: At least 3500 words
At least 10 sources
MLA documented
Final Draft Due: 4/26