Stereotype

Media stereotypes are systematic representations, repeated in a variety of forms from jokes and cartoons to news broadcasts, feature films, and television series. A descriptive or designative (based on physical appearance) aspect combines with an evaluative aspect in which people are judged from a particular perspective or point of view. Stereotypes are especially insidious when they become a way for powerful groups to characterize subordinated groups, whether it is men viewing women, whites viewing blacks, or the middle class viewing the working class. What is usually false about a stereotype is the systematic suggestion that all people of a group are this way, and this way by nature, and that we should feel superior to them, whether we despise, fear, or laugh at the stereotype.