Stereotypes in the context of comics,
animation, and gaming narrative are used to make a character that everyone can
understand quickly. The idea is that by using stereotypes the audience can
quickly label secondary characters in a more one-dimensional way. That way the
author can establish the role they need the character to fill without wasting
time giving a back-story.
I think that playing off of preconceived
stereotypes can be very beneficial for a story. For example: in One Punch Man the main
character Saitama has a very generic design. You'd expect his character to be a
background one, perhaps a boring businessman. In reality he is a very strong
crime fighter who defeats his enemies with one punch. Using stereotypes so
people expect one thing and then you surprise them with another is a very
satisfying use.
That all being said I think a lot of
stereotypes shouldn’t be used or should be used very delicately. Whenever a
Muslim man is portrayed as a terrorist in media it affects the way that the
population views all Muslim men. In some ways this is how Hitler got as many
followers as he did. He stereotyped the Jewish people as being lesser beings
and convinced a lot of people that it was true.
I don’t
have to deal with as much stereotyping s some people do, but it still does
happen if you are a small white girl. A specific scenario I can remember is
when I went to the home depot to get some tools. At the time I had participated
in Habitat For Humanity, so I had experience with power tools and building in
general. The man I asked for assistance from took one look at me and tried to
steer me away from the power tools. He was rude and it was very clear to me
that he did not believe that women should be building anything. This moment was
just a minor inconvenience at most, but still very frustrating.
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