Stereotypes? Do they exist?

Why do stereotypes exist? What purpose do they serve?

The media is popular for poking fun at certain group of people of a certain ethnicity of religious background with a stereotype. Though stereotypes come to people as funny and entertaining, its full affects can be seen when people attach racial slurs to these stereotypes. In shows, when people of different ethnicity are put together, it is for a purpose. It is so that the person can show case the culture and their attachment to their background. At some point during the show, you might see that character performing some action, or dressing up in a certain manner, talking with a strong accent or interacting with other people in a particular manner that is going to make you feel different from that person. These generalizations are usually based on sex, sexual preference, race etc so that there are already given “info” or traits of the person according to the stereotype so it saves shows the time to get into the depths and layers of the character an rather allow the viewers to assume the characteristics of the person through their colour or origin. In this way, the tv show does not have to sustain the character with plots for the viewers to understand his traits but rather allow the viewers to use their knowledge from previous media and understand the character. That is why stereotypes exist, to make small or large groups more condensed and easy to understand. It allows different associations to be formed which can are misleading a lot of the times and often lead to discrimination. In media, stereotypes are used to simplify characters rather then show the complexity of the characters.