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October 14, 2007 at 5:59 am
Role of Media (re)constructing/Reflecting Identity
A television sitcom is only 30 minutes long with commercials, so in order to get stories told and characters established in a short amount of time the show needs to rely on stereotypes. As we talked about in class , stereotypes help us to remember information quickly and nobody knew that better than the wardrobe designer.
Without even having to speak one line you can tell a lot about Will Smith’s character. Baggy pants, the fade haircut, jewelry. He even flips his Bel Air Academy jacket inside out to separate himself as an African American that is of a different class than the people in Bel Air. His family that he stays with on the other hand is the exact opposite. Everyone dresses in much more distinguished attire that would be fit for a country club. Especially Will’s cousin Carlton, who wears the overly blatant “preppy” look vest with the sweater wrapped around his shoulders. Why he has to like Tom Jones? Who’s whiter than Tom Jones.
As we discussed in class stereotyping is an unconscious process that provides familiarity and is based on experience. So even if there seems to be a positive stereotype, it can never be a good thing because like we said in class, stereotyping reduces people to a limited set of info and makes people one-dimensional, which is exactly what sitcoms do best. The media’s role is to construct other peoples identity which are polysemic and made for the audience to interpret based on their own experiences.
- Vinh Nguyen
October 14, 2007 at 7:49 pm
French Prince of Bel-Air kind of started off where the Cosby show left off. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air expressed a new African American identity, or at least it expressed a more honest approach to the African American experience. The migration of persons from less affluent neighborhoods like in Philadelphia where Will was coming from to Bel Air where he was exposed to another atmosphere. The show displayed the diversity that existed even within the African American community itself. The audience also saw that diversity that was positively expressed.
What I find particularly intriguing is that the cast itself is actually extremely in its own right. Carlton played by Alfonso Ribiero is actually Dominican, Ashley played by Tatyana Ali is of Indian and Panamanian descent, Hilary played by Karyn Parsons is of mixed raced (“white/black”). Despite this all the characters were protrayed as African American. Perhaps this diversity within the African American community heralds a new concept of the African American. Or it could also be said that by confusing races and grouping them in one category according to their skin color or physical features we are only perpetuating the old fashioned “white” response to foreign elements in the United States.