Television

Hail to the spunky, talented children , to the spirit of competition and people behaving badly. As an outsider to Fairlfield County looking in on what’s popular on TV, those are the things humans revere the most. From Glee to X factor to Bad Girls Club these things dominate television. Sometimes stereotypical, each group has their own role. For example, men of color are often the villains or side characters in the shows. This can be seen in NBC's show Grimm where Detective Griffin plays sidekick to Detective Burkhart when solving fairytale like crimes. Furthermore African American women are often seen as nagging, demanding and sometimes "ghetto". The Parkers are a perfect example of these traits. Kim parker, the main protagonist of the series is always seen as wearing outrageous clothing, never passing her classes and saying “Heyy” or “Dang Mamma” in a very loud, stereotypical fashion. Surprisingly, this program airs on BET which is supposed to refute these stereotypes.  The portrayal of black women isn’t very far off from how women are shown in general. That is a bossy person that demands attention all the time. Nothing is a more perfect example of this than the children’s cartoon the Fairly Odd Parents which airs on nick. Wanda, the fairy wife is famous for demanding her husband Cosmo get her chocolate calling him a "Stupid idiot" and being "Naggy". Although these shows are showing a reversed gender role, with men now being seen as incompetent or complacent and women as more assertive, whether it is a good or bad thing is the real question. It seems that women are either portrayed as too bossy or too weak. In general there seems to be no happy medium for any group, with Asians, LGBT's Native Americans and the disabled underrepresented or ignored. My only hope is that at some point that happy medium can be found.