Quotes and Connections

"Movies are a 'lead propaganda machine' working against equal rights movements for women and minorities. Movies, and popular media, have the potential to reverse the progress made toward eradicating intolerance and bigotry in society today"

I agree with my quote. It explains how movies are leading propaganda and really promoting racial and gender stereotypes that are offensive. This quote relates to my previous critiques because it shows how directors are purposefully placing certain actors of a certain race or appearance or gender into a movie because they think this is what will make the movie more appealing for viewers, meanwhile it is just working against equal rights movements for minorities and women. Many movies today still sexualize women and make them helpless characters who are society idea of "beautiful" but can't speak or fight back for themselves. Movies also may place someone of color as the criminal in a scene, because they are playing off of stereotypes and feels that makes the most sense, it doesn't. This is extremely degrading and is making society take steps backwards, rather than progress forward, when fighting for equal rights for women and minorities. I agree with this quote and believe we all need to come together in order to put a stop toward this, because the world needs to be moving forward and taking strides toward equality, not get kicked backwards due to popular culture events (such as movies, advertisements, ect.)

My peers had similar ideas, they connected the ideas presented in the quote to motivated representations shown in Hooks analysis of movies and directors. I really liked what others said about how when kids are young they are not capable of telling what is wrong versus right and what they should watch versus what they shouldn't. This is important because it all starts when you are young. It all starts when you can't consciously choose what shows you watch are good or bad so you just end up watching cartoons which then in turn can correlate with stereotypes. Young brains are then introduced to societal standards or what is considered "normal". Kids think that they should look or act a certain way based on stereotypes presented to them in movies and media today. Also, we can choose to ignore lots of media or movies but we are all surrounded by it and one way or another are influenced by it.