Look at any "B-grade" American movie and within you will find a handful of stereotypes particularly at the high school level. You have the 'jocks', the 'nerds', the 'losers', the 'gay vampires' and 'cheerleaders' among many more stereotypes. However, the question must be raised whether such stereotypes exist anywhere else but on the silver screen as well as its important in interpreting social conventions that have existed since well the creation of any form of order, society, law or otherwise.
There is of course the system of which the entire social hierarchy since the dawn of individual thought (or there lack of due to systematic oppression) has been based upon. Generally three main groups can be isolated: the upper class (capitalist class or ruling class or patricians), the middle class (mercantile class or bourgeoisie or plebeians) and the lower class (working class or slavery class). Of course, then how does this relate to the stereotypes that now exist within society. Well of course, as a member of society it makes relative sense to ask oneself the questions such as: would one trust a rich businessman or lawyer with a secret, or a hard working blue-collar worker? Would one expect a rich man to wear Target? Would one expect a cleaner to be smarter than an investment banker? Just from these simple questions and consequently their answers, stereotypes have already been recreated within one's mind. Indeed a member of a upper class is generally idealised as a smart, sophisticated, greedy, sometimes untrustworthy person. A lower class is therefore then portrayed as a slow witted, simple, charitable and trustworthy man. Nevertheless, it may then be stated that perhaps rather than class determining one's traits and character, it may be the other way around. A smarter, more educated man may have become upper class through application of such knowledge, much like the worker who did not have such a privileged upbringing. Therein lies the main point: that socioeconomic, demographics, character and chance all are directly correlated with one's class.
With such thought then comes the idea that, why is it that certain movies (and other forms of media) portray stereotypes. The truth is that stereotypes do exist and indeed most, if not everyone does correspond to a stereotype because in reality, a stereotype is simply a microcosm of society itself. The classic high school example: the 'jocks', 'cheerleaders' would be agreed upon to be the upper class, the everyday 'mr average', 'musos' represent the middle class, and the 'nerds', 'dorks', 'geeks' and 'losers' top the lower classes. Yet then, ironically it is the 'nerds' who eventually because of academic brilliance and intelligence, become the upper class in later life. This brings the question of the reasons behind 'jocks' being the upper class of high school hierarchy. The idea of popularity is therefore echoed and presented as the only definitive way of people to measure ones class within the high school hierarchy. Yet this is much to the distaste of many middle class students for, representative of society itself, and prescribed in many social analysis texts, the middle class are always fighting with the upper class within history to obtain their new position as such. Indeed, time and time again, civil wars, coups, revolutions have been products of ideals held by the middle class with the enlisted help of the lower class.
Much like society's classes, the discriminant is that only one factor is taken into account for measuring one's position within a system. Once before, it may have been military power, political power (a more potent form of popularity), or otherwise but now in the capitalist world, it is unfortunately the measure of monetary value, or rather money. However, once such capitalist world might be eradicated as normally done by the middle class with the help of the lower class, perhaps yet again a new world may take shape, and yet again a new factor will determine one's position in the hierarchy. Thus continues the loop that has shaped civilisations, empires and countries as well as spawn countless "B-grade" American movies that are nothing more than a bit of fun.
As a complimentary comment I would also like to add the growing number of racial social mobility particularly in Australian urban society. With the number of immigration waves that have occurred you get the highly mobile, highly motivated and highly skilled migrants. The Italians in the mid 1900s, the Greeks, the Eastern Europeans and finally the Asians. They have all come to the fore of the middle class dominating a giant section of urban Sydney and surely urban Melbourne whilst the amount of segregation has caused ghettos to form. Anglo Australians have been relegated to either the top of the upper class or very poor and the bottom, undereducated and disenfranchised which has caused tension in the community.
ReplyDeleteAmerican movies have been noticing this evidenced by such eminent films like Harold & Kumar and Sandra Oh in ER, that Korean Guy on Lost, not to mention Jacky Chan and Bruce Lee. These cultural symbols coupled with the growing globalisation and recognition of Pan-Asiatic diaspora causing a mish-mash of culture in Western Society. This highly mobile people (asians) are set to take their place on the world stage as economic giants awaken from their slumber. All it has to do is shake the stereotypes and seize a cultural identity worth protecting.
HIPPO OUT
HIPPO BACK IN, nah still out
Interesting stuff you have here, man. I can't say I agree with your proposition that character determines one's class, as there has, until only recently, been an extremely rigid class system throughout the Anglophonic world, and I believe that the social stereotypes associated with the traditional upper, middle and lower class distinctions have been a result of the history of this rigorously enforced social hierarchy.
ReplyDeleteI also disagree that Anglo-Celtic Australians have been relegated to the lowest rung of the social ladder. The social stigmatisms associated with being a new migrant, as well as the widespread, subtle racism which runs rampant in our society, are two of the main factors which trap migrant families into the working class. The inequality of opportunity presented by language difficulties, which is inherent in our Anglophonic society, means as far as Australia's future is concerned, new migrants from non-English speaking backgrounds will ceaselessly be siphoned into the lowest class, regardless of when and where they arrive in Australia.
I digress that the recent affluence achieved by some members of migrant communities, although few in number, such as those of Oriental and Sub-continental Asia, act as somewhat of an antithesis to my argument. However, I think you will find, that even with the ghettos of Sydney and Melbourne, that these communities have, to a certain degree, become an integral part of Australia's identity just as the waves of migrants beforehand, from the British Isles and war-torn continental Europe, have integrated into Australia's multicultural society. It is when the next wave of migration occurs, which I predict shall come from the destitute and impoverished states of Africa, that the newest migrants will again be chained to the bottom rung of Australia's society, and we will again see racial tensions surface between the ‘upper class’ Anglo-Celtic Australian and the ‘lower class’ migrant “New Australian”.