REFLECTION JOURNAL 2 ( MULTI-MEDIA ENTRY)

STEREOTYPES IN ADVERTISEMENTS

This video is an advertisement and has a stereotype that blonde women are dumb. Commercial companies use stereotypes in order to make their advertisements more funny and effective. They do not create new stereotypes, but they reinforce the stereotypes which people have already known. In my opinion, there are two important points to be mentioned and emphasized in the video.

The first point is about effects of the stereotypes on advertisements. Think about the advertisement in the video. The stereotype which is used in it insults blonde women, but the people who watch this advertisement have fun like us involuntarily. In addition to make ads fun, using stereotypes affects consumers. And also, it may make the product which is introduced in the advertisement more attractive. In my opinion, the companies use stereotypes deliberately because people can find something which is familiar with them. When they watch advertisements in television or internet, finding a slice of their life makes the advertisements more reliable. For example, when a man watch an advertisement in which a woman speaks too much, he says she is just like my wife. This may make the advertisement more reliable and funny for him. In conclusion, because the stereotypes in advertisements affect and attract consumers, the commercial companies make profit thanks to the stereotypes.

The second point is about the opposite situation that is effects of the advertisement on stereotypes. As I mentioned before, commercial companies reinforce the stereotypes which is already known. Because stereotypes are generalization about a group of people or gender, they affect people’s thought about the group. They mostly affect people negatively, and they may make people give a bias to the members of the group. In order to overcome the stereotypes and their negative effects we should forget about them, but it is harder to ignore them because we can encounter with them again and again in a day due to advertisements.  

To sum up, because advertisements use and reinforce the stereotypes, advertisements have more effects on us and may prevent us from overcoming and forgetting about stereotypes. Stereotypes may increase the profits of the commercial companies, but the commercial companies negatively affect our lives and thoughts by using stereotypes in my opinion.

REFLECTION JOURNAL 2

EFFECTS OF THE STEREOTYPES

Stereotype is an oversimplified generalization about a group or a gender. For example, women are bad drivers, or blacks are good at basketball. It can be true in general but cannot be true for each member of the group which is stereotyped. It can be positive or negative. In both case, it affects the people who are exposed to it. This effect may decrease the performance of the members of the group and also may increase it.

In the first case, a negative stereotype may decrease people’s performance because they worry about confirming it, so they may feel pressure on them. As a result of this pressure, they realize the negative stereotypes which they exposed to. This is stereotype threat. For example, when a woman who is good at math or science but also knows the stereotype that women cannot do math has a math test, she feels pressure on her because of the fear of confirming this stereotype. Therefore, she may perform in this test badly just because of the stereotype and this pressure.

In the second case, people’s performance may increase just thanks to a stereotype. While the stereotype which I mentioned in the previous paragraph decreases the performance of women, it may increase the performance of the men because even if they are bad at math, they have self-confidence thanks to the stereotype. This is stereotype lift.

Both stereotype threat and stereotype lift affect life and performance of the people who are stereotyped. Now we know what stereotype, stereotype threat and stereotype lift are. The aspect of the topic which I am interested in is how we can overcome stereotypes especially stereotype threat because it is a problem to solve. I think there is just one way to solve this problem. It is ignoring the stereotypes.

In order to be able to ignore stereotypes you have to know your abilities and limits. That is, you need to know the subjects and areas which you are good or bad at. Knowing yourself makes you self-confident. This is the first and the most important step to solve this problem in my opinion. Then, you can ignore it just as you ignore the people’s thought about you or your act when you know you did well or you are right. To sum up, think stereotypes as the thoughts of the people who want to judge, limit and envy you and just ignore them.

In conclusion, stereotypes affect our lives, but the important point is the way of this effect. When their effect is positive, you can believe and adopt it, but you should ignore the stereotypes which may affect you or your performance badly and try to turn them into an advantage.