Posts

White Saviors in Media

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 In recent years as the world heads towards the inclusion of minorities and people of color in media, White characters in fiction have become a topic of debate. This is usually due to the phenomena known as "White Savior Syndrome". In short, a 'White savior' is a White character who plays the role of the one who solves everyone's problems, most commonly those of people of color. Many believe this sends a bad message, as it could play part in establishing a White-dominant culture and influence people into thinking that White people are the greatest thing since sliced bread.    One example of this would be the 2003 film, 'Radio'. Radio is a movie about a mentally handicapped African-American boy who has a fascination for radios, hence the nickname. One day Radio passes by the local high-school and catches glimpses of the football team practicing. This doesn't end up well for him, as the players end up locking Radio in an equipment storage, where they pro...

How a Video Game Character "Fails" To Meet a Nation's Standards

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  Genshin Impact is one of the hottest video games out currently. As of March 30th of this year, the game amasses 10 million players on a daily basis. The game has become a global phenomenom and rightfully so. The game doesn't hold back when showing off it's stunning graphics and art style, along with it's compelling characters, and lore that runs deeper than the Kola well. But along with it's many positives, it has sparked up many debates, especially in China. You see, China has strict regulations when it comes to how companies portray their fictional characters to avoid any negative connotations. This is the reason that many video games are being censored in China. The government requires game developers to change the appearance of their fictional characters to align with the current government's view of what is appropriate to portray in video games. This has lead to many video games being removed from China or being altered to meet the government's standards....

South Park's Stereotypes and Tokenism

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Trey Parker and Matt Stone's sitcom, South Park, is about a lot of subjects. It has been on the air since 1997 and covers twenty-five seasons. That's pretty successful, but we're not here to discuss South Park's success; we're here to discuss the program's numerous repeating themes, which highlight the show and have shaped it into what it is now. If you've ever seen or heard of South Park, you're aware that the television program can be somewhat controversial at times owing to the themes it chooses to address. I'd want to bring up two points: how South Park depicts stereotypes and tokenism. Eric Cartman is probably the most infamous character from the show and rightfully so. He’s loud, he’s a bigot, and overall not a good person. But he is also one of the main driving forces in the show, as many of its plots involve him in some major way. In the seventh episode of season 9 titled: ‘Christian Rock Hard’, the four main characters, Kyle, Stan, Cartman, ...

Women, Sports, Society

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Female sports were not always supported, especially as much as they are in our current society. Before the second World War, girls who played sports were looked at as undesirable. The thought process revolved around the fact that the women were imitating men and that playing sports would make them lose their appeal towards men. While this is widely supported and accepted nowadays, let's not forget that it wasn't even a full century ago when we still had really strict gender norms and expectations. At the time, men were the bread winners. They work their butts off and provide for the whole family. It was a time where men were socially the dominant sex because of their many privileges when it came to jobs, education, etc. Men were simply expected to do more and be more. They were expected to be smarter, stronger, more determined, and the list goes on. It was a mans world and women were simply living in it. On the other hand, women had a dumbed-down role. They had expectations, bu...