Fifth Blog Post

The elderly in popular media seem to be under-represented. Although they are present they usually relegated to supporting roles that fall into three stereotypes: mentor/parental substitute figure, comic relief with rude manners, or an elderly badass who is not pass his glory days. The first one shows up a lot, usually in a positive light. In Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy, Batman gets his parental substitute in the form of his butler Alfred (played by acting legend Sir Michael Caine). In these films Alfred is the one who raised Batman after his parents were killed, and in a way never stops being that role in Batman’s life; he free to chastise Batman like any parent does when their child makes mistakes, is openly concerned about Batman’s welfare and happiness. By contrast Dame Judi Dench’s M in Skyfall although a parental figure to James Bond, she is in a totally different way: tough love. As head of MI6, M is Bond’s superior and will in no certain terms let him forget that. Although she cares for Bond, as head of espionage organization she is forced to make tough decisions: at the beginning of the film she orders Bond to abandon a fellow agent who is in need of medical help, and eventually gives an order that puts Bond’s life in danger (he’s shot but it’s non-fatal). Bond is enraged that his superior didn’t have enough faith in him to finish the mission and actually fakes his death to retire from espionage, which proves short lived. M’s willingness to sacrifice her agents is seen in the film as a negative trait as it comes back to haunt her through the course of the film, and eventually gets her killed, but not before reconciling with Bond.

            The examples from this next category can be described as having this mindset: “screw politeness, I’m a senior.” They use their age as an excuse to be incredibly rude, because nobody would retaliate against a senior. For the characters it’s misery, for the audience it’s hilarious. With popularity of Betty White this is perhaps the most common stereotype, in the media. In PBS’ Downton Abbey, one of the most popular characters is the Dowager Countess (played by Dame Maggie Smith), mainly due to the show’s writers giving her excellent one-liners such as “don’t be defeatist dear it’s very middle class” and “no Englishman would *dream* of dying in someone else's house - especially somebody they didn't even know.” Since the show is set in an aristocratic estate in the early 1900’s, her sense of humor comes off better than it would if the show was set in the present day. Moreover her sense of humor is counter-balanced by her devotion to her family-particularly her granddaughters. By contrast Pierce (played by Chevy Chase) from Community is not nearly so endearing, and shows us the negative qualities of this stereotype. His jokes and antics about sex and race often offend and try the patience of his friends to the point they often seem to the barely tolerate him, and the audience usually takes the side of the rest of the study group. What makes it worse is that the other elderly characters of the show the “Hipsters” are just as bad, but for most part are in the background, popping up now and again. The problem with this particular stereotype is that it gives a negative impression of elderly people, even though bad manners can be found amongst people of all ages, fiction has a tendency to color people’s perceptions about reality.

           

The third is the elderly badass, a character in their golden years, but when the time comes they more than capable of proving themselves badass and that with age comes experience, not hindrance. This stereotype is somewhat rare and mostly pops up in works of fantasy and sci-fi: Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings, Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Admiral Adama in Battlestar Galactica, etc. Disney’s Ducktales is a good example: one of the few shows where an elderly character is the main one: in this case Donald Duck’s uncle, Scrooge McDuck. In the context of the show he’s the richest duck in the world, whom happens to go on Indiana Jones-like adventures, battle evil witches, stop bank robbers from stealing his fortune all in the name of fun and profit. He’s a self-made man, he had to earn his fortune the hard way, through years of hard work prospecting and mining that would eventually be the seed of his business empire. He’s not content to sit on his laurels though; he’s always looking to make more money. He’s also very protective of his nephews, and woe to anyone who would dare harm them. Next we turn somewhat closer to reality in the live action sci-fi classic Doctor Who. Fan favorite Wilfred Mott only appeared in one season, but he certainly made an impression of fans. Wilfred is the granddad of Donna Noble, the Doctor’s companion in Season 4. Wilfred provides Donna the affection she lacks from her mum. He also happens to be a WWII vet, with a fascination with aliens and outer space. He distinctly gets pissed off whenever the latest alien invasion of London is happening: “it’s them aliens again!” He’s also not afraid to fight back, when the Daleks, invade London, Wilfred notices they only have one eyestalk, so he tries to blind them with a paintball gun, which would’ve worked if the Daleks weren’t able to melt the paint off (but it was more than what the rest of London was doing). In his last appearance on the show he even gets to man a spaceship’s laser cannon similar to Han Solo. Although elderly actors can make good living doing supporting roles, they are rarely allowed roles that allow characters of their age to act naturally; the get pigeonholed as the mentor, the comic relief, the badass, while younger actors have a chance to be themselves on screen.

            While the elderly have always had a present on screen the same cannot be said of homosexuals, mainly because of taboos and prejudices in our society, that are now slowly disappearing, even mass prejudice still exists. One of the first openly gay characters in American Television that I know of was the witch Willow from Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Willow’s coming out was perhaps a bit of shock, mainly because for the first few seasons, she’d been seriously dating boys, it wasn’t until she met a fellow witch Tara, that she came out of the closet. Apart from being witches, Willow and Tara’s relationship was portrayed just like any other young adult couple, with their ups and downs; their sexuality was not important, but there love for each other was. Not all portrayals of homosexuals are as accommodating as Buffy was. The film adaption of Alan Moore’s V For Vendetta featured a closeted homosexual TV entertainer Gordon Deitrich (Stephen Fry) living in dystopia police-state version of Britain. Gordon is forced to hide his true sexuality, knowing if his true sexuality would come out it would get him killed. In real life, it’s no surprise if a homosexual stays hidden in the closest; the reaction from those around you can range from supportive to downright hostile. Again, V For Vendetta is a positive portrayal of homosexuals; the only thing resembling a stereotype is Gordon working in the entertainment business, although a generalization is a positive stereotype. In today’s current media, perhaps the most prominent feature of homosexuals is the gay couple on the appropriate named sitcom Modern Family. Modern Family features an ensemble cast, and the gay couple is a part of that cast, and their misadventures in trying to raise a little girl. Although homosexual characters are rare in the media but not uncommon, a homosexual couple raising a child is something we’ve never seen before in the media (at least I haven’t). Although they exhibit the stereotypes often associated with homosexuals such as a taste for interior decorating, and fine designing etc, they are at the heart of the show portrayed just like any other couple trying to raise a family. While the previous mentioned examples of homosexuals don’t exhibit any of the stereotypes (at least none that I’m aware of), the couple of Modern Family does, so I would consider this a positive stereotype in that sense, that the stereotypical traits are not what are important about their characters.

            Asians have long been a part of American Culture: in the past it would usually involve them speaking bad English and doing laundry. In the Golden Age of Hollywood, there was the “oriental detective” which included such film series such as Mr. Moto; Mr. Wong, and of course Charlie Chan and almost everyone of them was played by actor in yellow face. Obviously there is nothing positive about a white actor making himself look like an Asian, Mickey Rooney’s character in Breakfast from Tiffany’s would not go over well in today’s culture.  Today the prime example is the smart Asian. On Disney’s Phineas and Ferb, one of the main characters’ best friends is Baljeet, an immigrant from India (India is part of Asia after all). He is portrayed as extremely smart, and extremely obsessed with school and grades, to the point that he’s in summer school because he wants to be there. His obsession causes him to be neurotic; the thought of not being the best at whatever he’s applying himself is enough to cause to have a breakdown. His Indian heritage is rarely touched upon within the show, although it is very obvious from his accent and his parents are rarely seen or mentioned so we are unsure whether this pressure comes from them, or is self-imposed. None of these qualities are positive, so this very negative impression of Asian culture on young children. It is this stereotype that is most prevalent and we seem to apply to every country in Asia, it is by no means the only presentation of Asians in the media. Take Abed from Community, although he is of Middle-Eastern descent (and the Middle East is Asia), he does not have an accent, or drive a cab in New York City. Although he is intelligent if a bit unorthodox, grades and academia are not his passion in life, filmmaking is. Although he loves TV and films, he is still in touch with his Middle-Eastern heritage; he is able to speak Arabic fluently with his relatives. Abed represent a positive version of the smart Asian: he is intelligent, but his intelligence does not define him. There is of course the negative stereotype of the Asian criminal, which can range from anything from an illegal gambling den in Chinatown as seen in an episode of Elementary to the Chinese mob accountant in The Dark Knight. These are negative stereotypes, and if they appear often enough they can influence how we think about an ethnicity and what we associate them with.