TESSA PERKINS

Theory post.

The theorist I chose to represent my work is Tessa Perkins. Her theory is about stereotypes and what labels we attach to people or groups. She says ‘stereotyping is not a simple process and contains a number of assumptions that can be challenged’. This relates to the processing of stereotyping people for example the cast of my music video are male teenagers with tattoos and are seen to be smoking marijuana in my video. Perkins would go on to say because of how the cast choose to represent themselves people would negatively stereotype them. This is because people read about teenagers and drugs and how it is labelled as deviant and illegal. Then the cases that get reported are always negative so through association teenagers would get stereotyped. Because someone holds a stereotype towards a group of people, their behaviour reflects the stereotype they give them and can be predicted.

However stereotypes can be erroneous in content. This means they are not always correct and in most cases not true. The cast of my music video will have been stereotyped somewhere down the line because they have little social contact and because of that are not seen as part of a social group other than their own. Because of going to local gigs and skating we could be labelled ‘moshers’ because of a small group of people everyone is then collectively stereotyped.

Stereotypes don’t always have to be negative. Young people could see them and think they’re cool because they’re doing drugs. They are not rigid or unchanging. This means they are usually straight forward and once someone is stereotyped it sticks with them. Sometimes people conform to the stereotype they have been given even if it was initially false.

People who get stereotyped and are socially aware still use them because they are such an integral way of making meaning in society. Stereotypes are an invaluable aid to understanding the world and all stereotypes must have a bit of truth or they would not have such an influence in our lives. It must be remembered that stereotypes were not created by the media; they are concept which are part of everyday life.

This relates to my work because in my music video the cast is teenagers and is being represented negatively through drugs. Stereotypes associated with young teenagers are now usually negative and old people tie all young people with the same brush.

I’ve chosen to be acceptive of the stereotypes and represent my teenage cast in a way I suppose what people want to see. People will expect to see deviant behaviour and I’ve chosen to do it because it is associated with the genre too. The genre I have chosen is stereotyped with drugs and violence so my video is conforming to people’s expectations and it is somewhat self-fulfilling.