1. One stereotype that comes to mind of Chinese people in American film and/or TV is the immigrant with broken English. The term FOB generally describes Chinese people. This slang term is an acronym for "Fresh off the Boat," which refers to any imigrant that goes to a foreign land who wears clothing tha tlooks "funny" or "weird." Another common stereotype is probably the grocery store or restaurant owner. Even Taiwanese and ABCs use these stereotypes on stage and in autobiographies. I saw a play recently that used this stereotype of a woman who sold baozhi (包子）and who only spoke Taiwanese, while everyone else spoke Chinese. In Fred Wah's autobiography, he talks about his father being a short order cook in order to raise his family in Canada. Other stereotypes include the effeminate male, the karate/kungfu-knowing male with gang relations, and women as sexual objects or sensualized/exotic beings. We talked about these kinds of stereotypes in my Women's Studies course at UBC. It's surprising how few of us (Asians included) consider how people are portrayed around us until we're asked . I suppose that's partly what a stereotpye is: a representation of a group of people's characteristics that we see over and over again until we take it for granted.
2. Some stereotypes of other groups of people are:
1, Unemployed Mexicans who have moustaches, also they have broken English, wear cowboy hats, driven beaten-up trucks, and drink Tequila.
2. Black characters are usually figureheads or symbolic, for example most are seen as athletes (basketball players) or gansgsters involved in illegal dealings who get into trouble often and go to jail.
3. Blondes as unintelligent but they are sexy and sensuous, or evil and bitchy.
4. Goths: black lipstick, strange hair, white makeup, black clothes, dog collars, chains.
5. Jocks: Letterman jackets, tall, gelled short hair, arrogant, bully others (usually younger, shorter Indian or Asian nerds and other social misfits). This is the opposite of the All-American male who defends his country, normally a cop, family man, etc.
3. I think people can't deal with male-on-male affection because men aren't supposed to be seen as touchy or sensitive in the society's stereotypes of what and how people should act and behave. Women can be emotional and intimate because supposedly, it's hard-wired into them through genetics. Women are considered as showing sisterly affection, and that's ok becuse a lot of people consider lesbianism as a phase in a woman's life. Like, women get over it and eventually will be heterosexual because they want to settle down when they get their nesting instincts. When a man acts affectionate towards another man, though, it's perverse and unnatural. Something is automatically wrong with those men. They don't act tough, the way we're brainwashed into thinking that men should act (ie: strong, defending women, macho, breadearners, etc). We're so caught up with what our parents, society, etc teaches us how things are supposed to be that we forget to be accepting, open-minded people. People in Taiwan are too conservative and uptight to accept homosexuals as just people with different preferences. After all, some people prefer maybe drinking coffee over tea. Why can't we all get along and just acknowledge that some people choose their sexuality, just the same way as when people are out buying ice cream. Vanilla or chocalate? Why not accept that there are both flavors and some choose one over the other?
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