The Importance Of Stereotypes In Film

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The disturbing truth is, prejudice and stereotyping are still prominent issues in society. Stereotyping is being sustained by the film and theater industries. Producers and directors hold a moral responsibility when choosing actors and writing a script for an audience. More often than not, white actors are playing the role of different ethnicities, and exaggerating their cultures. This meritocracy had been a problem for many centuries but only recently are the issues being talked about, but still with a blanket over our eyes. When white men and women are playing the roles of all races, you may begin to think, is there really no other choice of actors for this role? It is important to have diversity in film and theater without prejudice or stereotypes, because they set a bad example for the youth, promote inequality, and suppresses ethnic minorities.

Children viewing films or theater performances where races are singled out, will engrain those portrayals into the child mind. Children are absorbing the information they see and hear. For example, the documentary
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Gene Yang, author of “American born Chinese,” when referencing the actors in the film The Last Airbender, states, “My hope is that they [the viewers] would find it inauthentic to the original series. For folks that are aware of Asian issues, my hope is that they would see that this is just another example of us being excluded.” When questioned, producers will claim that they there is no inequality going on, they are simply giving the audience what they want, and deny any wrong doing. Some would argue that any good actor should be able to play any role, and that it is their job to play multiple roles. Although it is an actors job to play different roles, the characters are implementing artificial prosthetics and even digital reimaging to obscure the faces of non-decent characters, and over dramatizing