Marginalization can be seen as the most harmful form of stereotyping. Marginalization is the exclusion from meaningful participation in society. This can be seen as the most dangerous form of oppression. In it's most extreme cases, marginalization can exterminate whole groups from society, something that can be seen in history books all over the world. Today however, we are not focusing on the history books, but rather the movie The Blind Side.
The Blind Side is a movie about the true life events of NFL footballer Michael Oher. The Oscar nominated movie portrayed Oher's life from the time he went to live with Tuohy's. Oher is enrolled in Wingate Christian School despite having a poor academic record. From the beginning of the movie Oher is pushed into sports because of his large stature.
This movie shows how marginalization can be portrayed in mainstream media without the viewers knowledge, this movie also shows how marginalization happens in every day life because it is based off of Michael Oher's life.
Michael Oher was always passed around through different foster homes because his mother was incapable of caring for him, he was excluded from many programs and services because of his background and color. Even when he is admitted to Wingate Christian School and taken in by the Tuohys, most of Michael's teachers were not willing to help him with his academics because they thought he wasn't worth the trouble.
In a clip from the Blind Side, Mrs. Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) is having lunch with her friends and is shocked by the way they talk about him.
In this clip one of Mrs. Tuohy's friends says "is this some sort of white guilt?", this comment pushed even further the idea that the Micheal was suffering from being excluded from their group in society.
Many of us see Hollywood as a promise land filled with people the are given all the privileges in the world. But what about when Hollywood tackles the privileged in history and we find out they may not have been the most privileged after all.
The Oscar winning movie, "The King's Speech" follows Prince Albert, portrayed by Colin Firth, of England on his unexpected journey to becoming King George VI. All of his life Albert struggled with a stutter that held him back from speaking in public often. This gave him the lack of an ability privilege.
Before we dig deeper into the affects of the ability privilege, lets first determine what privilege really means.
Privilege: A special advantage, immunity, permission, right, or benefit granted to or enjoyed by an individual, class, or caste. Often times a privilege is exercised in detriment of others.
I have been very lucky in my life to have the ability to speak affluently, and while I may not love speaking in public, I know that my ability to do so is there. Therefore I have been given a privilege of this ability. But not everyone is given this privilege, and this idea is explored in the movie "The King's Speech".
Prince Albert works with speech therapist Lionel Logue, portrayed by Geoffrey Rush, to help get rid of his stutter so that he is able to speak over the radio to his country. This is something that is key for someone that will run a country.
While we can see in this film that Prince Alberts inability to speak affluently can be helped, but in extreme cases such as his there is always some residual left over. We can see in the clip below that the Prince delivers an eloquent speech but still stutters during one line.
Now that we know the back story of this movie and the struggles that Prince Albert dealt with we can explore how this lack of ability effected him and made his journey to the thrown harder.
Throughout the movie there are cases that show that because of his stutter, he will not be able to be king because know one would follow a king that cannot speak.
I think that this is a stereotype that we give those without certain disabilities, the idea that they cannot be something because they do not have all of the same abilities as us.
Fortunately for the history books, Prince Albert was able to overcome his lack of ability and become King, but it makes me wonder how many people are becoming discouraged because of their lack of ability. I think it is important for people to know that just because someone is lacking an ability does not mean they are incapable of doing something.
The movie The Help stars Hollywood It Girl Emma Stone along with Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer. The film follows Skeeter (Emma Stone) as she interviews the maids of her town. In this day and age the maids were African American and were seen as lower than whites. As the story goes along we are able to see what the lives of these African American women's lives were really like in the 1960's.
I would like to focus on the stereotypes that were portrayed in this movie, but before we dive into the juicy stuff, lets get some definitions out of the way.
Stereotype will be classified as: A schema for understanding a group of people.
Prejudice: Individual beliefs about certain groups, placing them in inferiority.
Racism: Places one group in subjugation to another group based on race.
In this post I would like to focus on one character particularly, Minny Jackson, played by Octavia Spencer. While this film shows how African American women were treated in the 60's and the stereotypes that went along with being an African American in the 60's, it also portrays one stereotype that can be seen as endearing, even today. That is the stereotype of the "strong black woman narrative".
We can see this in many places throughout the film, but I think it is most evident in the way Minny 'fires back' on her emloyers when she bakes a cake for Hilly Holbrook (played by Bryce Dallas Howard) that contains her "shit". While this can be seen as immaturity in some cases I believe it is a portrayal of the strong black women narrative because it shows that Minny is not afraid of her white employer and will stand up for herself.
The movie is also based on a group of African American maids that are hired to cook, clean, and care for white people's children. This goes along with the stereotype that these women are tireless and caring.
One way I believe this movie does not fully embrace the stereotype of the strong black women is by including the information that Minny's husband is abusive to her and her kids. We see this in a part where Minny goes to Aibileen Clark's house (played by Viola Davis) and stays with her. This does not fit into this stereotype because it shows that she is not always strong.
Anyone who has seen this movie will know that it does deal with prejudice and racism in folds. The white women that hire the maids are more so than not racist towards them, going so far as to have them use a toilet that is outside of the house.
I think this movie deals with a lot of important issues that we faced in the 1960's and are still facing today, The idea that taking stereotypes so far as to produce racism is wrong and is something our society needs to take a second look at.
