Parasocial Contact Hypothesis

When we took a look at the Parasocial Contact Hypothesis in class, I immediately felt a strong connection to this theory. I have recalled multiple times in my life when I found it easier to judge someone who is out of sight out of mind, rather than someone staring you in the face. Not only do I believe it is easier to judge people this way, but it also makes it easier to forget about people. For instance, if you or someone you know isn’t struggling with terminal cancer each day, you aren’t going to think of how it feels to be in their shoes. If and when we are reminded of others struggles, we may take a few moments to consider how hard things may be for them, but after that moment we carry about our daily lives. A good example of this I’m sure everyone has encountered takes place while watching TV. While watching our favorite shows it isn’t until the commercial comes on for abused animals or starving children do we consider those issues.

As I mentioned before, I have judge a group of people prior to meeting them. Before I came to UC I knew nothing about deaf culture. I took an American Sign Language class my sophomore year here to fulfill my foreign language requirement. It wasn’t until that quarter did I realize the struggles and judgment deaf people face. My initial thoughts about deaf people were they couldn’t drive, they weren’t smart, and they made awkward faces for no reason. Like I said, it wasn’t until I took that first class did I feel idiotic for making such unrealistic judgments. I found out deaf people can drive, being deaf doesn’t affect your mental capabilities, and those “awkward” faces are a part of their language. One school year later and here I am a communication and sign language interpreting double major. I have always thought communication was key to any relationship so I decided I wanted to make it my job to help deaf people communicate with the hearing world. I went from judgment the deaf community to centering my career around them. I never would have been able to predict I’d love the language so much. The first time I encountered a deaf person I was blown away by their friendliness. I remember leaving the class room thinking to myself “where did I ever get these crazy assumptions from about deaf people?”

When we started talking about this theory in class I remember watching The OCD Project on TV and watching a woman face a person this fit a stereotype she was terrified of. The woman on the program had OCD, but also a lot of judgment toward people with HIV/AIDS. She was very fearful of germs because she believe you could contract HIV/AIDS from them. Throughout the season she made a lot of outrageous remarks about people with that specific disease. During one of their exposure days, a day when the doctor makes them face their ultimate fears, the woman actually got to meet face to face with a person that had HIV. As soon as the man shared his illness and story with her you could see a lot of her beliefs about him vanished. She explained to him that HE was her exact fear and she felt so stupid for ever thinking people with that disease were harmful to her health. This was a very fitting example proved exactly what the Parasocial Contact Hypothesis says. I don’t always agree with these theories but, this is one I have experienced firsthand and I know the stupidity one feels after their stereotype has been proven wrong.

Here is the link to the episode of The OCD Project I was speaking of. The scene begins at 12:51.

http://www.vh1.com/video/the-ocd-project/full-episodes/extreme-exposures/1642201/playlist.jhtml

I Blame Barbie...

This week our readings and class discussions revolved around stereotypes. One of the biggest stereotypes Americans have is about weight. We associate being overweight with being lazy. After reading the Goodman article it brought me to the realization no matter ones confidence with their body media will always have the power to bring you down. As mentioned in the article, women in the media have become thinner and thinner as the years go by. At one period in time Marilyn Monroe was one of America’s biggest stars and was looked up to as a sex symbol. Marilyn was today’s size ten which would be considered a plus size model. Why is it back then she was considered perfect, but if she were around today she would be categorized as plus size? This is due to media shaping our idea of perfection. Back then the media told us it was more than ok to be a size ten, these days it’s a different story. What the media says goes and that applies to both females and males. More and more studies are showing males developing eating disorders at alarming rates; before male anorexia was never heard of. If we look at the evolution of Barbie and Ken dolls we can see the changes men and woman have been told to make over the years. It seems with each passing year Barbie’s waist gets smaller while her breast increase in cup size. When Ken first came out, he was a pretty scrawny guy. These days Ken, your “average guy”, is more jacked than an army soldier doll. These dolls are exact examples of what the volunteers in the study mentioned. One volunteer stated we may not look at a magazine and tell ourselves we want to look like that because that thought is already with us subconsciously; we think that’s the way we SHOULD look. These messages have been fed to us since we started playing with our toy dolls.

I personally have had weight issues myself and was born into an overweight family. My sister for example, is overweight but is one of the busiest people I know. She is always on the go for her job and rarely gets a bathroom break let alone a lunch break. She has struggled with her weight her whole life and has also struggled with thyroid issues. After extensive research, doctors have found her thyroid is what prevents her from being able to manage her own weight. Americans never take a second to think about health issues that prevent people from losing weight, instead, we stereotype and assume they are lazy and don’t care about their bodies. As the article mentioned, weight is a factor when getting a job especially for women. My sister was thin when she was hired on at her job and gained weight over the years. She has worked her way to the top and is now Vice President of the company. She has told me several occasions when people have questioned how she obtained such a high position despite her weight. It shocked me people would questions her work abilities because of her weight, let alone say those things to her face. Stereotypes are ridiculous to begin with but it’s even more ridiculous we allow them to carry on. I feel it’s time we stop letting the media feed us what they want and time we make our minds up for ourselves.

Here are some fitting clips from The Office …

Let's Talk About Sex

This week’s reading provided me some interesting statistics that I had never known before. I especially liked the charts that the author gave along with her research. The charts gave me clear images of the statistics which made it easier to understand all this information. Some things I found interesting was that levels of implied intercourse was a lot higher than actual intercourse on television. I feel this would lead any young viewer to believe just because an actor is talking about it means they are indeed doing it. It pointed out to me where some young teens could be influenced by these types of shows. It was also interesting to see levels of sex talk and intercourse on these shows decreased over time. I am not sure why this happened, but I feel it may have to do with the FFC becoming stricter. I was surprised to see unmarried intercourse was at its peak in the 1980s and then dramatically decreased over the years. I would have assumed it would have been at its peak in the 2000s because it has become increasingly popular for couples to live with each other and have children out of wedlock as the years have gone on.

I really like all the information provided from this study but. if it were more up to date the statistics would be greatly different now. One area I think would have the biggest change would be the levels of explicit intercourse. These days I do not believe it is such a “rare sight” as the author had mentioned. Show like Skins is a perfect example of this. These actors are also portraying young teenagers in high school which makes their explicit actions even more outlandish. Aside from non-fiction shows, there are so many more reality shows on air now than there were in 2004 that would prove these statistics wrong. When it comes to the topic of sexual content on TV I am neither for nor against it. I believe it is a parent’s job to decide what is suitable for their child to be watching. Sheltering a child is not the route to go either but, I do feel it is necessary to expose them to more forward TV shows when they are at an appropriate age. I recall hearing sexual words on TV that I didn’t know the meaning of and sat back and watched my family laugh while I was out of the loop. If I would have asked my parents what those words meant I’m sure my TV privileges would have be monitored more closely. Ultimately, I enjoyed this week’s reading and found a lot of my assumptions about sexual content on TV in previous years were very wrong!

Class: It's Not a Laughing Matter

As mentioned in class, it is common for our society to use humor to cover up the severity of an issue. We see the media doing this by creating “ghetto sitcoms”. These shows take low class citizens and all their troubles and present it to us as a half hour long of comedy. Some sitcoms that use this exact strategy were the Beverly Hillbillies and Blue Collar TV as mentioned in the video. For my student activity I analyzed an episode of Chelsea Lately. I noticed many jokes about class related stereotypes. Not only do the guests on the show constantly make these types of jokes but they go as far as using Chelsea’s sidekick Chuy, a Mexican midget, strictly for our entertainment. The few times throughout an episode that the cast actually interacts with Chuy it can nearly be promised he will respond with some off the wall remark. His random poorly constructed comments gives the viewer the impression people of his height and race are uneducated and scatter brained. This idea of humor covering up these class issues is represented each and every day in our media whether it’s in a magazine article, TV, or movie. There comes a point when we should ask ourselves if all this laughing is really accomplishing anything for our society. It’s time we consider getting our comic relief elsewhere and focus on changing these not so funny social issues.

The class video raises another question of blame. The media is always being told they are the ones to blame for portraying minorities as the working class. If we take a look at statistics they prove the media does not deserve this blame. In the video it stated in 2000 70% of inmates were non-whites. When statistics are this high is it fair for us to blame the media for continuously using minorities characters as criminals on TV, or is it important to look at the facts before pointing the finger in the wrong direction? One professor mentioned in the video it is time for people to own up to their responsibilities including the crimes they commit. The expert even went on to say "black poor are poor because of their own behavior." I must agree, if one wants their culture to be portrayed differently they need to make the change. Change starts with you, and if a culture came together and agreed to work towards making a change there is no doubt these statistics would be much lower.