discussion about stereotypes
DEar all,
AFter today's class, we can discuss many questions related to the media's representation about different minorities in society and its relation with stereotypes. The 'minorities' which are often in the limelight these days seem to be discussion and representation about gays and lesbians. What do you think about the recent news reports about the group of gays who contracted HIV disease? Do you think some reports are 'just reporting' the facts, or try to brand them as the group that are often linked with AIDS? HOw is that related to the recent discussion by the Equal Opportunities Commission to propose a law on anti-discrimmination on sexual orientation? How is that also related to the discussion around 'Brokeback Mountain', the film itself as well as how mainstream Hong Kong news adopting 'Brokeback Mountain' in their coverage of gay sex in public toilet? I think this issue is very interesting and deserves discussion here.
Lisa
AFter today's class, we can discuss many questions related to the media's representation about different minorities in society and its relation with stereotypes. The 'minorities' which are often in the limelight these days seem to be discussion and representation about gays and lesbians. What do you think about the recent news reports about the group of gays who contracted HIV disease? Do you think some reports are 'just reporting' the facts, or try to brand them as the group that are often linked with AIDS? HOw is that related to the recent discussion by the Equal Opportunities Commission to propose a law on anti-discrimmination on sexual orientation? How is that also related to the discussion around 'Brokeback Mountain', the film itself as well as how mainstream Hong Kong news adopting 'Brokeback Mountain' in their coverage of gay sex in public toilet? I think this issue is very interesting and deserves discussion here.
Lisa
posted by Lisa | 4:09 PM
1 Comments:
Well Kim,
Psychology (or psychologists) will term you as 'homophobic' - fear of the same sex, or rather fear of any deeper kind of relationship (and of course a sexual one) with the same sex. We don't HAVE to be all pro-gay and pro-les, but we have to ask why (like what you said) we are prejudiced, what grounds do we have to look down on them as lesser human beings. Scientific research (or someone's interpretation of them) often tries to term gays and lesbians as 'clinically and genetically disordered', but are they necessarily 'disordered', or diseased? as of today, there is no one single explanation to why people will prefer love between the same sex. But one thing is very certain: traditional notions about patriarchy, religious beliefs, traditions all keep being reinforced in our socialization process that kept strengthen our beliefs that anything deviant from the norm is 'abnormal', like madness. But we have gone far from traditions in our society: premarital sex, contraception, women performing jobs that were deemed only for men, and vice versa...
Yes it's more fashionable nowadays to be pro-gay, but trend or otherwise, I think we have to be able to distinguish between being pro-gay and recognizing their rights as human beings. Many prejudices are also borne from ignorance too...
In short, we as a society have to ask why stereotypes and discrimmination come about, but more importantly the relationship between media, culture and society especially in this issue.
Lisa
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