1a. Imagine walking down an empty street on a cold October night.
1b. Stereotypes have, and always will be, a part of our society.
2a.We
even see examples of stereotypes in TV shows, such as Firefly, an American Western space television series written and
directed by Joss Whedon, that originally aired on FOX in September 2002.
2b.There are a number of
instances in the episode “The Train Job” that show this.
3a.In
this scene Niska’s men stereotype Mal to be a criminal and believe that because
has been hired to break the law, he will have no problem stealing again, this
time from Niska.
3b.
Had
Niska’s men simply waited to see what Mal’s motive was rather than stereotyping
him to do the morally wrong thing, they might have avoided the fight, and as a
result they may have lived.
4a.Mal
isn’t just dealing with stereotypes from Niska’s men, he is also in a
simultaneous conflict with the sheriff of Paradiso.
4b.At this point
the sheriff simply says to his deputies that they should move the crates back
to town and Mal and Zoe return to their ship.
5a.In
this scene the sheriff acts surprised to find out that Mal is actually
returning the stolen medicine.
5b. However, Mal
once again disproved the stereotype he was placed under and did the right thing
by returning the medicine.
6a.The
writers of Firefly use these many
instances of Mal and his crew doing the right thing to argue that, just because
Mal and his crew are breaking the law on this mission, people assuming that
they will do immoral things is wrong because not all people who break the law
can be classified into one big group.
6b.There is a
word for this, and that word is: stereotype.
7a.Stereotyping
is constantly seen in today’s world, as groups are often all lumped to fit into
one category.
7b.These stereotypes,
such as racial profiling, portray a group, or groups, as being immoral based on
their characteristics and often lead to discrimination against the groups being
stereotyped.
8a.In
his article “Stereotypes”, Saul McLeod, a psychology professor at Wigan and
Leigh College with a degree in psychology, defines a stereotype as being “...a fixed, over generalized belief about a particular
group or class of people.”
8b.By
ignoring these differences we make generalizations, which often results in a
person thinking things about people that may not necessarily be true.
9a.A
group that stereotyping often effects are criminals, or people whom we assume
to be criminal.
9b.From these two
studies Maclin derived that "Because criminal stereotypes may interfere
with fair treatment and fair allowance of opportunities towards those
individuals who fit our criminal stereotypes, being aware of criminal
stereotypes and understanding what they consist of has important implications
for the criminal justice system."
10a.This
effectively portrays that it is wrong to stereotype a certain group of people
to be immoral because, as Dr. Maclin said, those criminal stereotypes “lead to
the unfair treatment of those being stereotyped.”
10b.A stereotype
that could potentially have that big of an effect on a person’s life is unfair,
to say the least.
11a.These
stereotypes do not, however, always have to have a huge impact on a person’s
life.
11b.. And as a result of this they are prone to
discrimination, whether it be something as small as being looked over when
asking for assistance in a store, or as large as being denied a job.
12a.If
a person sees a member of a group who falls into some form of stereotype go
against that stereotype then the spectator’s opinion on that particular
stereotype may change.
12b.A
possible solution as to how people could cut back on stereotypes can be found
in Firefly.
13a.This
specific episode of Firefly titled
“Safe” begins when Mal and the rest of the crew have landed on a planet to sell
cattle to some locals.
13b.Kaylee
blushes and tells Inara that the gift is in fact for Simon, but during the
midst of their conversation Simon and River walk into the store.
14a.In
this scene we see the stereotype that Simon had placed on the crew of Serenity and the locals get lifted as he
indulges himself in this simpler way of life.
14b.The stereotype
that Simon had placed on the crew and the locals is broken as his view of this
lifestyle changes with the experiences he gains throughout the scene.
15a.Using
the paradigm shift that Simon underwent in Firefly,
we can learn that stereotypes are not an accurate portrayal of a group of
people because, like with Simon, they can easily be broken.
15b.Doing this
would allow our society to see people on an individual and personal level,
rather than just placing a tag on them and not bothering to get to know them.
16a.If
we do these things then we will be able to cut back on these unfair and
sometimes offensive stereotypes that our society has placed on different groups
over time.
16b.It
shouldn’t matter what people of a similar group have done, we should not place
judgment upon an individual until we see that they themselves have done
whatever it is that they are being accused of.
PART II:
1. I shouldn't mention the word "stereotype" in my final sentence.
2.Pretty good except the word "stereotype" is still there.
3.Good
4.Scene description so a little more room for there to be less transition.
5.Need a better intro sentence to display the theme of the paragraph.
6. Good. Awkwardly worded intro sentence though.
7. Good
8.No real transition into the next paragraph.
9. Shouldn't end the paragraph in a quote, and no transition to next paragraph.
10.Should group this paragraph with #9, and add a better transition
11.Good
12.Good transition to show, bad intro sentence.
13.Scene description so it doesn't matter.
14.Good.
15.Good
16.Good
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