Playing with Prejudice: Racial Stereotypes in Video Games PDF

is selection is an excerpt from a 2011 research. t ~ Th s" dy uses content analysis of vi·d amcle that appeared in Media Psycholog y. As the abStTac " s the "... es in the world of...

is selection is an excerpt from a 2011 research. t ~ Th s" dy uses content analysis of vi·d amcle that appeared in Media Psycholog y. As the abStTac " s the "... es in the world of video gaming andeoaboutgame m., cial 'J 11ote , agazi~es to make claims about the perpetuatio n oi ra the possible consequenc 5tereotJP rpting this article, we have retai·n d h es of such stereotypes. Irt exce e t e abstract th of study 1, specifically, the discussion th.... ,\ artd part Its section, the discussion section a f O , e introduction (mcludmg the literature review,, e meth0~ used, the content variables analyzed, the first part of the result. It reports tile statistical anal ; the conclus1on. We have omitted the technical part of the results section, wt~ce authors' discussion of the ~::::ti the_ data presented in Table 1; we also omitted Studies _2 and 3. we found ·ally relevant for this ch t cal importance of stereotyped portrayals-part of the literature. w-espeet i· ap er. reine he time of the article's publication its auth. At t.. (B ' ors were teaching or conducting research at Southwestern state Unmersity urgess and Burge ) UC oklahoma C w·l. (B ss , -Santa Barbara (Dill), Oklahoma State University er), and UN - i mington rown). t (S errn h ·r general discussion at the end of th t d h · · In t et.. 'J e s u Y, t e authors wrote, "Whereas schools are teaching chddren and even celebrate. diversitu to tolerate. "1 ' this research demonstrates that some forms of popular med1a. are sending signals with.troubhng effects" (pp 308- 309) As you read,. how these researchers · 0ppastn9. :JJ. consider provide th etridence to back up is claim and grne serious thought to the ways other kinds of popular media perpetuate, rather than challenge, stereotypes of various sorts. Playing with Preju dice: The Prevalence and Consequences of Racial Ster eoty pes in Video Gam es MELINDA C.R. BURGESS, KAREN E. DILL, S. PAUL STERMER, STEPHEN R. BURGESS, AND BRIAN P. BROWN ABSTRACT "dangerous" minority male stereotype in video game Acontent analysis of top-selling video game maga- covers. Again, underrepresented overall, minority zines (Study 1) and of 149 video game covers (Study 2) males were overrepresented as thugs, using extreme demonstrated the commonality of overt racial stereo- guns, and also as athletes. Study 3, an experiment, typing. Both studies revealed that minority females exposed players to both violent and nonviolent games are virtually absent in game representations. Study 1 with both White and Black characters. Participants revealed that, in video game magazines, minority were faster at' classifying violent stimuli following males, underrepresented generally, were more likely to games with Black characters and at classifying non- be portrayed as athletes or as aggressive, and less likely violent stimuli following games with White charac- to be depicted in military combat or using technology, ters, indicating that images of popular video game than White males. Study 2 also showed characters evoke racial stereotypes. evidence of the h:,  URE STEREOTYPE YOU? CHAP TER 23 HOW DOES POPULAR CULT. elude d only White and nonhu man ch ar in acters INTRO DUCT ION attern was echoe d in a sampl e of 20 lh· P ·11 G ·1 cornp Emer ging in recen t years as one of the most ubiqu i- exam ined by Di , enh e, et al. 2005 Uter &ani ts ( vealed only a few Black and. Latino m en in _), which es tous for1ns of entert ain1n ent, video games have O the tof te - becom e a media giant with U.S. sales recent ly reachi ~g main chara cters and not a single. Latin o or l. eof ondar y chara cter. B eyon.d this, both inve. atina a record high of over $21 billion (Ortut ay, 2009). Chil- t· sec g of mino. s igati - dren betwe en 8 and 17 years old make up the group found frequ ent stereo c typin rity ch ons that plays the most video games (Gentil e, Salee_m, & Glaub e et al. (2001 ) 1ound that Latino ch ara araqets Ande rson, 2007) , with appro ximat ely 90% of this age only prese nt in sport s game s, that A s1an. cters we. ch re group being regula r player s (Wals h et al., 2005). There were largel y consi gned to a wrestl ing or fi ~racters is a sizeab le effect s litera ture demo nstrat ing that 0 and that Black chara cters were typical! ghting role. I th y dep·1 , games influe nce behav iors, thoug hts, feelings, and atti- unaffe cted by vio ence rough a lack of pain. cted as. I 1 or h tudes (And erson , Berko witz, et al., 2003; Ander son, ical suffer ing. ntere shng y, even in games P ys. Genti le, & Buckl ey, 2007; Dill, Brown, & Collins, 2008; befor e the terro r attack s of 9 /11, target s Of ~reated 10 Konij n, Bijva nk, & Bushm an, 2007). Recen t brain were dispr oport ionat ely likely to be p ortray " lence d resear ch even demo nstrat es differe nces in the brain,s Middl e Easte rn (Dill, Genti le, et al., 200S). e as empa thic respo nding based on differential video game 0 Other conte nt analy ses have focuse d specifi all expos ure (Barth olow, Bushm an, & Sestir, 2006). als of aggre ssion relate d to gender anicd race Yon Portray Only recen tly has gamin g resear ch begun to con- Smith , Lachl an> and Tamb orini (2003) found that. cern itself with the portra yals of game charac ters, and across all game types , 71% of perpe trator s of VJ·o1ence'. this resea rch has often focus ed on the portra yal of and 65% of target s were White , and that 79% ofperpe- wom en in game s (e.g., Burge ss, Sterm er, & Burge ss, trator s and 77% of target s were male. In a further inves- 2007; Dill & Thill, 2007). Two initial invest igation s of tigatio n, these same autho rs classif ied the ethnicity of race in video game s (Dill, Genti le, Richte r, & Dill, violen t chara cters as White , Black , Hispanic, Native 2005; Glaub e, Miller , Parke r, & Espejo, 2001) reveal ed Amer ican, Asian /Pacif ic Island er, Middl e Eastern, or a patte rn of infreq uent appea rance for minor ity char- undef ined. Resul ts show ed that the majority of charac- acters and stereo typed depic tions when minor ities ters were White ( 40.5% ) with the next largest group were prese nt. Glaub e et aI:s (2001) exami nation of 70 conso le game s ( such as PlayS tation ) found that some being Asian /Pacif ic Island er, at only 8%. Interestingly, minor ities (e.g., Latina wome n and Native Amer ican where as mild violen ce was the most common form of men) were never prese nt, and that childr en's games violen ce, Asian /Pacif ic Island ers was the ethnicity most ubiqui tous: presen t effects literatu re: a empath ic: showin g everyw here. body of researc h in a eviden ce of unders tandin g particu lar discipli ne others ' feeling s or life focusin g on the effects of situatio ns. some phenom enon (e.g., stereot ypes in the media , eating too much sugar, exercis ing, praying ). __ ___________ L_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _  ess et a I / Playing with Prejudi ce· The Preva Ience and Consequences of Racial Stereot ypes. · G euRG 1n Video ames engage in extrem e violence, defined in part by }iicelYst:ale bloods hed and disfigu ring injuries. Web site of a politic al candid ate named Peter ~mith }arge h reas the portray al of game characters has been a who was either Black or White. Results reveale d inter- W e there is also a growin g body of research exam- s active effects of the exemp lar prime (negat ive or po~- 0 ncern, itive) on favora bility and capabi lity rating s of _this co_ the social effects o f me d'ia images. , from video 111 ill g well as other outlets , on young adults (Dill candid ate. Those who saw the negativ e (Black V1deo ame as h game) exemp lars rated the Black candid ate as less g wn, et al., 2008; Jo nson, Bushm an, & Dovidi o,, favorable and capabl e than the White candid ate. In a Br~g). Dill, Brown, et al. (2008) expose d partici pants to reversa l, those who saw the positiv e (Black leader ) zo·mages of women and men that were either stereotypi- exemp lars rated the Black candid ate as more favora ble 1. typed images from VIdeo games or professional cal sex-from press photog raphs. Then partici pants gave and capabl e than the White candid ate. iJllages :c Where as there is a suffici ent body of literat ure to thetr. eactions to a real-lue accoun t of the sexual harass- r apprec iate the damag e inhere nt in repeat ed negati ve of ment a female college studen t by her male professor and stereot yped portray als of minori ties and wome n, Results demon strated that men who were expose d to there has been a paucit y of resear ch on racial por- 0 the video game images (femal e sex objects and power- trayals in video games. At the same time, there has ful males) were more toleran t of sexual harass ment. been public interes t in these portray als, center ing on a This research sugges ts that exposu re to stereot ypical sample of blatan tly stereot ypical portray als. Perhap s imagery in the media can alter social judgm ents, such most notably , Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was criti- as deciding that a case of sexual harass ment is less seri- cized for depict ing Haitia ns and Cuban s as crimin als ous or requires less action agains t the perpetr ator. The and for potent ially incitin g hate crime s (Haiti an, larger meaning is that stories we glean from mass media Cuban leaders denou nce GTA, 2003). The game's pro- can change how we behave in the real world. ducer, Rockst ar, respon ded to public protes t about In one study dealin g with racial stereot ypes (Dill & game conten t by remov ing the lines "Kill the Hai- Burgess, 2011), White studen ts saw either video game tians" and "Kill the Cuban s" from the game. images of Black men who fit the aggres sive crimin al or "dangerous minor ity" stereo type or media images THEOR ETICA L IMPOR TANCE OF STERE OTYPE D of esteemed Black leader s such as Barack Obam a PORTR AYALS alongside analog ous White images. Next, in a pur- Stereo types have both cognit ive (e.g., genera liza- 0 portedly unrela ted study, partici pants evalua ted the tions) and affective (e.g., fear) compo nents (Amod io 0 interactive effects of Black leaders " -while examin ing whethe r there paucity : only a limited th e exempla r prime: the the interact ive effects is an interact ion betwee n amount. priming image here was refer to the consequ ences the image research the initial video game of the first images seen subjects were first exposed cognitiv e: relating to irnage-" Black men on the evaluat ion of the to and their subseq uent though t. who fit the aggress ive candida te, Peter Smith, evaluat ions of the cri minal or 'danger ous when present ed as Black fictitiou s characte r, Peter affectiv e: relating to rnin onty' stereoty pe or or White. In other words, Smith. feelings or emotio ns. rned· ia images of esteem ed the researc hers were 5~ CH A PT ER 2 3 HOW DOES POPULAR CULTURE STEREOTYPE YOU? & Devine 2006) R epeated exposure to a particular criminal (see also Devine, 1989), and that thes portrayal of a group teaches that this cultural view is a devalued soc1a 1 1"dent·t·1 ies. H e wro t e, «... those e are rel evant schem o £. "th. People. a or processing members of that par- who are associate d w1 aggression generally a d t 1cu1ar group p with gratifications for aggression in particular 0 ~ /or 0 th. or examp1e, exposure to the schema of _e VI~lent Black man teaches that it is appropriate to are associated with negative affect are especially 1.wkho.. o f aggression " ( p. 128). Agai I cely experience apprehension° when approached by a to be the v1ct1ms Black male F ur tl1er, exposure to these stereotypical. n, or. aggression to be evo k e d , t h e perpetrator need. t·. al engage in a conscious cogni ive apprais (of the stereo~ not images ~riggers access to thoughts, preferences, and.. evalu~tions, ultin1ately predicting discriminatory type or situation) because aggress10n can be prov k.. ul. o ed behaVIor (An1odio & Devine, 2006). through an automatic, imp sive route. Berkowitz cited. Stereotypes m ay sometimes... be consciously pro- research - particularly that of Devine (1989) and of cessed, but stereotypes can also provoke thoughtless, Bargh, Chen, and _Burrows (1996)-_ as examples of non-consciou. s, imp reactions. In an update of ul sive how even unconscious exposure to images of Black his cog1:1itive neoassociation theory of aggression, 0 and words associated with Black stereotypes evoks Berkowitz (2008) underlined the theoretical impor- hostility and aggression. He noted that aggressive por~ tanc~ of these automatic processes, and the role of trayals activate hostility toward. African Americans, classical. h ostl·1·ity an d aggres- inciting condi·ti·oni· ng 1n which in turn makes aggression toward them more sion. Negative ideas and feelings associated with a likely. "... [N]on-conscious activation of the African group_ are applied to other group members. These American stereotype can promote hostile-aggressive ne~ativ~ associations can trigger negative affect behavior towards others" (Berkowitz, 2008, p. 122). ':hich, in turn, prompts impulsive aggressive reac- Relating this explicitly to mass media, imagery that tions that preempt more conscious reasoning. "My associates African American men with the negative cognitive-neoassociationistic analysis... suggests stereotypes of aggression, hostility, and criminality what kinds of external stimuli have this relatively conditions viewers to associate this constellation of compelling capacity to elicit aggressive reactions: pri- negativity with African American men in general. marily situational features that are associated with Subsequently, unrelated Black men will trigger this aggression and those that are linked to decidedly neg- association, which can, in turn, provoke increased ative experiences,, (Berkowitz, 2008, p. 120). aggression and hostility. Berkowitz (2008) noted that African Americans are 10 It is important to note that the stereotypical images commonly stereotyped as aggressive, hostile, and of Black video game characters are not even real schema: pattern of apprehension: fear or cognitive neoassociation gratifications: sources of thought that influences anxiety. theory: psychological pleasure. how we process new theory developed by information. Berkowitz to explain the link between negative feelings and anger or hostile behavior toward some group or situation.  al. 1playing with Prejudice: The Prevalence nd oGESS et a Consequences of Racial Stereotypes in Video Games sUf\ le but they can still pr_ovide fodder for negative STUDY 1 peoP.' dgments and negative reactions to real Black METHOD 50cial JU port for this notion comes from Slusher and sup (1987), who 1oun C d that even when people 0 Study 1 is an exploratory content analysis designed 111efl· 0 derson.. to investigate how Black males are portrayed in imag- All. ly asked to 1magme stereotypes such as a rich 3re s1t11P hey do not d'1s t·mgms h between what they ery from top-selling video game magazines. The 1a,'1e.r, t gined and what they have seen in reality variables, described below (and the percent agree- 1111a. ment between the two raters), are: race (.98), hyper- pave and Anderson call this a failure of reality 510s~e\ing. people treat their imaginary vision as masculinity (.99), aggression (.99), war/military onito 11 c d fll "ould a rea - ue image an it supports their ste- aggression (.96), fighting {1.00), athletics (.91), and theY' es. If this is true, then it follows logically that use of technology (.94). The sample used in the pres- re0:YPanother type of imaginary or fantasy image_ a ent study included images taken from the six top- s~inge of a video game character - might also be selling game magazines on sale in January 2006. One P1cturd as confirmation. f o a stereotype. There will be issue from each magazine was selected, and the larg- treate. est male and female images on every page from each. le difference from seemg a Black thug in a video htl and seemg a rea lBlack cnmma l - both will be issue were included. This produced a sample of oame. 482 images (362 male images and 120 female images), ~aken as evidence confirmmg the culturally held ste- e of the Black male criminal. which were then coded by one White male and one reotyp White female undergraduate research assistant. For Given the large body of violent video game details about magazine and image selection, and for research (see Anderson, Berkowitz, et al., 2003), we rating procedures, see Dill and Thill (2007). expected portrayals of a?gress_ion. We were also aware of the racially charged d1scuss1ons surrounding games like Grand Theft Auto (Leonard, 2009) and wanted to CONTENT VARIABLES explore whether or not the portrayal of aggression For each image, the following races were coded fol- 1s differed as a function of the race of characters. A the- lowing Dill and Thill (2007): White, Black, Hispanic, oretically relevant way of characterizing this portrayal Asian, other, and humanoid. The other category was of violence is whether or not it is socially sanctioned reserved for characters who appeared to be human (Lachlan, Tamborini, et al., 2009). We were interested and who appeared to be of a non-White race that was in whether Whites would be more likely to be por- not always determinable. Only three races (Native trayed as engaged in socially sanctioned violence American, Egyptian, and undeterminable) were listed compared to minorities. by coders under the other category. exploratory (study): a content analysis: in the study that seeks to explore social sciences, a method some topic in a new of analyzing texts with a way rather than directly focus on their content. continuing an existing research tradition.  C HA p TE R 2 3 HOW DOES POPULAR CULTURE STEREOTY PE YOU? was defined as exaggera ted Hyperm asc u 1llllty images were simply coded as agg.. ressiv male characte r·isti. cs such as unnatura lly large 1nuscles included 1n the subcateg oncal analysi e and or express ions o f d 01n1nan... In the initial stages of this explorat s.. not ce. Hypenna scuhn1ty ory1nvestigar rel ates to. featu. res o f extren1e dominan ce, power, and we remarked that compute. r and tech no10 °', a. 0 , Use,.. 011 ' s ~es ion _(D111 & Thill, 2007; Scharrer, 2004, 2005). regularly portrayed m gaming magazines. Wi 'Vere.. ggressio n was defined as being engaged in behav- aware that sports games have ranked coe \Vere aJso ior. intended to h arm another hvtng... being (Aronson , among the top sellers. We, therefore ,coed d nsistently Wilson, & Akert, 2007). Of the violence categorie s and techno1ogy use and athletics by race of cha colllPut er racter ~sed i~ Study 1,. we categori zed war and military RESULTS g~essio n as socially sanction ed and fighting as not socially sanction ed. We argue that military violence The data were coded using the variables d s?ould be conside red relatively more socially sanc- above. Frequenc y data were calculate d fi escribect tioned than fighting because military aggressio n is on the variables describe d above (see Tab~: 1~~ch race legal and, thus, sanction ed by governm ents and often respecte d by citizens. In contrast, violence in the form The authors of this article gathered of non-spo rts fighting is most often considere d crimi- evidence by analyzing the images in nal activity and thus, by definitio n, is not socially gaming magazines. Chapter 4 offers sanction ed. Therefor e, aggressiv e images were further other examples of "hard evidence" ~ode~ as war/mil itary aggressi on or fighting (no used in arguments based on fact. 1 ~en~1fia ble military rationale ). Some images did not LINK TO P. 54 · ·· ·· · · · · ··· ····· ········· ·············· fit either category , such as a violent athlete. These Table 1. Characte r portrayals as a function of race in video game magazin es(%) White Black Asian Hispanic Other Frequency (N) of males 223 37 6 5 21 Frequency (%) of males 76.4 12.7 2.1 1.7 7.2 U.S. population (%) 66.9 12.8 4.3 14.4 2.7 Gamers(% ) 59 15 3 18 5 Frequency (N) of females 91 3 5 2 5 Frequency (%) of females 85.8 2.8 4.7 1.9 4.7 U.S. population (%)-white s vs. all minorities 66.9 12.8 4.3 14.4 2.7 Gamers (%)-white s vs. all minorities 59 15 3 18 5 Hypermas culine- males 21.2 29.8 0 20 38.1 Aggressive (males)-y es 66.4 73 66.6 80 85.7 Socially sanctioned (military) (out of aggressive) 8.1 0 0 0 0 Fighting (out of aggressive) 37.8 48.1 25 75 55.5 Aggressive (males)-n o 33.6 27 33 20 14.3 Armor (males) (out of aggressive) 48 22.2 0 0 77.7 Posing with weapons (males)-(o ut of aggressive) 39.2 18.5 0 25 66.6 Athlete (males) 8.1 29.7 0 0 9.5 Violent and/or athletic 74.4 100 75 80 95 Technology use (males) 13.9 2.7 33.3 20 0  ss et al. / Playing with Prejudice: The Prevalence an d Consequences of Racial Stereotypes.in Video Games au~GE lJSSCON (Berkowitz, 2008). However, because these are expl~r- prsC Its of this content analysis illustrate that, 20 atory data, we will be conservative when speculatmg fhe resu by no means were all mmonttes... portrayed on reasons for these patterns. I 9Jthoug 1_cally, portrayals of race in video game mag- 0 51ere t}J~ differ across racial lines in a manner that CONCLUSIONS 1 9zines tent with stereotypes. First, from a simple Research has shown that those exposed to false infor- cons1s.. ,,ras ee t·ve 1 of frequency, mmonty characters were mation in fictional stories are persuaded by it and that P pers presented as compared to U.S. Census statis- persuasion persists over time (Appel & Richter, 2007). derre. th. oil when usmg e companson group of gam- Furthermore, Slusher and Anderson (1987) demon-. ~~.. uCS, It is interestmg_to note that humanoid (alien) strated that people fail to distinguish between stereo- efS· ters were depicted more often than minority typed associations they imagine and those they have c harac s Minority. fema1es were particularly human actually seen. The results of this content analy~is of d rrepresented. gaming magazines illustrates that there are consistent oil f:om the perspective of pedagogy it is useful to 0 racial stereotypes in video game magazines and that ·der actual frequency of nonviolent character representations of race do not match with reality. The cons ls as opposed to re1ahve. frequency. Minority ortraYa ,. problem with this is that the magazines may shape real- ~ale characters were generally ~frequent (constitut- ity by being a source of social information to those who. gonly 23.6% of the total male images), and nonvio- are exposed to them. In other words, after seeing nega- ,nnt minorities were even more infrequent (only 5.5% tive racial stereotypes in video game magazines, players lef the total male images). In fact, nonviolent White may experience failures in reality monitoring and may :ales (25.6% of the total male images) were as com- believe that they have had actual stereotype-confirming mon as all minority males. experiences. Furthermore, given what we know about Finally, results of exploratory analysis revealed that the persuasive power of false information in fiction minority males were more than twice as likely as (Appel & Richter, 2007), it is likely that this information White males to be portrayed as athletic. Computer could alter gamers' thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. and technology use was almost exclusively limited to White males with White males being more than twice REFERENCES as likely as Black males to be depicted using technol- Amodio, D. M., & Devine, P. G. (2006). Stereotyping and ogy. These data are possibly consistent with stereo- evaluation in implicit race bias: Evidence for indepen- types about minorities, for example, that Black males dent constructs and unique effects on behavior. Journal are more athletic and less intelligent than Whites of Personality and Social Psychology, 91(4), 652-661. Anderson, C. A., Berkowitz, L., Donnerstein, E., Huesmann, R. L., Johnson, J., Linz, D.,... Wartella, E. (2003). The pedagogy: teaching. influence of media violence on youth. Psychological Sci- ence in the Public Interest, 4, 81-110. Following APA style, Burgess and Anderson, C. A., Gentile, D. A., & Buckley, K. E. (2007). her coauthors included a list of Violent video game effects on children and adolescents: references at the end of the essay. Theory, research, and public policy. New York, NY: Chapter 22 provides detailed Oxford University Press. examples of citations in APA style. Appel, M., & Richter, T. (2007). Persuasive effects of fic- tional narratives increase over time. Media Psychology, LINK TO P. 487 10, 113-134.  CH A PT ER 2 3 HOW DOES POPULAR CULTURE STEREOTYPE YOU? Funk, J. B. (2005). Children's exposure to. Aronson. E., Vvilson, T. D., & Akert, R. M. (2007). Social.. t·. violent Vide psychology (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson an d d esens1t1za ion to violence. Ch 1.1 Prentice Hall. 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In other words, what sorts of evidence do Burgess et al. provide for their claims? hat are the bene~ts of using the careful and clearly stated methods 2 :analyzing quant1~able ~ata that_ are associated with a field like psy- hology when dealmg with a topic as complex and controversial as ~e one Burgess et al. are tackling? AS you no doubt noted, B~r~ess et al. define the variables in their 3 tudy-race , hypermascuhmty, aggression (both socially sanctioned :nd unsanctioned), and the use of technolog y-in the section "Con- tent variables." What kind of definition do they provide for each of these variables? {See Chapter 9 on kinds of definitions.) Do you think you could code data from a gaming magazine appropriately and con- sistently based on these definitions? Why or why not? {The answer to this question illustrates something important about this kind of defi- nition.) How do these variables and the definitions of them map onto the categories used in Table 1 of the article? Why might the list of por- trayals be more detailed than the list of variables that are defined? 4_ Research studies in fields like psychology and in the social, natural, and applied sciences all have a similar format, often referred to as IMRAD (introduction, methods, results, analysis, and discussion), and the sections are often labeled by their function. What are the advan- tages of having such a standardized format for writers? For readers? s. Both this selection and the previous one, Claude M. Steele's "An Intro- duction: At the Root of Identity," are written by psychologists. Steele's chapter is from a book written for an educated audience while this excerpt is written for peers-oth er psychologists. Compare and con- trast the two in terms of format, kinds of evidence presented, and the general shape of the argument. What do your answers tell you about writing for different audiences? (Chapters 1 and 6 may help you here.) 6. Carefully reread the discussion and conclusions sections of this study to be sure you understan d the logic of the authors' claims in the con- clusion, including the ways the researcher s qualify their claims. (It may also be useful to review the section on the theoretical importanc e of stereotyped portrayals.) Write an essay in which you evaluate these claims by describing the stereotype d portrayal of some group in a spe- cific example of popular culture- a movie, a television series, or a b