Interrogating the Image

1. Interrogating the Image Miguel Llora Lecturer Department of Asia/Pacific Studies

2. Do media images help us understand how the world works?

3. What kind of images are we presented?

4. Who creates what stereotypical representations of <insert ethnic group here> people?

5. Representation and the Media • The Politics of the Image

6. Cultural Studies • Representation – What is it? • Representation as Creative and Active • An Image can have many different meanings – it is “text.”

7. Power • Communication is always linked to power. • Those groups who wield power have influence on what gets represented through media • Knowledge/Power Intersect

8. Being “In” the “Discourse” • Culture is saturated by images • When we are part of a discourse, we come to accept images as part of the natural order of things and we accept them. • Images then seep into what I like to call “common sense understanding” • We need to step outside of the discourse and see how it shapes our thinking and critically see the content

9. “Discourse” • Discourse: the Framework or context that gives “meaning.” • According to Stuart Hall nothing exists outside of meaning.

10. Meaning • No “fixed” meaning – we participate in its meaning. How? • We now need to look at the cultural “fields” • We look for meaning – by combining what is in the “fields” – or our framework of understanding and how one makes sense in the “habitus” and how we interact or “practice.” • Meaning is a confluence, interactive, and constantly changing.

11. Habitus, the Field, & Practice • In Pierre Bourdieu's focus: • Habitus are cultural structures that exist in people’s bodies and minds. • Fields are sets of relations in the world. Through practices, fields condition habitus and habitus inform fields. • Practices mediate between the inside and outside.

12. Interrogation of the Image • Asking the hard questions • We no longer ask: Is the image is “accurate”? But rather we ask: “Why” the image “Is”? • Do these images confirm or challenge our views of <insert ethnic group here>?

13. Charles Ramirez Berg’sSix Hollywood Stereotypes of the Hispanic • 1. El Bandido – treacherous, shifty, and dishonest, the drug runner • 2. The Halfbreed Harlot – lusty, hot tempered, and embodies all that will be allowed but only as a second. A slave to her passions… • 3. The Male Buffoon – Ricky Ricardo • 4. The Female Clown – Carmen Miranda • Fetish… • 5. The Latin Lover – Rudolph Valentino • 6. The Dark Lady – Dolores De Rio

14. Typical Asian American Male Stereotypes • 1. Evil Asian Man – Fu Manchu • 2. Lack of Intelligence – Selfish and stingy and with little regard for his wife. See “The Joy Luck Club.” • 3. Undesirable Male Partner - • 4. “Yellow Uncle Tom” – Victor Sen Yung’s “Hop Sing” character as the cook on the popular series Bonanza

15. Typical Asian American Male Stereotypes • 1. Dragon Lady – the daughter of Fu Manchu • 2. Geisha/China Doll – Tracy Tzu’s character Arianne in the Year of the Dragon • 3. Fatalist - Miss Saigon and Puccini’s Madame Butterfly

16. New Questions • We need to ask: • What is our view of <insert ethnic group here>? • What is the directorial intent? • Is it parody or advocacy? • So it is not: What is being represented?” But: What is being represented to you?”

17. Positive with Negative? • Is it beneficial to exchange “negative” stereotypes with “positive” stereotypes? • Problem: Stereotypes do not provide any real knowledge – factual or otherwise. • Stereotypes say less about the people being spoken about and more about the people who are speaking.

18. Subvert Stereotyping • Stereotypes – positive or negative close possibility for true understanding. • Stereotypes of any kind defy a “fixed” meaning. • What needs to be done is to challenge or subvert the negative stereotypes. • Challenge representation not replace it.