This clip is a very good example of interpretation and perception. For instance, the main character, Serena van der Woodsen is a beautiful, innocent rich girl who is stereotyped due to her background. Whereas, Blaire Woldorf who also plays an important role, is shown as a rich, selfish, conniving and a very manipulative girl. Even the viewers watching this series would assume that girls from Upper East Side would be beautiful and bitchy.
The scenario is narrated by an omniscient character, who likes to call herself, 'Gossip Girl'. She runs a blog of her fellow Upper East Siders. In this community blogging and gossiping is very common tool of communication (also among guys). They portray character through her eyes, and perception plays an important part.
The other thing i noticed is that, the show portrays every character in a very 'biased manner', where everyone judges one another on their appearance, colour, clothes (brands) and their status in society. It is also influenced by social factors such as group culture, context, media etc. An example of this clearly reflects in the clip, when Jay makes the dress for the 'white dress' party and Elanor looks down at her. This implies that, if you are not wealthy enough then you don't belong to their social group. This also falls under the similarity, one of the organizational principles, where physical attributes, prototypes, behavior, etc plays an important role in their culture.
The reason for choosing this clip is that, after watching this drama series, it makes you think if you should really believe in everything you hear. Every individual have different norms and see things differently then there is no way we can judge a person through others eyes.
4 comments:
hey amrin,
it's unfortunate that we're all victims, and guilty of stereotyping people, to a certain extent. maybe because it's easier and more convenient to just simply stereotype, because getting to really know someone takes a tremendous amount of time and effort.
perhaps the best we can do is to try see the world through another's eyes, then maybe, just maybe, we can put our norms/differences aside and see people and things for the way they really are.
anyway, i think adding a picture or two wouldn't hurt. as they say, a thousand words is... err oops
I think that it is in our nature that we tend to stereotype. Yes, like Josh said, it saves us a lot of time by stereotyping, fitting someone into a "category" that exists in our minds. We judge people unknowingly, and it takes more time to dislike than to like someone.
Stereotyping indeed impedes communication. For example, when someone is overweight, we tend to associate steoreotypical characteristics like laziness, lack of control, etc. with that person. As a result, when we communicate with this person, if we actually bother to in the first place, we are most likely to think that whatever he/she says are related to laziness or lack of control. He/she could say something like, "I'm supposed to go for a run yesterday but I didn't manage to." We are very likely to think that he/she is simply lazy and "it's no wonder he/she is so fat". However, if a slim person were to say the same thing to us, we would most probably just pass it off as he/she is just tired, or he/she had a bad day.
:D
Marjorie has a point that it's in human nature to stereotype people. Building a perception takes few moments but understanding that person takes time and no one wants to do that anymore.
Its time to break free from all the biases and really think deep and keep questioning if its really what we want to see or is it what others want you to see? We all are wise and we can make our own decision!
Cheers,
Ken
Josh- I think you have made a very good point.. i totally agree that stereotyping people is very easy, getting to know them thats hard!
The fact is, perception, dominates all of us! This is influenced through religion, culture, norms etc like you said ..
All i can say is -
"IT IS JUST IN YOUR HEAD!" .. all you gotta do is open your eyes!
Marj- Very well explained through your illustration.. i feel it is very hard for an individual to 'not judge' and see someone the way they are, regardless of their color, background, race, culture etc.. it is the time we question ourselves, ignoring all the biases and for once not judge them and see the way they.. are!
Ken- you read my mind! hahah its exacly what i think too.. good point made there buddy! :)
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