Stereotypes In Television

For our next blog we were asked to choose a television show or movie we are familiar with and consider the characters in terms of racial and gender diversity.

The show I have chosen is ‘Saved By the Bell’; a 90’s TV show centered on six students and their years at Bayside High School in Palisades, California.

This show is set in an American high school so you would typically expect a range of racial diversity. Roaming across the hall, or sitting at a classroom desk, there is a range of skin tones in the background, from Asian, Black and perhaps Indian. However, if they are not part of the main characters can it be said, that the show is racial diverse? The main cast consists of six characters; four of whom are American, Caucasian (Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Dustin Diamond, Elizabeth Berkley & Tiffani Thiessen), of the other two, one is African American (Lark Voorhies) and the other of Mexican, Hispanic descent (Mario Lopez). I suppose this is somewhat of a diverse group though not the biggest I have seen. It is still a good mix. As it is a children’s TV programme it is important that kids are exposed to people from different cultures so that they are brought up to be more culturally sensitive and aware. I remember in my youth a range of cartoons that had characters of bizarre skin tones such as green and blue, yet I never bothered to question them. This is important for children, as when they encounter people from other cultures for the first time they won’t take any notice of the colour of their skin, as such shouldn't treat them any different than they would others.

(Diversity at its finest!)

Baring in mind that this programme is a children’s TV show and it is set in the 90’s there aren’t that many forms of regular female or racial stereotypes. Instead it is set on casting high school stereotypes many American school children tend to play out, especially in their teens. For example, Mario Lopez plays the tough, brash high school jock, and Dustin Diamond who plays the clumsy preppy geek.  The closest thing to a female stereotype is the character played by Lark Voorhies. She plays the role of Lisa Turtle. Her character loves to do loads of clothes shopping and is quite up to trend in fashion. Because of her parent’s occupations she is portrayed as being high class, and as a result she acts very spoilt, always using her dad’s credit card to go o shopping sprees. It gives into this whole stereotype of her being this footballer’s wife (a WAG) in the making. Normally for this kind of stereotype you tend to expect a Caucasian woman with blonde hair, (something out of Legally Blonde) so it avoids the stereotypical imagery in that respect.

I say it avoids the portrayal of racial or female stereotypes as it tries to set a strong message. Although the show is supposed to be silly and not to be taken too seriously, there are normally some strong moral lessons to be learnt. The characters who are a part of the show are supposed to act as role models to children. Setting stereotypes would send the wrong message to children about who they should be and who they would portray others.  The characters, involved across the series are very diverse in their personalities, from strong confident women like Jessie, to the whacky ‘Schreech’. All these characters are accepted among their peers for who they are, sending a message to kids that they can be whoever r they want to be and shouldn’t feel ashamed by it. It’s these kind of messages that are great for building kids characters and allowing them to accept others, without portraying offensive stereotypes.

Thanks for reading!