Hollywood/the media dumb stuff down and stereo type and short hand everything.
All Nazi's have perfect middle-class English accents.
All Germans if they are not Nazis are arrogant blond giants that are bad guys anyway.
The French are slimy womanisers or cheese eating surrender monkeys.
All Actual English people live on country estates and are called George Winston Smythe and are bumbling and inept.
All Australians are either villains or just over eager and stupid.
All Arabs are terrorists or if not Noble Savages
All Jewish people are doctors or want to be doctors or movie producers.
All South Americans are just a horde waiting to cross that border.
The truth is Hollywood in trying to portray the American ideal is innately hostile to every thing that is not "American" or the "accepted ideal the American way of life".
Hollywood is also populated by stupid people with rat cunning so they dumb stuff down so that they can understand it.
+1 to all but that last. Stereotypes sell whether you want them to or not.
… that being stereotypes and caricatures is (unfortunately) a stepping stone between being feared/reviled and true mainstream acceptance.Does that mean we will have Gayspoitation films?
You might!
... although I think you could make a pretty good argument that the equivalent is happening now in reality TV. Your Project Runways and Queer Eyes and what not.
I've seen a few such gayspoitaition films, but they are aimed primarily at the community and its outskirts.
I wish I could think of a token African American character from an early showJack Benny's valet-chauffeur Rochester van Jones (played by Eddie Anderson). This led to the great stereotype of the smart-alec servant for many years to come. And this also was a breakthrough role as well, since he was one of the first African-American characters considered to be on equal footing with the Caucasian characters.
Don't forget that the Jeffersons were a spin-off of All in the Family.
Then again, we could invoke Diff'rent Strokes for another take on the matter.
Fortunately, someone else invoking the ethnicity/orientation connection makes it less overreaching on my part if I take the concept and run with it.
For those that don't already know, yes, I happen to be a minority; the thing is, I make a point of not being a caricature of the ethnic group. This leads to the problem of me being able to sincerely say that, without question, I loathe people who believe in the stereotype on the one hand, and utterly hate the people who IDOLIZE it. This normally results in statements that make people walk into street signs/building corners/low-hanging branches because, were anyone else to say such things, they'd be called racists and/or bigots outright. I suspect that the cause is my having a vantage point that the slurs have a place, and a very specific usage, while most people take the meaning to include all of an ethnicity/minority.
Out of my man-loving buddies, the split is a bit different in regards to their views of their peers compared to mine - roughly half of them despise the flaming queen archetype, and the other half ARE the flaming queen archetype when they forget to rein it in a bit. Strangely, though, the two sets do mingle occasionally, and while they may badmouth each other openly they still have enough solidarity, and try to respect each other, even as each voices annoyance with the 'in-/sufficiency' of the other's 'gayness'. I respect the vantage point immensely, primarily due to the fact that I resent general assumptions made about me due to my own minority status, but have far less regard for others of that same group who embrace those clichés and stereotypes. Then again, said tropes are mostly negative, and highly insulting.
Honestly, what would make me happy is a massive deconstruction of stereotypes across the board done in a half-serious way, but I don't know who would be able to pull it off without making it look like pure pandering. Given I'm not much for the gents, even as I respect the choice and options for two to make out like lovesick teenagers with the preference of not having to watch but acceptance of the happening if it does without having to decry it as an abomination, I'm not even sure who I'd cast for appropriate roles in such a movie. I would just want to have Margaret Cho as a non-'fruit fly' character for sake of playing against type.
The truth is Hollywood in trying to portray the American ideal is innately hostile to every thing that is not "American" or the "accepted ideal the American way of life".
Hollywood is also populated by stupid people with rat cunning so they dumb stuff down so that they can understand it.
+1