Familiarity and First Impressions in You Only Get One Chance by Journalist Jen Kim

The representation of the LGBT community in the film industry has long been a topic of much debate. In her article, “It Ain’t Easy Being Bisexual on TV,” Amy Zimmerman addresses this topic with specific interest on bisexual representation. By appealing to the logic of her audience, using an informal tone, and referring to relatable content, Zimmerman constructs an argument which persuades readers of The Daily Beast that the film industry is unfairly and inaccurately representing bisexuals. However, her argument holds little influence over those who are not movie fans or The Daily Beast readers.

This argument source was an excerpt from a podcast that is ran by Alex Spiegel. Spiegel has worked at NPR’s Science Desk for 10 years and has extensively studied human behavior. The main theme of the article is deciphering whether personality change is possible in individuals. This source could be useful to me because in searching for an answer to my research question, I need to have several credible sources. Along with the oversight of the article by Spiegel, the excerpt also features a description done by Lee Ross, a psychologist at

Notably, the fundamental attribution error is a personal bias that is problematic in society. To emphasize, the fundamental attribution error is when individuals have the tendency to attribute people’s behavior to components of their character or personality, even when situational influences are producing the behavior (Textbook, page 171). An example of the fundamental attribution error operating in daily life is when a driver avoids hitting a pedestrian and causes an accident. In this

One criticism of this research is that it is correlational. Therefore, we cannot infer a causal

In Reyes’s Los Angeles Times article, “Men Are Stuck In Gender Roles, Data Suggest” posted on December 26, 2013, she discusses that there are gender roles in today’s society that has been set and learned at a young age, that men do men things and women do women things but there’s a small percentage where it’s flipped upside-down. The context of this article can be misogyny or sexist, and focuses more towards the male audience with a smaller portion of women. Reyes’s exigence comes from her own research as the “census data and surveys show that men remain rare in stereotypically feminine positions”(Reyes Par. 3). Due to her excellent use of appeals, Reyes’s article is highly recommended for the PopMatters Persuasiveness Prize. Reyes supports her claim with ethos with her usage of good credible sources; logos, using inductive logic and by providing good statistics; and pathos, like the bandwagon appeal with an attempt to sway people away from the norm, and by providing stories from everyday folk on how they’ve encountered these stereotypes regarding gender roles.

In a study carried out by Byrne (1971) found that strangers with similar attitudes to participants were rated as being more physically attractive in comparison to participants which had dissimilar attitudes.

After his opening statements, Brooks begins to explain his point of view concerning each gender’s “well-known” pleasure in literature. He describes that men tend to enjoy books about isolation while women prefer books concerning people’s relationships with one another. While it is positive to point out the differences each gender portrays, Brooks’ presents them in a way that offends. He relies heavily on the stereotypes of society as a whole, and the weaving of gender in society. In a study conducted by two scientists, Laia Beclares and Naomi Priest, it was found that the stereotypical comments made in public has a significant effect on the actions of an individual, both negative and positive. It is stated that “Stereotype threat posits that awareness of a social stereotype that reflects negatively on one's social group can negatively affect the performance of group members” (13). This refutes the points made in Brooks’ essay concerning the many aspects gender plays in society. Many might say this is to do with that fact that biological factors interfere with

Media has the ability to reinforce any stereotypical image with most viewers unaware that they are being unconsciously exposed to this material (Kenschaft et al. 2015,

Alfred Kinsey’s extensive research into sexual orientation has brought about some of the greatest and perhaps most controversial findings of the 20th century. His findings range from sexual activities to sexual orientation, including “facts” that were considered shocking at the time of their publication, such as 10% of men are gay and almost half men have had adulterous affairs, etc. Not only have they changed the ways people view sex and sexual ethnics in the U.S., but these findings are also still deeply embedded in the public imagination. However, a closer look at the great man’s research reveals some major flaws. Even though nobody has yet been able to replicate the research due to its magnitude, in the 21st century, we have other approaches to explore the same field, the results of which both confirm and challenge Alfred Kinsey’s findings.

Simon Davis’ study of traditional sex stereotypes shows that Davis used sociological imagination during his study. Davis shows this when he states that his study had some limitations, “It could be argued that people placing personal ads are not representative of the public in general” (1990, 33). This shows that even though the study was focused on personal ads in one newspaper, Davis was aware that it may not fully represent the public in general and therefore the change in sex stereotypes may or may not still be common. This ability to look beyond the area being studied when thinking about representing the public and trying to see if it changed (in this case if the sex stereotypes were still in operation) shows sociological imagination because according to C.W Mills, “to understand the changes of many personal milieu we are required to look beyond them” (1959, 6).

The Perception of People Initially, I thought that this piece would be about a man or a woman who struggled to find their sexual orientation, however, I soon found it to be so much more. This reminded me of an article that I read recently that recalled the the story told by the rapper, Macklemore, that explained how he thought he would be gay merely on the account that we was able to draw. The article infers that his song, “Same Love” was a reflection of these thoughts. However, let us not stray from the topic at hand.

In Amy Zimmerman’s article, “It Ain’t Easy Being Bisexual on TV”, Zimmerman discusses the common stereotypes of bisexual men and woman in today’s media. Zimmerman’s article was published on August 14, 2014 for The Daily Beast. The Daily Beast is a news media based out of New York. Zimmerman reveals the bisexual stereotypes in today’s media, and argues that bisexual men and woman are portrayed differently in in media than today’s society.

“Media stereotypes are inevitable, especially in the advertising, entertainment and news industries, which need as wide an audience as possible to quickly understand information. Stereotypes act like codes that give audiences a quick, common understanding of a person or group of people—usually relating to their class, ethnicity or race, gender, sexual orientation, social role or occupation.”

In 1970’s Laud Humphrey published the book The Tearoom Trade which provided insight on homosexuality in public places. After the book was published he felt comfortable to come out. Humphrey conducted a study to observe men engaging in same sex encounters in restrooms. The third person in the bathroom was considered as the lookout or the “watch queen” as which Humphrey posed as. The second part of his study he wrote down the license plate of the men he observed and then asked them to fill out a questionnaire. The questionnaire he stated was a social health survey. He concluded from his data that most of the men involved in these encounters were married or had acceptable lifestyles. Humphrey also concluded that majority of the men were socially

The judgments we make about people, events or places are based on our own direct impressions. But for most of the knowledge, we rely on media. The media actually re-present the world to us. However, the media only shows us some aspects of the world, ignoring the rest. So basically, the media chooses what is to be shown and what is to be discarded (Andrew Pilkington and Alan Yeo (2009)). . In this essay, I will explain what stereotypes are and primarily give an example of a famous men’s magazine called ‘nuts’ and explain how these stereotypes are created by print and the digital media and what are their impacts on people.