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Gender Stereotypes In The Film 'Crash'

Decent Essays

While many films may touch on subjects race and stereotypes, these themes are especially explicit in 2004 film ***Crash***, where there are many instances of various characters exhibiting different forms of prejudice and stereotypes. One of the most prominent stereotyping displayed is the “out-group homogeneity effect”, which is “the tendency to see members of out-groups as very similar to one another” according to ***Discovering Psychology by Hockenbury and Hockenbury***. In other words, this effect is where a person sees those in other groups (out-groups) as being much more similar to each other and less diverse, while they see those in their own group (in-group) as being much more diverse. This often leads to those in an out-group of …show more content…

When strolling through a mostly white, expensive shopping district, she sees two black men at which point she becomes visibly quite nervous. Her worst fears become a reality when the two men pull guns out, pull her out of the SUV at gun point, and steal their SUV. Her nerves and a later statement by her that she “knew” the men were going to this was her stereotyping a certain out-group (in this case, black men) as being violent criminals. Later, when a Latino man (Daniel) that is hired to change the locks in their home, she pulls her husband aside and demand that they get a non-Latino locksmith to change their locks in the morning, as she claims that the Latino locksmith (which she refers to as “Amigo”) has a “shaved head, the pants around his ass, the prison tattoos,” is a “gang member,” and is going to sell their key to a his “gang banger friends.” Here jean also displays clear and blatant stereotyping of Latinos (an out-group to her), despite the Latino locksmith not even meeting her claimed visible stereotypes of him (for example he did not have prison tattoos, and his pants were being worn normally), much less having any evidence of him being involved in any sort of criminal activity. Jean also begins to have here ideals of her in-group (white women) always being helpful challenged which her friend refuses to come take

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