Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to pinpoint various social inequalities featured in the popular television show American Horror Story: Coven. In addition to violence and black magic, the miniseries explored some new horror themes: racism and sexism. Coven was highly heavily criticized by its viewers for including many black stereotypes, trivializing rape, and distastefully portraying women as a mysterious species to men. Sexism and racism are quite prominent in our society and instead of shedding light on these issues with respect, American Horror Story merely exploits them in order to create cheap drama.
Keywords: Social inequality, American Horror Story, racism, sexism, stereotypes. Introduction A social inequality is the presence of unequal opportunities for members of a society, and is typically linked to gender inequality and race inequality (Rugaber & Boak, 2014). In the United States, social class is often a product of economic class and, sadly, sometimes race. For example, we generally see that wealthy, white males acquire a higher status than most females or people of color. Some argue that these inequalities are detrimental to our society, but according to the functionalist view, social inequalities are necessary to keep our society balanced. Often times these inequalities are reflected in movies and television shows but can be grossly exaggerated, thus contributing to the stereotypes our society has become numb to.
This paper will focus on the
We live in a society that is very unequal, in a way that people get treated differently depending on their social class, race or gender. Social inequality means the situation in which individual groups in a society do not have equal social status, social class or social circle. Clear boundaries in society are made that prevents
Social inequality is a problematic phenomenon that occurs all around the world and affects both the developed and developing nations. It is defined as “the unequal distribution of social, political and economic resources within a social collective” (van Krieken et al. 2013, p. 205). Inequality is closely connected with social stratification, a system of social hierarchy that positions individuals and groups into categories according to social variables such as class or ethnicity (van Krieken et al. 2013, p. 485). This stratification has a significant impact on the opportunity that an individual may have to move up the hierarchy of inequality (Gill 2017a).
Shameless is a Golden-Globe nominated show with a white dominated cast. One of the siblings on the show is black, but is identified as a White male contrary to the character’s skin tone. “When it comes to representations of Blacks on television, the 1980s can be seen as a decade of elevated inclusion both in terms of the quantity and quality of roles -- which remains the norm today. (Tukachinsky, Mastro, & Yarchi, 2015). Over the years, we will see more shows gearing their audiences to the black community. Producers add in a few social issues to reel viewers in, but the fact remains the same that a prime time heavy hitting shows, will most likely have less than 20% of their cast of African descent. In consonance with researchers, blacks currently constitute between 14-17 percent of the prime-time population. (Tukachinsky, Mastro, & Yarchi, 2015). The lack of representation in the media can lead to some interpreting that the Caucasian race is the superior race, and in retrospect, can influence the attitudes and beliefs of viewers. Prior research has shown that exposure to counter stereotypic exemplars in the media can have a positive effect on inter-group relations. (Scharrer, & Ramasubramanian, 2015) In order to reduce the misrepresentation from taking over the media, we must depict a positive image on the lives of minorities and portray them as successful, thriving human beings. By
Social inequality is the issue pertaining to the lack of housing, health care, education, employment opportunities, and status. It is the dismissal of people from participation in what we, the members of society distinguish as being valuable, important, socially desirable, and personally worthwhile. There are many different perspectives on social inequality within our society; the three areas I am going to focus on are those of the Functionalist, Conflict and Symbolic-Interactionist.
Structural Functionalism is the understanding of society that presumes social systems are assembled to fill social needs. (Wikibooks, 2012). Social inequality refers to individuals in a society that do not have equal social status. (Wikibooks, 2012). Social inequality is the current situation. Factors contributing to poverty and hunger are the social and economic challenges faced by the family. The number one cause noted for the increase is unemployment of the parent. Closely following this is access to affordable housing. Other influences are low wages, gap between rich and poor, earning disparity between men and women, barriers to affordable child care and health insurance. Inequality is a motivator for people to change. The organizations and institutions are interdependent, when one makes a change the others accommodate by changing as well. The WIC, SNAP and National School Lunch Program have adjusted their entrance criteria to meet the greater needs of the majority of the people.
When the resources in a society are distributed unevenly it leads to social inequality. Often inequality is understood as being socio-economic and it is now closely associated with social inequality. “Social inequalities are differences in income, resources, power and status within and between societies. Such inequalities are maintained by those in powerful positions via institutions and social processes.” (Warwick-Booth, 2013 p.2)
The stereotypical misrepresentations of African-American women and men in popular culture have influenced societal views of Blacks for centuries. The typical stereotypes about Black women range from the smiling, asexual and often obese Mammy to the promiscuous Jezebel who lures men with her sexual charms. However, the loud, smart mouthed, neck-rolling Black welfare mother is the popular image on reality television. The typical stereotype about Black men is the violent, misogynistic thug, and the ever-enduring pimp. These images portrayed in media and popular culture createpowerful ideology about race and gender, which affects daily experiences of Black women in America. With few healthy relationships portrayed in the media, Black women
Inequality is a theme that runs throughout all of history. Harper Lee uses the theme of inequality in her book, To Kill a Mockingbird. Tom Robinson must deal with inequality when he is accused of a crime he didn’t commit because no one will trust a black man over a white man. The Cunningham family must face discrimination because of their lack of money. Scout even faces inequality when she tries to play with Jem and Dill. The theme of inequality is a strong one in Lee’s book, and her use of inequality doesn’t only define racism, but also discrimination based on wealth and gender.
The term that describes this is inequality which is unequal distribution of opportunities in society. The article shows this by saying that women and people of color get less opportunities in theater because they are not the predominant white male for example for play, 61.3 % are males and 35.7% are females. Another reason America is unequal according to the article for theater people is because people cannot move from one social class to a higher social class. This is defined as immobility. Immobility occurs in the article due to the potential person getting hired gets the established not so good pay in order to get the job they want just to be able to provide for the family. This does not allow for a move up in class, because if they negotiate for better pay they might get not get the job or get fired and then they won’t have anything for their family. The article provides an example that inequality due to skin color in America is going down a bit. The example of African American lead actors getting paid more than white lead actors in Chicago is an example of meritocracy. Meritocracy is where an individual gets rewarded for being skillful at the job rather than having connections. That African American example is an example of meritocracy, because they don’t have the same background as the white employers, but I believe they get paid more because they are
Inequality, it is all around us, in our jobs, at our children schools, in our neighborhoods, and no matter how hard we might try to escape it, there if no escape. We used to think that inequality was a thing of the past, but it is still very prevalent in today’s society. Many think “well inequality does not affect me personally, so why should I care?” While it may not affect you personally, it probably affects someone close to you. Throughout his book Toxic Inequality, Thomas Shapiro demonstrates just how surrounded the population is by inequalities with stories about families who are not only financially divided, but racially. These inequalities are rooted so deeply in our society that it can be easy to overlook the problem and ignore it, but as Shapiro demonstrates we can no longer overlook the problem, we need to face it head on it we have any hope of trying to fix it for future generations.
Social inequality results from a society that is structured by hierarchy of different class, race, and gender. It is mostly distinguished by the inequality of income and access to educational resources plus the discrimination at individuals of color, immigrants, and sexual orientation. The textbook states an example of an African American Girl who is eager to go to college, but lacks the financial resources plus the right support system to apply to different universities. In this case the first agent is her family who does not encourage her to pursue a higher education.
There is a high degree of social inequality within the United States. Of most modern industrial countries, the United Stated has some of the richest and some of the poorest people to be found. That fact is very disturbing, however, explains why much of the inequality exists in the US. In the following essay I will explain to you about the inequality in our country and why it occurs, based on the theoretical perspectives of a functionalist, conflict theorist, and social interationist.
One of the social issues concerning power, status, and class in American society today is income inequality. The income gap between the social classes has increased drastically throughout the last few decades, creating a significant gap between the wealthy and the poor. This gap has become so large that the middle class has nearly diminished, creating a social class comprised of the rich and the poor. The significant gap between the two social classes is unhealthy for the economy because it provides too much power in the hands of those with high social status.
In an article by Jean Baker Miller, the idea of inequality among society is presented. According to him there are two types of inequality which is temporary inequality and permanent inequality. The main difference of the two is that temporary inequality enables “the journey from unequal to equal” while permanent inequality discourages this idea. To further explain this, an example of temporary inequality is the relationship between doctor and patient because the patient is encouraged to make a full recovery which is enabling “the journey from unequal to equal”. On the other hand, permanent inequality may include stereotypes that describes “blacks … less intelligent than whites”, or that “women are supposed to be ruled by emotion”. Essentially,
The United States is certainly a culturally diverse society, as we live in this world. Age, gender, race, wealth, education and social connection are some of the diverse parts in society that creates stratification. What is social inequality? The short definition is that resources in a society are unevenly distributed according to different “categories” of people. For example, the wealth distribution in the United States shows that the top 10% people have 70% of the wealth of the country. The bottom 20% people only has about 3% of wealth. How does society structure with different classes effects social inequality? One of the way is to label society as three different classes