week eight: stereotype and the ethics of representation

I think using stereotypes in comics, animation and gaming narrative is okay as long as these stereotypes are not separating differ from each other. As an example, I hate how cartoons used to represent African-American people. They would make all the white people look normal, and black people would look more like monkeys.

I don't think that offensive stereotypes should be used in the narrative. At the same time, stereotypes can be used as a joke. I feel like the necessity of stereotypes in narrative depends on who is the audience. For kids, it's easier to explain something using stereotypes. There are things like we say that watermelons are round, but not all watermelons are round. (I guess this is a very stupid example). What I mean by that is that you learn about the world and life on stereotypes, and as you get older you learn that stereotypes are not everything. So stereotypes are good to use when you need to be easily understood because stereotypes are something everyone understands. Human's mind and how it comprehends things is really complicated, even the way we see the same color is different, so I think that if we have something that gives us a similar image of the character, it makes things easier to comprehend.
Myself I have never really been affected by stereotypes. Usually, men think I'm weaker that I actually am, because of my gender. They think they need to help me carry something, but I can't say it's a bad thing. In other ways, I don't know what people think of me, when we meet for the first time, as I can't read minds. So I guess, as a conclusion, I say that stereotypes can be used as long as they are not too much, and are not offensive.