Thesis
This essay will explore how American television represents South Asian characters through racialize stereotypes, gender reflections, and cultural portrayals, and will examine how these representation affects the South Asian communities.
Ideas
1.South Asian characters are often characterize by stereotypes like tech genius, strict immigrant parent, Taxi driver which don’t show how diverse the South Asian community really is. Also, often ignoring the struggles and challenges faced by many South Asian individuals.
2. The portrayal of South Asian men and women on TV often reinforces traditional gender expectations. Men are sometimes portrayed as too traditional or set in their ways, while women are portrayed as either supportive or trying to break the strict cultural rules.
3. Analyzation of American television shows accurately portray South Asian cultures and tradition. Most of the Tv Shows often focus just on dress and accent to highlights the culture. Also every brown person isn’t just Indian or Pakistani.
4.The negative impact of these portrayals on South Asian youth, who may feel ashamed and struggle to relate to the characters.These inaccurate and stereotypical portrayals can negatively impact the self-esteem, identity and confidence.
5. Television has a big effect on how Americans think about South Asians because it is a main source of knowledge for many. When these representations lack depth, they can reinforce stereotyped understanding of South Asian culture, which can lead to misunderstandings among Americans.
Citation
Thakore, B. (2013), Just Like Everyone Else? Locating South Asians in 21st Century American Popular
Media. Dissertations. 549. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/549Links to an external site.
Muffuletta, S. (2018), Effects of American Media Representation of South Asian Americans. Harvard Library. https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/37799749/MUFFULETTO-DOCUMENT-2018.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=yLinks to an external site.
Viswanathan, L., & Vernachio, B. (2021), Stereotypes of South Asians in Media Connected to South Asian Teenagers’ Internalized Racism. Journal of Student Research. https://doi.org/10.47611/jsrhs.v10i2.1707Links to an external site.
Madhavi,R (2022), Second Generation Media: Examining Progress in South Asian American Media Representation. Proquest. https://www.proquest.com/docview/2702119931?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true&sourcetype=Dissertations%20&%20ThesesLinks to an external site.