Week Eight: Stereotypes and Ethics

It was definitely interesting learning about how far we’ve come as a culture when it comes to the stereotypical representations used in early comics and other forms of media, especially in terms of race, sexuality, gender and ethnicity. To me, despite the current cultural climate of dissatisfaction, I think that we’ve come pretty far as a culture in one lifetime. It actually seems like we’re probably pushing the limit for the amount of change and adjustment that some people can make to their worldview in one lifetime, without completely plunging them and the culture into a state of mass anxiety and hysteria.

That being said, I wish we would have acknowledged that in class in a more positive way, and approached this topic in the lecture from a more reassuring perspective - especially in today’s current media-fueled maddening political climate. It would have been refreshing to hear about this topic from the perspective that the changes we need to make as a culture, have already happened, or are at least well under way, which I believe they are.  I don’t think that we need to downplay or ignore how far we still need to go, but I do believe that some positive encouragement would have greatly added to the tone of this lecture. We’ve passed over a pretty heavy threshold these last twenty years or so, and although we’re still sorting everything out, I think that one can definitely take a look at the trends from the last decade and see a positive upward trend, moving us towards health, understanding, and reason.