ABORIGINAL PEOPLE

COMMON PORTRAYALS

• simplistic characterizations: being primitive, violent and devious, or passive and submissive
• romanticization
• historical inaccuracies
• stereotyping by carelessness

ROMANTICIZATION

THE INDIAN PRINCESS: the Native beauty who is sympathetic enough to the white man's quest to be lured away from her group to marry into his culture and help advance his mission to civilize her people

THE NATIVE WARRIOR: is a fierce, formidable, and bare-chested threat to civilized society. This warrior is the epitome of the savagery that must be courageously overcome by "progressive elements" pushing West.

THE NOBLE SAVAGE: communicates in a cloud of mysticism, places no value on material possessions, and usually possesses some spiritual connection to the land.

STEREOTYPING BY OMISSION

Most film depictions of Native people are set in a 50-year period in the mid-19th century. The most blatant omission in movies and television is the Aboriginal woman. When she is included, it is most often as a "sexual savage" who cannot be tamed, and must therefore be degraded and eventually conquered. Despite efforts to counter these stereotypes, Aboriginal women remain particularly under-represented in media.

SIMPLISTIC CHARACTERIZATIONS

Aboriginal people are almost always deprived of character and personality afforded them by the media. They tend to be casted as supporting roles or relegated to the background, and are rarely allowed to speak or display their complexity and richness as human beings. Rarely is an Aboriginal portrayed as having personal strengths and weaknesses, or shown acting on his or her own values and judgements. Another issue is how their character and story are often revealed through the lens of the European experience. The reality is that the Aboriginal People are robbed of voice.

PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

COMMON PORTRAYALS

THE VICTIM

• a character who is presented as a helpless object of pity or sympathy
  
• disability can be used by the author to earn sympathy from the audience
  
• may also be used for comedy
  
• Ex. Tiny Tim in "A Christmas Carol" (1951)
• Ex. John Merrick in "The Elephant Man" (1980)
• Ex. Mister Magoo in "The Ragtime Bear" (1949)
• Forrest Gump in "Forrest Gump" (1994)

THE HERO

•  the character who proves their worth by overcoming their disability and becoming more 'normal', in a heroic way
• a positive stereotype is still a stereotype
  
• focuses on the individual who "succeeds" in overcoming their disability, rather than the many others who must live with theirs
• presents disability as a challenge which the character must overcome in order to be "normal"
• makes audiences feel better about the condition of persons with a disability without having to accommodate them, and reinforces the belief that disability can be overcome if only the person would "try hard enough"
• "Hero" roles are nearly always played by non-disabled actors, presenting a false picture of disability

THE VILLAIN

• physical disabilities have been used to suggest evil or depravity
  
• characters have been portrayed as being driven to crime or revenge by resentment of their disability
  
• most people who suffer from a mental illness are much more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators of violence
  
• Ex. Doctor Loveless from "Wild Wild West" (1965)
• Ex. The Joker in "The Dark Knight" (2008)