Middle ages, pot belly, white men has become a stereotype of television today. It is very common to be watching a popular television show, where one of the characters is a middle aged, overweight or balding male. Men that are most commonly known as; red necks, Hill billy’s, or good old fashion red blooded Americans. Richard Butsch’s studies of the media finds that throughout 50 years these male characters have been a consistent norm. That the blue color, over weight American males have become a persistent pattern in our domestic comedies.
How does this stereotype survey in our media industry? It’s unhealthy, unattractive and most times the character is offensive, so how does it survive? Butsch’s article suggests that over the years the television networks portrayed blue collar workers and supervisions in the media in an attempt to gain favour with their audience. This was a last ditch effort to gain favour as in the 1980’s their shared audiences dropped about 30% causing producers to look for ways of gaining compassion from audiences. This was a success and soon production companies were hiring teams of writers to create “Large fat white men” without repeating the shows or themes.
With the creation of the media stereotype we have become used to the popular overly obese male character. With shows like; the honeymooners, King of queens and King of the Hill we have almost come to expect that all large males are a great source of humour. Regardless of the shows questionable themes such as , drug or alcohol abuse and dysfunctional family matters.
The reality of the stereotype and its success is that over half the audiences find that they can relate to the character. Wither it be the weight, blue collar, or sarcastic lifestyle.
One thing I know for certain is that we will be seeing more of our overweight, middle aged many years to come.
And on that note.. here is some family guy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mfpShhxkrA
A.Shiozaki
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