It is certainly true that the media may both break and reinforce stereotypes,
I feel more specifically many or all programs usually depend on stereotypes not only by sometimes playing with them, but by the need to found a common context for the viewers. This is most efficiently done by using what is known to the viewer already.
Anyway, I still find this discussion somewhat silly. To my experience (and of course it is limited) the expressions "unGerman" looks and ethnicity as a
determinant don't make much sense in Germany right here, right now, anymore.
As compared to my experience and feelings Gustave is milling anti-German cliches, that will be easily acclaimed in some foreign media, but not having strong correlation to everyday practice here and now.
Of course their are problems of xenophobia in Germany. But also there is widespread acceptance of just about everybody. Both attitudes coexist, and sometimes clash. Why not? And why is this point so much hurting to Gustave?
Somewhat depressed, MNI |
