Representation and Stereotyping.

A stereotype is considered to be that all members of a particular class or set are easily recognised by surtain, definable characteristics. The term is sometimes known as a negative connotation.
Every day we, as a television audience, are forced to associate surtain objects and actions with stereotypes especially through television advertising and TV Dramas.
An example of this would be...

What gender would you assosiate a teddy bear with? Male or female???
Obviously female although guys we all know you have teddy bears your all to tough to say so. Hehehe
And what gender would you associate a power drill with??? Male or female???
Females are better at DIY though so i could go either way, but the obvious answer is male.

To look at representation and stereotype we looked at the Channel Four programme 'Skins'.
'Skins' is designed to reach to the widest demographic in order for it to be interesting to a mass audience. Channel Four is different in the fact that instead of conforming to a stereotype they ignore it and turn it on its head.
For example there is a guy called Anwar who to start with is represented as a typical faithful muslim. He is first seen praying but then to change to stereotype his phone goes off and he answers it to his friend Tony who happens to be talking about sex. For a faithful muslim to be faithful they aren't supposed to have sex before marriage but Anwar has which also reverses the stereotype.
Another character form 'Skins' that doesn't conform to their stereotypical representation is Jal. She is black. The typical stereotype for a person of her type is that she is poor and lives on the street and gets into all sorts of trouble when actually she is quite wealthy and is a very talented clarinet player. Usually she would be associated with rap or R&B music but she defys it.
Not only does she challenge her race stereotype but also her gender stereotype. The way she dresses in baggy clothes makes her lose her female form and is seen as 'one of the guys' by the rest of her friends. Jal's friend Michelle is used as a contrast because she is very girly and seen as a sexual object not a guy.

The different types of stereotypes are:

Positive Reinforcements: Stereotypes which reinforce ideas in a positiveor valid way- eg. 'old people are kind'.

Negative Reinforcement: Oppositionally (and more common) those which reinforce or validate negative ideas: 'All muslims are terrorists'

Inverted stereotypes: Ideas which (once reinfored as positive or negative stereotypes) can be challenged or reversed eg. 'A man ironing'