I took a Media Studies class last quarter called "Age, Race, Class and Gender in the Media" which was an awesome class and also really seems to correlate with our English 309J class. One day in class we watched an the "Homer's Phobia" episode of The Simpsons. Here is a link to a wiki that summarizes the episode- http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Homer's_Phobia .
The entire episode is about how Homer is afraid of homosexuals and doesn't know how to respond, relate or act around people who aren't heterosexual like his character is. The family meets someone and becomes friends with the man, but when Homer found out the man was homosexual, he FREAKED out. He began misinterpreting everything his friend was saying and began worrying that his son, Bart, would become homosexual. The entire episode, Homer expresses his fear of people that are homosexual, unlike him, and many times refers to homosexuals as "sissies, queers, girly" etc. Not only is he scared of homosexuals, he acts as though he is superior to anyone who is homosexual. At the end of the episode, the homosexual friend ended up helping Homer and Bart in a hunting situation and it wasn't until the friend "proved" his masculinity that Homer finally came to terms with homosexuals and those different from him.
I don't watch The Simpsons at all, but this one episode we watched in class last quarter rang in my head immediately while reading Yep's article. Yep discusses the process of "othering" and how individuals and groups are portrayed as less important or even less human because of a characteristic; in The Simpsons episode-the characteristic would obviously be sexuality. Homer had such a good time with his friend and felt totally comfortable around him, but immediately when he found out his sexual orientation, he began the process of "othering" and differentiating him and other heterosexuals from homosexuals, like his friend. This would honestly be a great episode to watch in our class, because it really reflects how many people in society feel scared of and superior to those who are homosexual.
I really enjoyed you topic this week. I think people do this kind of stuff all the time. People get a idea in their head about a certain group of people because they met one person who fits in that group or because of a stereotype. Many of these people never try to learn anything about this group of people.If they did they would learn that just because they are labeled and placed in a certain group doesn't mean that they are exactly like all the expectation of that group. Another example of this is the sorority stereotype. Many people think all sorority girls are preppy, rich, have eating disorders and drink and party all the time. But if you take the time to talk to and get to know many sorority girls your will find that many of them are very down to earth, don't have eating disorders, study, and are very much like girls who are not in sororities.
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