Stereotypes

Posted on | April 9, 2007 | 2 Comments

To become décor, to become ambiance, to become setting, to become stereotype, is not necessarily to be out of the picture. On the contrary: a living stereotype can always historicize, as well as appear in, the media image of any event. It stubbornly refers to the social conditions of its own appearance in space, and endurance through time; that is, to repetition, perpetuation and the possibility of change. As an indomitable trace of a past in representation (how many times have I seen that banner, those slogans, before?), a stereotype is the critical accompaniment, and the insistent historical shadow, of simulation as Baudrillard understands it […] the traditional protester in media today acts as a mark of genre, that is, of a persisting, negotiable and collective cultural product. As such, we stereotypes can act as a ‘historic’ reminder – well or ill performed, more or less successful according to contingencies – that unlike God, the media-simulacrum cannot produce and multiply reality in its singular image alone.

Meaghan Morris, ‘Panorama: The Live, The Dead & The Living’

Category: Politics, Reading

Comments

2 Responses to “Stereotypes”

  1. clif
    April 10th, 2007 @ 4:01 pm

    What happened to the old Morris [Minor] who worked to let people into C.theory and new ideas?

    *sigh* or *bah!*

    Morris actually makes me want to stop reading Cultural Theory.

    I’m a lazy thinker I guess, but the writer has to make some bloody effort to be understood.

  2. melgregg
    April 11th, 2007 @ 11:46 am

    Hi Clif – I’m not sure why this upset you so much. Meaghan is probably the last person I’d throw this charge at. It’s probably my selective quoting that isn’t helping, so when I get a chance, I’ll write some more and hopefully make it seem a bit clearer.

Leave a Reply