Breaking Bad, the award winning TV series represented the American ideology of teachers in the midwest. However, it was able to, in a way, reconstruct how we view the world by deconstructing the realism of professional roles. Breaking Bad portrays a chemistry teacher who eventually turns to manufacturing and selling methamphetamine with one of his former students. A teacher is obviously seen as a leading role model in society as they are in charge of educating the ‘future leaders’ and that idealization was broken in this series. 

(Source: Sky News)

Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand streaming service and it has successfully over the years attracted an international audience by creating a diversified library of content and offering a wide range of shows and movies that cater to different cultural preferences and languages. However, because it is an American streaming service, the international shows that are on there tend to look at a country’s culture through the American lens which in terms becomes a misrepresentation of the culture. This can be problematic in terms of how the people with that culture perceive themselves when watching this. 

For example, Netflix France’s selection of French tv shows and movies are very much Americanized. They often reflect a combination of cultural tropes, artistic choices and storytelling conventions that may occasionally draw on stereotypes to create a recognizable context for viewers. 

Bell Hooks, American theorist, has extensively addressed issues related to the misrepresentation of culture in television and popular culture. She has criticized mainstream media for perpetuating stereotypes and promoting damaging cultural narratives that marginalize certain groups. 

In her book “Reel to Real: Race, Sex and Class at the Movies” Hooks discusses how cultural stereotypes are perpetuated through popular media and their impact on contributing to a distorted and simplified perception of a particular culture, leading to misunderstandings, prejudices and misinterpretations. 

When a culture is reduced to simplistic stereotypes, the depth and richness of its cultural expressions and contributions may be overlooked or undervalued. This can impede meaningful cultural exchange and limit opportunities for the celebration of cultural diversity.

References:

Adams-Bass, V.N., Bentley-Edwards, K.L. and Stevenson, H.C. (2014) ‘That’s not me I see on TV . . . : African American youth interpret media images of black females’, Women, Gender, and Families of Color, 2(1), pp. 79–100. doi:10.5406/womgenfamcol.2.1.0079.

Mareike Jenner (2018), ‘Introduction: Netflix and the Renvention of Television’, ‘Introduction: Binge Watching Netflix’, Netflix and the Reinvention of Television

Media-Studies (2023) Bell Hooks, intersectionality and representation in the media, Media Studies. Available at: https://media-studies.com/bell-hooks-intersectionality/ (Accessed: 01 November 2023).

By: Octavie Drevon