"$#!% Someone Says"

Edward Said in his work on Orientalism and Chandra Mohanty in her work "Under Western Eyes" both provide insight on stereotypes and "colonizing" a group of people based on certain characteristics. Although Said's work focused on the portrayal of the Middle East and Mohanty's work focused on Western feminist scholarship of third world women, their arguments can be used to discuss more local issues of stereotyping. Each race, nationality, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and so on has its own stereotype or stigma attached to it.


Recent YouTube videos have emerged, stereotyping what certain groups of people say and how they act. These videos are titled "S--- Girls Say," "S--- Black Girls Say" or "S--- Girls Say to Gay Guys" and so on. These videos have been a huge hit and are now talking about every group you can think of. They are not meant to be offensive, but rather are meant to be viewed as a joke. Either way, this is a great example of stereotyping groups of people, based on the sound of their voice, what they wear, etc.

Finding a target audience is essential for effective marketing and advertising. However, there is a line a company should not cross when determining that audience and reaching out to them. The Summer's Eve commercials that were taken off the Internet were extremely stereotypical and offensive. I felt it was unnecessary to have three different commercials for three races because the product would have the same effect on each person. The audience is women, not specifically Hispanic, African-American or white women. If this was obvious to the people behind the commercial, it was most likely just to get attention and stir up controversy. The stereotypical voices mimic the ones used in the YouTube videos and the commercial immediately reminded me of those videos.