Journal Entry 4

Summery and Response to “Besieged by “friends”” by Heather Havrilesky:
In Heather Havrilesky’s essay “Besieged by “friends””, she brings up the issue of how Arabs are portrayed in Hollywood and how Arabs respond to it. In her writing, she talks about a documentary by Charles C. Stuart. He went around to various countries in the Middle East, asking people what they thought about American Movies and television. Most of his responses from these people are negative because they are angry at the way they are portrayed in movies. Havrilesky brings up also brings up the idea that the stereotypes of people in movies portray the U.S. foreign policy at any given time, such as during WW II with the Japanese and Arabs after Sept. 11. She then ends that we would be angry if it was us being portrayed as stereotypes.
Response:
Heather Havrilesky provides an example of people who have become angry at how they are portrayed as stereotypes in the media. Right now it is Arabs who have this problem, in the past and still today, it was Japanese, Chinese, African American, etc. who were portrayed in the media as stereotypes. These people believe that these stereotypes hurt their cultures and how others view them.
It is reasonable that these people are angry with Hollywood and the media. Who wants their culture to be represented by a stereotype that doesn’t define them, makes them look terrible, or mocks them? The image of the Middle East being filled with terrorist has become blown out of proportion by the media after 9/11. Havrilesky points this out in her essay’s introduction, mocking the image that Hollywood has created of the Middle East. She says that it must be dusty, camels running around everywhere, and terrorist everywhere. The way she words it, you can tell that she’s over exaggerating to make the point that Hollywood shows the Middle East as a Stereotype. I would have to agree with her, in most movies that take place in the Middle East, its dusty, camels are everywhere, and there is always a terrorist around. It is the most common image that people think of. The fact though is that it isn’t true.
The same thing can be seen in moves of the past. Native Americans can always be seen as savages or drunks in old westerns. African Americans in older movies were servants, ignorant people, or criminals. There are a number of stereotypes that I could name off. Even at farmers of the mid west are stereotyped by people on the coast. One of my friends met someone at their school from the East coast. They asked my friend if we drive tractors to school.
I agree with Havrilesky, that Hollywood is hurting others cultures. Today we see only the radical parts of culture in the Middle East. This is only a small part of it. It is also seems true that the Hollywood images of people only occur when it mirrors the U.S.’s foreign policy like Havrilesky points out in her essay. I think that this hurts the American people because it cause them to believe in lies about other cultures, which can hurt relations with these cultures.