Racial and Gender Diversity

The television show I chose to talk about in this blog is Boy Meets World, which aired in the early 90s.

Since this show was filmed in Philadelphia, not to generalize, and in the 90s, majority of the characters in the show are white dominant. There are a few African Americans shown, but only one of them is a main character in the later seasons and the other two are supporting recurring character in the first few seasons. For every 2 boys/males, there’s 1 girl/female. It’s not a bad ratio for the main characters. Majority of recurring characters are white males, and one African American male. As a whole representation of the show, it does not support racial diversity and very little, but not equal, general diversity. An assumption/generalization can be due to the time period it was being filmed and where it was being filmed, which was on the east coast, in Pennsylvania. This kind of diversity is important in media because it shows that there’s some progress in including other races/ethnicity in television shows, giving them supporting roles in a positive light.

There are a few racial stereotypes in the television show. In the earlier episodes, there’s an African American boy that’s loud and rebellious, portraying that African Americans are loud and don’t do as they’re told. In a later episode, the two main female characters work at a Mexican restaurant and their co-workers have thick accents. Although they are not Mexican or Latin descent, they’re portraying a stereotypical Mexican since they end up going dancing with the female characters. I’m not too sure if dancing would be characterized as stereotypical for Mexicans/Latinos(as). As gender stereotypes, there’s one with a preppy-looking supporting character, wearing big glasses, is a smart student, giving the impression that only smart people look and dress like that. In addition, the good-looking men who get all the women aren’t too bright.