Sexism, Racism and Stereotypes in South Park
Shivam Aggarwal
Research Paper
Professor Aimee Sands
Rhetoric B
SEXISM, RACISM AND STEREOTYPES IN SOUTH PARK
Racial Stereotyping, racism, gender stereotyping and sexism are some of the strengths of South Park. This TV show was created with a purpose to make racism and sexism funny and acceptable.
South Park is a television show that was created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. It circumvents the lives of 4 boys namely Eric Cartmen, Kenny McCormick, Stan Marsh and Kyle Broflovski around the town of Colorado. This show mainly aims at picking up various stereotypes in different societies and making fun of them. It is highly racist and makes fun of different genders and performs the act of gender stereotyping.
Author Ted Gournelos in his article has given detailed accounts of how each line has a deeper underlying meaning. He also points out how there are various accounts where there is a mix of racial stereotyping as well as feministic discrimination. The hype created for this TV show was astonishing as a simple video created on YouTube had enflamed the viewers. In other words, they wanted more. Even before the first episode aired the network had already sold 30 million t-shirts, whilst its viewers knew that this show was full of racial comments and racial depictions, it still gained so much popularity in the US adult audience. In one of the episode they show a fight between Jesus and Santa Clause which shows complete disregard for the religious beliefs of its viewers. Author Ted Gournelos says “Within the first season alone, South Park not only critiqued homophobia, conservative censorship efforts, discourse regarding euthanasia, and several other highly charged topics, but it did so while becoming one of the most popular shows on cable television.”
South Park does not have a definitive plot or even a baseline story; it simply creates a new issue each episode to ridicule from making fun of Jews to cracking racist jokes. Every
Research Paper
Professor Aimee Sands
Rhetoric B
SEXISM, RACISM AND STEREOTYPES IN SOUTH PARK
Racial Stereotyping, racism, gender stereotyping and sexism are some of the strengths of South Park. This TV show was created with a purpose to make racism and sexism funny and acceptable.
South Park is a television show that was created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. It circumvents the lives of 4 boys namely Eric Cartmen, Kenny McCormick, Stan Marsh and Kyle Broflovski around the town of Colorado. This show mainly aims at picking up various stereotypes in different societies and making fun of them. It is highly racist and makes fun of different genders and performs the act of gender stereotyping.
Author Ted Gournelos in his article has given detailed accounts of how each line has a deeper underlying meaning. He also points out how there are various accounts where there is a mix of racial stereotyping as well as feministic discrimination. The hype created for this TV show was astonishing as a simple video created on YouTube had enflamed the viewers. In other words, they wanted more. Even before the first episode aired the network had already sold 30 million t-shirts, whilst its viewers knew that this show was full of racial comments and racial depictions, it still gained so much popularity in the US adult audience. In one of the episode they show a fight between Jesus and Santa Clause which shows complete disregard for the religious beliefs of its viewers. Author Ted Gournelos says “Within the first season alone, South Park not only critiqued homophobia, conservative censorship efforts, discourse regarding euthanasia, and several other highly charged topics, but it did so while becoming one of the most popular shows on cable television.”
South Park does not have a definitive plot or even a baseline story; it simply creates a new issue each episode to ridicule from making fun of Jews to cracking racist jokes. Every