television relies on stereotypes. It relies on common stock, easily identifiable images Why do these stock characters exist, even in so-called"reality"television that it supposed to be unscripted and unplanned? Because that's the nature of entertainment. Drama is more readily propelled by the use of stock characters because the less you have to think about who a person really is, the more quickly the show can get to things like the plot( such as it may be). Sex and race are especially useful for stock characterizations because they can pull from a long and rich history of social stereotypes This is especially problematic when so few minorities appear in pr ing, whether reality or dramatic, because those few individuals. end up being representatives of their entire group. A single angry white man is just an angry white man, while an angry black man is an indication of ow all black men"really"are. MSNBC explains Indeed, the [Sista With an Attitude] feeds off preconceived notions of African American women. After all, shes an archetype as old as d w. Griffith, first found in the ear liest of mov ies where slave women were depicted as ornery and cantankerous, uppity Negresses who couldn,'t be trusted to remember their place. Think Hattie McDaniel in"Gone With the wind, bossing and fussing as she yanked and tugged on Miss Scarlett's corset strings Or Sapphire Stevens on the much-pilloried"Amos N Andy, " serving up confrontation on a platter, extra-spicy, don't hold the sass Or Florence, the mouthy maid on"The Jeffersons. How do stock characters appear in"unscripted"reality shows? First, the people themselves contribute to the creation of these characters because the know, even if unconsciously, that certain behavior is more likely to get them air time. Second, the shows editors contribute mightily to the creation of these characters because they completely validate just that motivation. a black woman sitting around, smiling, isn't perceived to be as entertaining as a black woman pointing her finger at a white man and angrily telling him what to do An especially good (or egregious) example of this can be found in Manigault-Stallworth, a star of Donald Trump's "The Apprentice. She has been called"the most hated woman on television" because of the behavior and attitude people see her with. But how much of her on-screen persona is real and how much is a creation of the shows editors? Quite a lot of the latter, according to anigault-Stallworth in an email quoted by mSNBC What you see on the show is a gross misrepresentation of who I am. For instance they never show me smiling, it's just not consistent with the negative portrayal of me that they want to present. Last week they portrayed me as lazy and pretend ing to be hurt to get out of working, when in fact I had a concussion due to my serious injury on the set and spent nearly .. 10 hours in the emergency room. It's all in the editing Reality television shows are not documentaries. People are not put into situations simply to see ow they react- the situations are heavily contrived, they are altered in order to make things interesting, and large amounts of footage are heavily edited into what the shows producers think will result in the best entertainment value for viewers. Entertainment of course, often comes from conflict - so conflict will be created where none exists. If the show cannot incite conflict during3 television relies on stereotypes. It relies on common stock, easily identifiable images." Why do these stock characters exist, even in so-called "reality" television that it supposed to be unscripted and unplanned? Because that's the nature of entertainment. Drama is more readily propelled by the use of stock characters because the less you have to think about who a person really is, the more quickly the show can get to things like the plot (such as it may be). Sex and race are especially useful for stock characterizations because they can pull from a long and rich history of social stereotypes. This is especially problematic when so few minorities appear in programming, whether reality or dramatic, because those few individuals. end up being representatives of their entire group. A single angry white man is just an angry white man, while an angry black man is an indication of how all black men "really" are. MSNBC explains: "Indeed, the [Sista With an Attitude] feeds off preconceived notions of African American women. After all, she's an archetype as old as D.W. Griffith, first found in the earliest of movies where slave women were depicted as ornery and cantankerous, uppity Negresses who couldn't be trusted to remember their place. Think Hattie McDaniel in "Gone With the Wind," bossing and fussing as she yanked and tugged on Miss Scarlett's corset strings. Or Sapphire Stevens on the much-pilloried "Amos N' Andy," serving up confrontation on a platter, extra-spicy, don't hold the sass. Or Florence, the mouthy maid on "The Jeffersons." How do stock characters appear in "unscripted" reality shows? First, the people themselves contribute to the creation of these characters because the know, even if unconsciously, that certain behavior is more likely to get them air time. Second, the shows editors contribute mightily to the creation of these characters because they completely validate just that motivation. A black woman sitting around, smiling, isn't perceived to be as entertaining as a black woman pointing her finger at a white man and angrily telling him what to do. An especially good (or egregious) example of this can be found in Manigault-Stallworth, a star of Donald Trump's "The Apprentice." She has been called "the most hated woman on television" because of the behavior and attitude people see her with. But how much of her on-screen persona is real and how much is a creation of the shows editors? Quite a lot of the latter, according to Manigault-Stallworth in an email quoted by MSNBC: "What you see on the show is a gross misrepresentation of who I am. For instance they never show me smiling, it's just not consistent with the negative portrayal of me that they want to present. Last week they portrayed me as lazy and pretending to be hurt to get out of working, when in fact I had a concussion due to my serious injury on the set and spent nearly ... 10 hours in the emergency room. It's all in the editing!" Reality television shows are not documentaries. People are not put into situations simply to see how they react - the situations are heavily contrived, they are altered in order to make things interesting, and large amounts of footage are heavily edited into what the show's producers think will result in the best entertainment value for viewers. Entertainment, of course, often comes from conflict - so conflict will be created where none exists. If the show cannot incite conflict during