Stereotypes - W8

This week I read The Story of Music in Cartoons which was an interesting comic that takes the reader through different periods in history and humorously gives the story of how music may have been used or developed in that place. While reading this comic, I realized how reliant  we have all sort of become to the use of stereotypes, in order to quickly understand depictions. I noticed that if I had been reading this story without thinking about the use of stereotypes, I would likely not have been thinking anything of the exaggeration of  characters' physical features, or the somewhat offensive references made about specific cultures and their actions. I think that is especially easy for readers to brush this stereotyping off because they were mostly referencing ancient tie periods and it is meant to be humorous, but in a way, this kind of thing gives permission to everyone else that stereotyping is okay, and it is not just this one comic that does this.
Media and entertainment in general is filled with stereotyping of cultures, race, religion, and more. It has become almost so normalized that most of us do not blink an eye unless it is explicitly offensive. As an Asian, I have encountered a lot of stereotypes in media and interaction with other people. In many movies and TV, Asians are portrayed as the nerdy, smart , "Token Asian" that is good at math or has the embarrassing tiger parents. There are so many more stereotypes that Asians are portrayed as in media, but the industry has recently started to change where representation has become much more important.
As a result of the use of stereotypes in media, people take those depictions for truth and think that it is a blanket statement  for the people being depicted. Though it seems minor, I and many of my Asian friends and family are constantly asked "Where are you from?"  which by now I know they mean to ask what my  ethnicity is. My response is that I am from Seattle because I was born and raised there and that is usually followed with "but where are you really from?" This and many other questions are irritating because it sounds like when people see that we are different, they already make assumptions about us,  like the fact that I am probably from China. These kind of assumptions have likely stemmed from things like media that have shown the same stereotypes about people enough  that  people assume those are the facts. Accurate representation is so important and if it is done correctly, then there is probably no need for stereotypes at all, and just like the stereotypes, if accurate representation is utilized enough, the correct ideas will become normalized.