The top ten stereotypes in cinema history

You do a story on 10 ethnic stereotypes and leave out one of the most enduring -- that of Italians and Italian Americans as gangsters? Here we have an entire ethnic group, one of the ten largets in the United States, that has been depicted almost entirely in stereotypical terms in pop culture and you fail to notice? Italian American anti-defamation groups have been protesting this stereotype for decades. I think a lot of the protests are overblown, and I enjoy the best, most artistic mafia films and TV shows. But even I get fed up with seeing people of my ethnicity consistently depicted as sociopathic killers and low-class boors.

Buffalo Bill wasn't queer. The Silence of the Lamb's script makes this explicitly clear.

Matthew

Thank you Giorgio! You are 100% correct in your statement. Italians have been portrayed as either thugs or racists morons for years in American Cinema. And the reason why Jessica Grose didn't mention Italians or Italian American and the mob is because most film fans believe it to be true to life. You can not name five American Films that have positive Italian role models that does not involve the mob in some way. Its very sad.

Hey, SaintFrank: Rocky Balboa.

The first one everyone names fettmaster. Name four more:)

Before Rocky received his big break in the ring, he was a bruiser for a loan shark. Not necessarly mob, but who knows.

Buffalo Bill, sounds more or less like Ed Gein. Ed Gein was a transgendered person who wore a his victims' scalps, and a vest, complete with breasts and genitalia made from his female victims. He also upholstered his furniture with human skin, and decorated his home with bones and severed heads. It seems less like a racist depiction and more of an homage for the notorious grave-robber and serial killer (who inspired more watered down fictional killers like Norman Bates, and Leatherface).

On another note, I somehow doubt this article is entirely serious, given the mention to how Jar Jar Binks, offended "nerds" as well as "Jamaicans", especially given that the main upset in Episode One (other than it being a lame movie in general) was over the Trade Federation's oriental speak.

And while racial depictions of European ethnic groups are arguably as bad as other negative ethnic portrayals, any racist action resultant is generally small in comparison, because European groups often dissolve seamlessly into American society, (with perhaps the exception being Jews, which are occasionally still harassed) except when a European American elects to identify with an ethnic group. It's not something they're forced to deal with, because they lack the high visibility of other groups. There have been constant calls to kick out the foreign oriental as recent as 1980, and the foreign "Mexican" to this day, and fear of "Black criminals" has always been present. Irish, Italian, Spanish (Iberian), Eastern European and other European ethnic groups, while facing considerable discrimination, suffering exploited labor condition under the heels of the old definition of "white", were eventually dissolved seamlessly into the fabric of America, becoming invisible unless the elect to not be. In North Beach of San Francisco, does the suspicion of the Italian Mob have the same realism as the suspicion of the Traids in Chinatown, or the Mexican Mafia in the Mission, or perhaps the Yakuza in Japantown or Little Tokyo? Racism on any level is bad, but some forms are arguably more potent.

Talk about missing the forest for the trees. This article should've been labeled "Ten quirky stereotypes in cinema history," not "The top ten stereotypes in cinema history." It left out major examples of racial and non-racial stereotypes.

For instance, where are Stepin Fetchit and Charlie Chan? Not only is the Italian gangster missing, but also the Irish brawler/drunk, the Jewish "Shylock," the Indian brave/chief, and the Latin/Latina lover. Not to mention such non-racial stereotypes as the ditzy blonde, the flaming gay, the mad scientist, and the greedy businessman.

I see Native American stereotypes worse than these choices almost every month. For instance, the death-dealing Maya in Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto." See http://www.bluecorncomics.com/stertype.htm for more on the subject.

We Here are also offended by stereotyping in the movies. My husband is of cajun descent from New Orleans LA. and found the betrayal of Cajun people in the movie Waterboy very offensive. We doubt the actor even had a drop of Cajun blood in him.

Hey St. Frank, not that I disagree with your point (my last name has 9 letters and 4 of them are vowels), but here's five for ya:
Moonstruck
Do the Right Thing
Big Night
Jungle Fever
Mambo Italiano
The top 2 are especially rich characterizations, and, IMHO, two of the greatest movies ever made.