THE OFFICE
The Office is
a popular American television show that started in 2005 and has aired 187
episodes through present day (Imdb: The Office, 2013). The Office is
based on a 2001 show of the same title from the BBC network. Both The Office
and its British counterpart were created and are produced by Ricky Gervais and
Stephen Merchant, adding Greg Daniels to that combination for the American
series (2013). The series chronicles a cast of office co-workers from the
northeastern Pennsylvania paper company, Dunder-Mifflin, led by the caring yet
ignorantly insensitive office manager, Michael Scott. The insensitivities of
Michael Scott towards age, sex, race, religion and every other characteristic
of human personalities coupled with the antics of other office co-workers,
specifically Dwight Schrute’s old-timey views about traditional gender roles,
create an atmosphere in which no stereotype is out of bounds.
DIVERSITY DAY
The
show set the standard for its loose and edgy portrayal of stereotypes as soon
as Season 1: Episode 2, “Diversity Day”. In the episode, Michael Scott drew
complaints from members of the staff about his reenactment of a racially
insensitive Chris Rock comedy routine, prompting Dunder-Mifflin corporate to
send in a counselor. Many stereotypes are unveiled during the various trainings
that the office co-workers are put through that day. For one activity, each
co-worker is to wear an index card on their forehead displaying a race and the
other participants in the activity are directed to treat that person like the
stereotypes of the race on the index card. At one point, a participant
approached Dwight and says that he would be a bad driver, stereotyping him as
an Asian, as his index card describes him. Dwight became irate, ripping the
card from his forehead and exclaimed “Oh man, am I a WOMAN??”. The talented
writing crew for The Office even found a way to include a gender stereotype in
an exercise designed to explore the stereotypes of race, which this episode
successfully does many times, calling all Jamaicans lazy and marijuana smokers,
all Italians heavy eaters, and all Jewish people greedy. (“Diversity Day”,
2005)
The
gender stereotype addressed in “Diversity Day” that men are better navigators
than women is a popular stereotype of both current and historical popular
culture. Men have always dominated the transit industries, holding the majority
of pilot, taxi, trucking, and engineer careers. The development of this
stereotype through time may come, not simply because it is true, but because it
is true given traffic and navigation systems being configured the way they are.
Studies have shown that men have better spatial reasoning and navigate better
using geometry or a combination of geometry and landscapes, while women
navigate better than men using only landscapes (Rosenthal et al, 2012). However,
navigation systems are set up to rely on geometrical coordinates, such as
longitude, latitude, street names, and the typical NSEW directions, not “the
big oak tree on the corner” or “bear right at the Walgreens”. Therefore, the
navigation systems that cater to the strengths of male navigation have created
a stereotype that men are just better navigators in general, rather than saying
the men are better navigators in given conditions.
Another
stereotype displayed in “Diversity Day” was that all Italians are heavy eaters.
Italian cuisine can be seen everywhere in America. So it is no surprise that
the cuisine and the people behind it (Italians) make their way into mainstream
media, which is the way that many stereotypes seem to be spread in modern
popular culture. Italians are often depicted as either having ties to the
mafia, an Italian eatery, or both in big-hit movies/shows such as Goodfellas,
The Godfather, and The Sopranos. Either way, a large mass of viewers across the
globe view the work and see close to every Italian male in the movie as being
an overweight eater of everything in sight and the women as traditional, homemaker-type
women, that offer food to everyone that visits.
FINAL THOUGHT
These
examples are just a few of many stereotypes that The Office makes light of every week in all nine seasons of airing.
Hopefully, the fact that we have shows like this to humor-ize the stereotypes
and allow more conversation about their ridiculousness will open the minds of
viewers and allow for more free thought of the subjects, rather than adhering
to the absurdities that are stereotypes.
REFERENCES
Diversity day [Television series episode]. (2005).
In Lieberstein, P. (Executive Producer), The Office. Los Angeles:
Reveille Productions. Retrieved from Netflix.com
Rosenthal,
H., Norman, L., Smith, S., & McGregor, A. (2012). Gender-Based Navigation
Stereotype Improves Men's Search for a Hidden Goal. Sex Roles, 67(11/12),
682-695. doi:10.1007/s11199-012-0205-8
