Digital Literacies Activity 3: Stereotypes Kevin Cummins

What is a Stereotype?  A Stereotype is a preconceived idea or assumption we have about a character. We have built up these assumptions from films, books, games and any form of media that we have previously seen these characters in.

For Example  Without looking at any pictures what are the stereotypes we have built up about princesses. Fill in the table below Princess Sounds Like Looks Like Lives in Acts Like Most Pirates…

Using and Challenging Stereotypes  Stereotypes save us time in developing an understanding of a character and give us the opportunity to better focus on what is happening in the story.  However… Stereotypes often work best when they are challenged and turned on their heads.  This can only happen when you have an audience that already understands the stereotypes of the characters.

Challenging Stereotypes. Princess Fiona – From Shrek is a fighting, farting, level headed Princess with attitude who can’t rely on her good looks to get ahead in life. But we all enjoy the fact that she challenges us to think about princesses differently and is a very likeable character who has a prince charming of her own. Cinderella ticks all the boxes of a stereotypical princess. Beautiful, immaculately dressed at all times, well spoken and very naïve to the world around her. Her mission in life is very predictable – to meet her prince charming and be swept off her feet to live a life of luxury.

Your first Task – Making a Scene Using this learning object you will learn about how and why advertisers select stereotypical characters, sidekicks, settings, sounds and music to make sure they engage their target audience. Then you have the opportunity to put what you have learned into practice.this This activity should take around 20 mins to complete.

Your Second Task  You are to select three of the following stereotypes to find a character that both fits the stereotype very closely and someone who does not fit the stereotype at all.  Villain  Hero  Princess or Prince  Pirate  Scientist  Robot, Monster or Alien

Second task Continued  The second part of this task is to create a PowerPoint (or similar) presentation explaining two examples of each stereotype and why they fit and break the stereotype.  There is an example on the next page.

Monsters Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was a horrible creature with disgusting features who fitted all the stereotypes of a monster. He scared people, was dangerous to others who had little to no personality and was even created by a mad scientist. Mike and Sulley from Monster’s Inc. broke all the stereotypes of a monster because they loved little kids, were playful and funny and really seemed like a lot of fun to be around. They may have looked like monsters but that is about it. Above all they didn’t want to be mean and scary.

Further Reading  Please visit for hundreds of free teaching ideas.