Media Myths: 30 Things People Believe Are Incorrectly Portrayed As Stigmatized
Interview
People around the world are suspicious about the information that reaches them. For example, the 32% of Americans who say they trust the mass media "a great deal" or "a fair amount" to cover the news fully and accurately ties Gallup's lowest historical reading, previously recorded in 2016.
Another 29% of American adults have "not very much" trust, while a record-high 39% register "none at all." The latest figure is the highest in Gallup's five-decade history of tracking these metrics by one percentage point and 12 points higher than the 2016 number, which came amid sharp criticism of the media from then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, making the current assessment the grimmest we've seen.
Image credits: stefan_reevezsky
However, many believe the situation isn't that much better even if we take a step away from reporting. Last week, Reddit user Stefan_Reevezsky asked others on the platform "What things are claimed to be 'stigmatized' in [the] media, but actually aren't in society?" and folks have thought of plenty.
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Boomers, hands down
The vast majority of boomers are sweet elderly people who are nice to talk to. Not racist caricatures that spout nonsense all the time.
In America, the boomers gave us civil rights. A lot of them were shipped off to war in Vietnam against their will. Every generation faces its own challenges. The boomers had their share.
Doing stuff by yourself. Some people here get almost hysterical when they describe eating at a restaurant or seeing a movie by yourself. I guarantee you that if you’re behaving normally, no one else gives the tiniest of s**ts if you went out by yourself.
We got in touch with the author of the post, and they were kind enough to tell us more about it. "I had this question come to mind while I was developing the storyline for a detective novel I'm planning to write," Stefan_Reevezsky explained to Bored Panda. "The protagonist in my story faces trial based on allegations concocted by a third-party journalist investigator."
The Redditor elaborated on their thought process, saying, "As I was brainstorming, the word 'stigma' popped up frequently, leading me to realize that many things portrayed as 'unacceptable' in popular media are actually mundane in real society."
Blue-collared jobs sometimes are looked down upon in media, but in reality, skilled trades are often in high demand and well-respected.
I worked in IT for 16 years of struggle. It was bad for my body (ten hours a day in a chair hunched over a keyboard isn’t great on you) it was bad for my mental health mostly because the industry is always in flux. Layoffs are common, policy changes daily and when the company loses 10% stock value it’s do more with no resources and no days off. In 16 years I was with 6 different companies. I was only fired once (quite quit type of thing, I didn’t care anymore and was just calling out sick to interview other places because they wouldn’t approve pto anymore without a month of notice) the rest I was laid off, restructured. I work a pretty blue collar job now and I make more. Get to be outside all day and I could honestly make it through months never seeing my boss if I don’t want to ( my boss is cool tho too.) it took a few years to advance to the money I made in it but now I’m doing better and I’m on track for a good retirement because now I have not just a 401k but a pension too.
"Take tattoos or piercings, for example. Despite articles claiming they're stigmatized, there's a mainstream culture around them, and most people outside of it simply don't care, except for certain workplace norms," the Reddit user said.
"The same goes for being gay, short, a single mother, a blue-collar worker, or dealing with depression or other mental health issues."
Maybe wanting to stay single. Media portrays it as a desperate cry for love, but in reality, it's pretty liberating!
This one for sure. I was constantly seeking a relationship. It wasn’t until I spent a few years singing and being introspective about why my relationships failed that I was actually ready to be in a relationship. I’ve been married for 15 years now. I couldn’t make a relationship last 15 weeks prior. Do you and you might actually find someone who fits you.
Slightly niche perhaps, but my kids always had trouble buying Fathers Day cards for me because I didn't spend my evenings down the pub, fish or play golf.
Stefan_Reevezsky tried to find similar threads on Reddit but they couldn't, so they decided to just post the question themselves and see what everyone thinks.
The responses were diverse, but from that the author of the post has gathered, "Western media tends to portray many things as stigmatized because people, especially young ones, seek reassurance by finding 'dragons to slay.'"
I have to say wearing glasses and having braces. No one called me four eyes. No one called me tinsel teeth. Believe me, I was made fun of as a kid, but those weren’t the reasons.
I was in 6th grade (11-12 years old) when I got my first pair of glasses. I go to school the next day, fully expecting to be called 'four eyes' but the boy who sat in front of me told me the glasses made me look very sophisticated. Made my day. Made the whole year.
Not wearing makeup. The media and Internet are full of all the pressure to wear makeup but I work with HUNDREDS of women and maybe a third of us sometimes wear lipstick or eyeliner? I can count on one hand the ones who wear foundation. Nobody says anything. Even the college president was barefaced giving a plenary speech and at commencement. There's no stigma for me wearing some color when I feel like it either. It's just not relevant to anyone's interests.
I have better things to do with my time and money than waste it on make up. If you enjoy it, then fabulous, keep on with it. Do whatever makes you happy.
"What better dragon than a stigma surrounding something you identify with or enjoy? It fits into our heavily labeled culture, where fighting for a label becomes a narrative akin to classic Hollywood underdog stories. People who lack substantial identity often cling to these labels, supporting media that reinforces their perceived battles," the Redditor added.
"It struck me as odd that no one had posed this question before, considering the multitude of responses I received. Perhaps it's because admitting that some stigmas don't exist is itself stigmatized."
Karens. Hear me out!! It went from being a thing of recording and judging actually rude and often racist women who complain just to complain. But as more videos popped up, people are recording and sensationalizing situations where if you were in her shoes, you'd be mad too! Karen isn't synonymous with "old lady you find annoying".
I have several friends named Karen who are lovely and this trope irritates me.
Being Average looking, it seems like social media loves to see *supermodel like people* and forget that most of the public is average and or unattractive sometimes, and that's alright. I like that there are more people on social media that are vocalizing this issue and letting us know that normal is ok, Flawed is ok. ( No shade to attractive people, they're beautiful and everyone loves to look at them but my point is they are not the only ones that exist).
I have problems telling faces apart so I love people with unusual features.
There was a study where researchers analyzed 41 movies that had been released between 1990 and 2010 for depictions of schizophrenia. Based on the findings of the analysis, they drew several conclusions, including:
- Most of the characters displayed "positive" symptoms of schizophrenia, with delusions being featured most frequently, followed by auditory and visual hallucinations;
- The majority of characters displayed violent behavior toward themselves or others;
- Nearly one-third of violent characters engaged in homicidal behavior;
- About one-fourth of the characters committed suicide;
- The cause of schizophrenia was infrequently noted. However, in about one-fourth of the movies it was implied that a traumatic life event for the character had been a significant factor;
- Of the movies that alluded to or showed mental illness treatment, psychotropic medications were most commonly portrayed.
Other studies have also discovered that 75% of depictions of mental illness in popular video games are negative or stereotyped.
Enjoying pineapple on pizza. It's the secret handshake of the culinary brave.
I never understood this one. It's not like someone is forcing people to eat Hawaiian pizza, so what's the deal if someone likes it?
Couples with very different attractiveness. Happens all the time irl and nobody actually says stuff.
These portrayals are not only incorrect but damaging because they spread myths about mental Illness. Schizophrenia is often painted with symptoms such as visual hallucinations, bizarre delusions, and disorganized speech, and they're presented as if they're commonplace. In reality, however, symptoms like decreased motivation, poverty of speech, and flat affect are more common. And this is just one example of how media portrayals can threaten to (re)shape societal perceptions and contribute to harmful stereotypes.
Going to college when you're older..theres tins of adults over 35 trying to reinvent themselves..theres even an old guy who made school a lifelong career.
My oldest classmate in uni was 88. She was lovely and just wanted to get a bachelor in Philosophy.
Being short (as a man). Especially online, people have made such a mountain out of this particular molehill over the last few years. I've never met a woman who strictly dates men 6' and up, and my short mates get plenty of action.
The most important thing to me is to be just a cool person, I don't care about the height!
Recent trend seems to be the “blue bubble/green bubble” debate with iPhones and Androids. People apparently HATE green bubbles and refuse to communicate with anyone if they have to send green bubble text messages.
Have not met a single soul in person or even online who gives a s**t.
Inlaws, most people I know get on pretty well with their inlaws.
Everything.
The media likes to blow things well out of proportion to get a good story for people to follow and talk about.
Most of the time, it's because of the media that many big problems are as "big" as they are.
I've gotten completly off of TV news for this reason. I check the print headlines each day and read a couple articles on the main actual news events of the day and then move on with my life. I'm done mentally participating in the constant generated outrage.
Dads going to parks alone with their children.
Since when has this been stigmatised? I used to do this all the time with my daughter, and there were often other dads with their kids. No one ever took the slightest bit of notice.
High school stereotypes, they scared the s**t out of me until I got to high school.
I'm German, but I participated in a school exchange with a school in Texas. I knew all the stereotypes from the movies, but the real thing was nothing like it. My pal had a diverse friend group that included "popular" types and nerds alike, just like peole with different ethnicities and backgrounds.
There are a lot of posts here saying "Normalize eating out/getting coffee/seeing a movie alone."
Seriously, no one cares. Do those things, they are normal.
Being a nerd. Yeah nerdiness might get you bullied in school depending, but a lot of nerd culture has just become part of...well, culture. I find this most annoying with elder millennials who still act like they're some sort of oppressed elite because the dare to like Mario.
Having freckles. When the fake freckles makeup trend was taking off, tons of people came out of the woodwork to complain about how “unfair” it was that they got teased for having freckles and now it’s a trend. I’m sorry, but unless you were physically and socially perfect in the eyes of your peers in elementary school, you probably got bullied for something arbitrary. For me, it was my big ears. I’m not going to sit here and whine about people stretching their ears and making them bigger. It’s such a fake problem.
Nuclear power has been stigmatized by the environmentalists and now guess what… it appears to be reliable, very cost effective and to date the safest form of energy.
Anything that produces tons of radioactive waste that won't deteriorate for centuries is not safe.
(Celebs) being gay (in western europe)
Most of us don't give a s**t.
Not wanting to have kids. Besides direct family members(which I mean, kinda makes sense why your parents and grandparents might want you to have kids of your own), it seems like the stigma of not wanting kids is extremely overblown. I tend to see WAY more posts and media about people feeling special/rebellious for not wanting kids than I ever see for others demanding that people have children outside of fringe alt-right types, and they tend to only want "certain people" to have more kids.
The "no kids forever" crowd seem to be like inverted vegans, they actually do bring it up all the time and act as if they are hated for their choice when in reality the vast majority of people don't care or see the benefits of said choice.
Discussing mental illness. "X illness is taboo to talk about. We need to talk more about X." It isn't taboo and in fact it's now trendy to wear your particular flair of mental illness with pride.
It's obviously OK to talk about mental illness in an appropriate context, but there should be the same boundaries as talking about physical illness. You don't go up to someone and say, "Hi, I have diabetes."
Voting for the other party.
I blame the news for the political divide.
Wearing socks with sandals—media might mock it, but let's be real, comfort is always in style, even if it's not runway-ready!
Media acts like the internet is just cyberbullying, predators, scams, and dangerous/illegal Tik Tok trends.
They also act like a 12yo playing GTA is suddenly gonna want to actually steal cars and shoot people.
Internet is a tool. Every tool has its inherent dangers. You wouldn't let a kid play alone with a drill or a power saw.
Note: this post originally had 50 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
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I don't want to sound presumptuous, but I feel like a lot of these are just written by people who are privileged enough to not have to deal with judgement for xyz on a daily basis. Saying that the united states isn't racist, that s**t shaming doesn't exist. There are some insane takes in this thread.
Some of them toe the line between "this genuinely almost never happens, the media exaggerates it" and "this has never happened to ME and therefore the media is wrong about it ever happening".
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Dermatologists are fighting like crazy to stigmatize freckles, or as they call them, "melanized epidermal lesions" or something crazy like that. They're balanced out by advertisers who practically fetishize them.
And people have been blessed with them for THOUSANDS of years and (to my knowledge) never had their heads fall off due to them.
Load More Replies... I don't want to sound presumptuous, but I feel like a lot of these are just written by people who are privileged enough to not have to deal with judgement for xyz on a daily basis. Saying that the united states isn't racist, that s**t shaming doesn't exist. There are some insane takes in this thread.
Some of them toe the line between "this genuinely almost never happens, the media exaggerates it" and "this has never happened to ME and therefore the media is wrong about it ever happening".
Load More Replies... Dermatologists are fighting like crazy to stigmatize freckles, or as they call them, "melanized epidermal lesions" or something crazy like that. They're balanced out by advertisers who practically fetishize them.
And people have been blessed with them for THOUSANDS of years and (to my knowledge) never had their heads fall off due to them.
Load More Replies...