3

In US films and television, characters with a British accent are typically smart. Characters with a deep south accent are typically foolish or uneducated. And characters with a Scottish accent are typically violent. This has been going on for so long, that audiences don't think "Oh, that character is from England/the South/Scotland" anymore; we understand immediately we should expect the character to be intelligent/stupid/aggressive.

I'm wondering if other major film and television hubs (e.g. Bollywood, Korean soaps) have developed such a system and successfully instilled it in their audiences.

Note: I would imagine that the use of "rural" accents to point to low education is widespread, like the deep south accent in the US, and accents from the Yucatan and northern regions in Mexican films and television. I would like to hear about systems that go beyond this rich/poor, educated/uneducated trope (i.e. systems that routinely use more than two accents).

Improve this question
2
  • "Kill Buljo" could be an example, though there is a question about whether there's anything "major" going on there, and I'd say that "exploit" rather that "instill" would be more accurate.
    – user6726
    Jan 14, 2018 at 5:51
  • @user6726 exploit vs instill is an interesting debate. Hollywood almost certainly adopted those prejudices from society at some point in it's history (i.e. they decided to exploit them). But I personally don't know anyone from England, the southern US or Scotland, so in my case (and, I would extrapolate, in the case of recent generations) these prejudices have been instilled.
    – suckrates
    Jan 15, 2018 at 14:42

0

Reset to default

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.