Kory Floyd discusses the topic of Interpersonal Perception in chapter 4 of Interpersonal Communications, where she discusses what interpersonal perception is, how to identity it, the stages of perception making, and looking at the influencing factors that determine the accuracy of our perceptions of others. (Floyd 2008) Section two of this chapter highlights “the seven fundamental forces that affect our perceptions” (p. 116) and one that really sticks out in the show Modern Family is stereotypes. Floyd defines stereotypes as “generalizations about groups of people that are applied to individual members of those groups.” (p. 116) For example, the two gay men in the show, Mitchell and Cam have character traits that quite often portray the stereotypical gay man. This stereotype is usually interpreted as gay men being more feminine, loving fashion and dressing well, and being more emotional. However, in Season 2, episode 21, Mitch and Cam talk about how, because they are a gay couple with a child that their female friends, who are usually mothers tend to treat them as if they are women. They rant about how they are not women, and they hate when people stereotype them as that. They say “There’s nothing gays hate more than when women treat us like women. We’re not! We don’t want to go to your baby shower. We don’t have a time of the month. We don’t love pink!” (Lloyd, Levitan, 2011) This is just one example of when Mitch and Cam are perceived a certain way based on a preconceived stereotype. Another example from this episode is when Mitch and Cam are celebrating Mother’s Day. Mitch serves Cam breakfast in bed, and wishes him a “Happy Mother’s Day”, but Cam takes this gesture as Mitch viewing him as a woman, though Mitch denies that assumption. From then on, Cam is treated as a woman when he is roped into taking a group photo with all of the moms he is friends with. This frustrates Cam even more, to the point where he throws a football to show his “manliness” and ends up hitting an old man on a bike. Mitch calms Cam down, and reminds him that just because he is a sweet and nurturing father doesn’t mean he is any less of a man. (Lloyd, Levitan, 2011) These two examples show just how much a person’s perception of others, especially ones based on a stereotype can influence how they treat others, and how that treatment will affect said person.
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