Has TV Changed Your Opinions on Stereotypes?

Tweet

I wasn't sure what to use as a title for this discussion because it's hard to sum up what I'm thinking with a few catchy words! I was wondering if you've ever found yourself changing your opinion or at least becoming a little less rigid and more open-minded about different types of people because of the way they're portrayed on TV and in movies. For example, The Sopranos was a huge hit show and although we all knew Tony and his pals were no-good ruthless criminals who "whacked" someone as regularly as most men shave but didn't you have a bit of a soft spot for Tony none the less? And the show Big Love portrays a man with three wives and their collective children - polygamy is wrong and thankfully illegal, but don't you find yourself actually LIKING Bill and his families? Heck sure they've all got their flaws but they're NICE people, aren't they? And we've all seen the "hooker with a heart of gold" stories. If you saw Pretty Woman how could you NOT be totally enchanted with Vivian as portrayed by Julia Roberts and be totally rooting for her to get her fairytale ending? Who really even thought about what she'd been doing for a living? What I'm asking - I guess - is while we know some things are just plain wrong to different degrees and we surely wouldn't condone them in "real life", does seeing these fictional characters maybe soften your opinion of their off-screen counterparts, making you see there is good along with the bad in most people? Annie