Stereotypes in Media

“Bringing Down the House” featuring Steve Martin and Queen Latifah is a clever comedy that creatively showcases the sociolinguistic phenomena covered in this course. The film is about a tax attorney named Peter, played by Martin, who stumbles into an online lawyer chat room and meets Charlene, played by Latifah. The two chat frequently, mostly about court cases, and eventually decide to meet in person. When the day finally comes, Peter is greeted at the door with who he thought would be a middle-aged Caucasian woman, but happened to be Charlene, a black woman who just escaped from prison. Thinking this was a mistake, Peter tries to kick out Charlene but is later convinced she is the one who he was speaking with in the chat room. Charlene was able to successfully impersonate a lawyer through speech, and along with a deceiving picture, able to convince Peter she was a petite blonde. During these chats, the two talked about court cases that happened to relate to Charlene’s predicament with the law. In attempt to clear her name from a crime she did not commit, Charlene researched the judicial system and similar court cases to hers while in prison. Now that she is out, she seeks personal assistance from Peter who has already through the internet, given her support. All throughout the movie the characters contrast in viewpoints, culture, and most importantly for our studies, language. Charlene and Peter represent different language backgrounds which we can analyze as the root of their character development and actions throughout the film.

To illustrate generational conflict, the scene when Peter confronts his daughter about her crazy night, best conveys the phenomena. In the scene Peter’s daughter sneaks out of the house late at night to attend an unsupervised party with some friends which involved drinking, smoking, and other activities that make up a parent’s worst nightmare. While at the party, the boy who accompanied her there begins to make sexual advances. Frightened and confused, Sarah calls Charlene who comes to pick her up, teach the boy a lesson, and bring her home safely. This is when Charlene tells Peter what just happened and tries to cool him down before he explodes with anger. By instinct, Peter plans to scold his daughter with an intimidating language, tone, and overall authoritarian speech. Before letting him continue his plan, Charlene suggests that to facilitate this awkward moment and encourage a better relationship with his daughter, that Peter use a more modern and relaxed speech to communicate his feelings. In attempt to do so, he uses Sarah’s language that he believes she would be more inclined to listen to. The father’s usage of the modern hip-hop language is an example of generational conflict. Implied by other clips in the movie, we conclude the father’s environment as an attorney requires him to use a more conservative language that has been more or less designated to his generation. This contrasts with the daughters modern and hip-hop language that incorporates many slang terminologies, non-standard English sentences and phrases, and a very relaxed tone. Although we see the father is able to put a couple sentences together, everything from his tone and range clearly show his inexperience to the speech. An example to showcase his failure is when he attempts to say “an he try da get al’ up in dat.” The father used the same expression but with different pronunciation. Peter says “and he tried to get all up in that,” which is clearly too formal for this speech and loses the flavor of what makes the language so authentic to the hip-hop generation. Peter and Sarah both speak standard English, but this is another example of how it can vary. Even though the two are family and from the same class, their generation gap influences the variation of English they speak.

In this clip of the film, in attempt to help clear Charlene’s name, the father drives to a club to speak with someone he knows that may confess and prove her evidence. Instead of walking into the club in the urban area with a business suit and briefcase, he instead is able to find a couple of locals and pay them for their clothes. Now, dressed as a “thug”, he enter the club with a unique walk, talk, and tone to potray to his surrounding that he is one of them. This example of crossing shows the fathers attempt to use characteristics of another group to temporarily pass