Escaping the media and their influence is impossible. Everywhere one turns, a different form of the media is conveying a message to the world about what normalcy is and/or should be. As Douglas Kellner, author of "Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism and Media Culture" writes, they "provide materials out of which we forge our very identities, our sense of selfhood; our notion of what it means to be male or female; our sense of class, of ethnicity and race, of nationality, of sexuality" (Kellner 5). It is a proven fact that watching television is America's leisure activity of choice (Harris 1), therefore, these images are very often seen by the American people. MTV, Nickelodeon, HBO, Comedy Central, ABC, these stations and many more, offer programs that include stereotypes of some sort. More often than not, these stereotypes have negative connotations attached.
             The term "dominant ideologies" is used in Kellner's article to describe the ideologies that make "inequalities and subordination appear natural and just and thus induce consent to relations of domination" (Kellner 7). For example, in the popular HBO sitcom, Sex in the City, the main characters are all white, mid-upper class females. This show has increasingly high ratings, yet the characters mainly all fit the stereotypical "white female" ideals. It seems as though the media are trying to change this trend by adding more African American based sitcoms, though the ratings do not seem to equal or compete with the already existing White based shows. Seinfeld, Friends, Frasier, Caroline in the City, Alley McBeal, all of these shows hold the prime time spots, yet seem to portray mainly white, mid-upper class characters.
             Another example of dominant ideologies seen in television made headlines several years ago when a gay woman, who was the star of her sitcom, wanted to include her sexuality in
             ...