Unit C Blog #13

Britton's comment on the stereotype of a prison guard in the popular media is a reflection of what people see in movies. A large burly man who would be willing to fight if the need came up. In reality correction officers as well as prison guards are as diverse as can be. A woman may have been considered non traditional in the role of a prison guard in the past but now things have changed. I personally have experienced the diversity of these types of guards firsthand, and the mix of women and men was as close to 50/50 as I have seen. There was nothing really traditional about anything physically involving the officers. There were fat officers, skinny officers, tall ones, short ones, men, women. The mix was fairly even. The reason that the diversity is not so common knowledge is because of the way that the media generalizes and stereotypes the idea of corrections officers to the general public. Like Britton said, when people think of these positions they think what the media has trained them to think, professional wrestling type men with short fuses who can rough up the inmates.

When people think of women in these positions, at least in the past, the media has led them to believe that the women in this field are muscular women with short hair and short fuses as well. Often times they are portrayed as lesbians and very manly. The media needs to do a better job of fairly representing the work force in physical labor fields because they way they represent these things now leads people to believe that these stereotypes should be appreciated, and that certain genders do not belong in certain fields.