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  1. #1

    Do sci-fi movies create unrealistic stereotype for aliens?

    So in alot of science fiction movies aliens are portrayed as gross drooling monsters who want to kill us. I fear that this will create a dangerous stereotype for when we meet real aliens. As a culture we're heavily influenced by movies and we learn stereotypes easily from them. This could put real aliens in alot of danger when we meet them.
    Kom graun, oso na graun op. Kom folau, oso na gyon op.

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  2. #2
    Old God Mistame's Avatar
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    Haha. 7/10.

  3. #3
    You're assuming that aliens exist. The fact that nobody has heard anything - other than the so-called "Wow" signal - is called the Great Silence. And the fact that it even has a name speaks volumes.

  4. #4
    The Insane Underverse's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mayhem008 View Post
    So in alot of science fiction movies aliens are portrayed as gross drooling monsters who want to kill us. I fear that this will create a dangerous stereotype for when we meet real aliens. As a culture we're heavily influenced by movies and we learn stereotypes easily from them. This could put real aliens in alot of danger when we meet them.
    I'm sure real aliens will understand. I mean, if they have the ability to traverse the stars then they have to be pretty intelligent. If they characterized aliens as gross drooling monsters, I think we would understand, and we're pretty bigoted and judgemental.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Paperfox View Post
    You're assuming that aliens exist. The fact that nobody has heard anything - other than the so-called "Wow" signal - is called the Great Silence. And the fact that it even has a name speaks volumes.
    Maybe we're part of a wildlife preserve and signals don't reach us because we've been physically isolated by some sort of xeno tech.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Paperfox View Post
    You're assuming that aliens exist. The fact that nobody has heard anything
    Are you a Human supremacist ? Because you sound like one.

  6. #6
    I think that just as many films also make the opposite mistake, making aliens as being super-enlightened beings who are just ethically superior to humans in every way both cultural and genetic while big bad man wants to go to war. Looking at you, Avatar and District 9.

  7. #7
    What is this ?? SJW post to save Alien culture ?? WOW... this people are gone ... And I mean gone gone no help for them.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by mayhem008 View Post
    So in alot of science fiction movies aliens are portrayed as gross drooling monsters who want to kill us.
    Really? Most aliens seem to be very close to what humans are? The general form is the same, maybe with some weird colors or spikes or tatoos..

    Those "gross drooling monsters who want to kill us".. is usually low intellect or side characters.
    "Everything always changes. The best plan lasts until the first arrow leaves the bow." - Matrim Cauthon

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Paperfox View Post
    You're assuming that aliens exist.
    Woa!
    Erasure of alien culture. Not cool.

  10. #10
    Deleted
    Sure but "real aliens" are actually about as real as the "real" ghosts or the "real" killer clowns... in other words they dont exist.

    Those aliens, while entertaining in the movies are a symptom of the human condition to anthropomorphize everything, whether it be cars, bugs, toys.. weird shit in the woods.. doesn't matter.

    Also if though some miracle we actually will find them, I doubt anyone wants to crush a bunch a bacteria living in an icy rock a few hundred light years away.

  11. #11
    Whoa guys ease up, OPs just trying to keep it light.

    Sure some aliens might be drooling killers but others might be pansexual androgynous alcoholics:

    MAGA
    When all you do is WIN WIN WIN

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by mayhem008 View Post
    So in alot of science fiction movies aliens are portrayed as gross drooling monsters who want to kill us. I fear that this will create a dangerous stereotype for when we meet real aliens. As a culture we're heavily influenced by movies and we learn stereotypes easily from them. This could put real aliens in alot of danger when we meet them.
    E.T.
    Starman
    Escape to Witch Mountain
    Close Encounters of the Third Kind
    Superman
    The Cat from Outer Space
    Cocoon
    Flight of the Navigator
    batteries not included
    I am number Four
    The Explorers


    Clearly

  13. #13
    This is the most recognizable alien in sci-fi movies:



    He's a Vulcan.

    Vulcan are a humanoid race that values logic over all and have a difficulty expressing emotions. They are drawn to scientific fields of employment.

    They are basically highly functional autistics.
    Last edited by Evil Midnight Bomber; 2016-12-30 at 08:15 PM.

  14. #14
    The stereotypes are a little more complicated than that (butt probing tourists for instance) but you should note that the tropes used to make scary aliens in movies are playing on natural instincts, ie. they are based on things that nature can throw at you anyway. In those instances you're essentially watching horror movies, not sci-fi
    (eg. Species (1995) is not a scientific contemplation of cross species mating), but you could open up your view a bit further. Will Cocoon be used to manipulate OAPs into giving their bodies to aliens? Is ET a propaganda video to lure children into trusting poop aliens?

  15. #15
    Mechagnome
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    Quote Originally Posted by Paperfox View Post
    You're assuming that aliens exist. The fact that nobody has heard anything - other than the so-called "Wow" signal - is called the Great Silence. And the fact that it even has a name speaks volumes.
    Went down to the ocean, filled a cup with water. No whales in the cup, what happened to all the whales in the ocean?
    Anything worth doing is worth over-doing. Moderation's for cowards.

  16. #16
    No doubt that media affects our stereotyping behavior. You need only look to ourselves, how we stereotype people who are different. Hopefully though, if something capable of interstellar travel came here I would think that they would need to be intelligent and thus able to forgive and see through our faults.
    "In order to maintain a tolerant society, the society must be intolerant of intolerance." Paradox of tolerance

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by Quetzl View Post
    Maybe we're part of a wildlife preserve in the Matrix and signals don't reach us because we've been physically isolated by some sort of xeno tech not been rescued by Neo.
    I entirely agree.

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Sicari View Post
    This is the most recognizable alien in sci-fi movies:



    He's a Vulcan.

    Vulcan are a humanoid race that values logic over all and have a difficulty expressing emotions. They are drawn to scientific fields of employment.

    They are basically highly functional autistics.
    These are equally as recognizable.

    Kom graun, oso na graun op. Kom folau, oso na gyon op.

    #IStandWithGinaCarano

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by mayhem008 View Post
    These are equally as recognizable.

    So is this guy:



    And this guy:


  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Sicari View Post
    So is this guy:



    And this guy:

    Just saying as a species we focus on the bad way more than we focus on the good.



    Kom graun, oso na graun op. Kom folau, oso na gyon op.

    #IStandWithGinaCarano

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