Sexuality Stereotypes
One of the main characters in Honky, Andie Chastain, is a young woman whose behavior reflects multiple stereotypes linked with sexuality (Kalleres, 2014). Today, social media researchers are concerned about the harmful stereotype, according to which women tend to lie about rape or sexual harassment (Stabile et al., 2019). Unfortunately, Honky supports this stereotype, which is clear from Andie’s behaviors in scene four. When doing her stretching exercises, Andie discusses her parents’ friend referred to as Mr. Brennan. Then, she suddenly says, “I’m pretty sure I have a repressed memory of Mr. Brennan touching me as a kid” (Kalleres, 2014, p. 14). From her monologue, it becomes clear that she has no evidence against the man but does not mind casting suspicions on him. Although Honky is a satirical play, this representation might distort people’s perceptions of the trustworthiness of sex crime victims and strengthen the idea that false rape and child molesting accusations are extremely common.
Race Stereotypes
Honky is a contemporary satirical play that covers a range of social issues, including communication in racially diverse societies and white people’s fear of being called racists. Andie Chastain from Honky is a white woman whose behaviors sometimes support stereotypes about white people. An example of such stereotypes is that white people misunderstand the systemic nature of inequality in resource distribution (Case & Rios, 2017). In one of the scenes, Andie’s dialogue with her fiancé Peter about white privilege demonstrates that her ideas align with the previously mentioned stereotypical opinion. For instance, in the scene titled “You are so white,” Andie openly rejects the idea of white guilt and does not agree that her race has anything to deal with her current financial position and opportunities in life (Robinson, 2015). Concerning this representation’s potential impact, it might reinforce negative ideas about ignorant privileged people. On the other hand, the scene mocks white people that blame all representatives of their race for any issues faced by people of color.
References
Kalleres, G. (2014). Honky. Dramatists Play Service Inc.
Stabile, B., Grant, A., Purohit, H., & Rama, M. (2019). “She lied”: Social construction, rape myth prevalence in social media, and sexual assault policy. Sexuality, Gender & Policy, 2(2), 80-96.
Case, K. A., & Rios, D. (2017). Educational interventions to raise awareness of white privilege. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 28(1), 137-156.
Robinson, J. (2015). ONSTAGE IN AMERICA: Honky. KPBS.