A counter-stereotype, reverse stereotype, or anti-stereotype is the reverse of a stereotype. Although counter-stereotypes arise in opposition to stereotypes, they may eventually become stereotypes themselves if they are too popular.
Spike Lee popularized the term magical negro, deriding the archetype of the “super-duper magical negro” in 2001 while discussing films with students at Washington State University and at Yale University.
Examples
- American popular literature in the 19th century contained stereotypical images of Black people as grotesque and servile. In protest, a counter-stereotype arose which showed Black people as graceful and wise.
- In the USA during the 1970s, in response to feminist criticism, advertising agencies chose to display counter-stereotypical images of women as sexually assertive and intellectual.
- In comic books, when the superhero began in the 1930s, he was an invulnerable, unalterably benevolent figure. However, a desire for increased dramatic potential led to a move away from this stereotypical character, until in the 1980s and 1990s, the counterstereotypical angst-ridden anti-hero had become so popular as to constitute a new stereotype.
- Michael Moorcock’s character Elric of Melniboné—a tormented, sickly albino sorcerer with a demonic sword and a sizeable evil streak—was intended to be the polar opposite of the typical fantasy heroes of the time, who were almost universally muscular, Conan-like figures. As in the above example, Elric’s success was such that he inspired an explosion of similar characters in popular fiction.
- Scott Adam’s Dilbert featured a character called “Antina”, created in response to allegations that Tina the Brittle Tech Writer was too stereotypical. Antina was, of course, considered to be too stereotypical.
- The noble savage myth, used by supporters or admirers of indigenous peoples, is the opposite of the usual stereotypes implied by the word “savage”.