Inescapable South Side Stereotypes

Ayah Wattar
Nov 4 · 3 min read

Nobody expects families living under the poverty line to be perfect, but Shameless advances the chaotic stereotype. Although the six children being portrayed are the product of drug addicted parents, they are legally cared for by a responsible sister. The actions demonstrated throughout the show sends the message that it does not matter how mature the guardian is, no one can prevent poor children from demonstrating reckless behavior.

Throughout the entire series, Carl finds new ways to rebel each day. In each season he progressively gets worse; however, these ideas are firmly established when Carl begins working for a gang in the South Side. He finds himself delivering heroine to various places, and befriending other delinquents. When he eventually gets caught, he gives the judge a snarky attitude and is sentenced to a year in prison. Despite Fiona’s best efforts to subdue Carl’s behavior before the incident, he continuously broke the law behind her back. After watching this episode, viewers will be under the impression that all poor children act as bad influences, and are a danger to society. When Carl returns from prison, his behavior has not improved. He begins selling weapons at school and earning large sums of money. Fiona tells Carl that his behavior is unacceptable, but he ignores her. Despite the motherly figure in his life, he will not be stopped from rebelling due to the environment he grew up in. This reinforces the norm that impoverished people will not be successful, especially those in the south side.

These ideals are distributed throughout the whole family, including Carl’s older sister Debbie. While she is not as keen on illegal activity as Carl, she fits a perfect stereotype when she becomes a teen mom at fifteen years old. Fiona strongly encourages her to get an abortion, but she is unwilling. She ends up regretting her decisions when she begins failing her classes and spending all hours of the night caring for her crying daughter. This further proves that even a responsible guardian cannot prevent her kids from making bad decisions and ruining their lives. It will be hard for Debbie to continue her education and begin a career, but because of the environment she grew up in, no one expects much of her anyways.

Lastly, this is demonstrated when Debbie’s older brother, Lip, gets kicked out of a world renowned university, of which he was attending on a full ride scholarship. Throughout high school, he received perfect scores on his SATs, and even took the test for his peers a few times. When he reached college, he began student teaching for one of his wise professors. As it turns out, the professor was an alcoholic and put most of his workload onto Lip. He eventually got fed up, and drunkenly decided to smash the car windows of his professors car. He gets caught and chased by the police, but his forgiving professor ends up bailing him out of jail. This sends the message that it does not matter how smart you are, if you grew up on the south side you are inherently violent. Fiona could not have seen this interaction coming, as she thought Lip would be her only sibling to obtain success. This further proves she could not have predicted or prevented the behavior he exhibited, and sends viewers the message that kids who grew up on the south side, should stay there.

Overall, this shows a negative portrayal of families living in poor neighborhoods. It makes viewers believe that if you were born in the south side, you are not destined for great things. It pulls us into the cave by neglecting to show successful people that were born in similar areas, and makes us think negatively of those who cannot afford to live in a luxurious area.

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