After noticing patterns over the years, I created this list with 13 points to score the level of stereotypes about sharks present in a work. I believe that most of these stereotypes have their main origin in the film Jaws (1975).
With the scarcity of works that explore other creative approaches to sharks, beyond the “man-eating ” narrative, Jaws ended up consolidating itself as the greatest source of inspiration and creative reference for many productions to this day. This was called “The Jaws Effect”. 🩸🦈
I've noticed that certain patterns in the creative world repeat themselves to the point of being tedious, which bothers me. Not because they're bad, but because in many cases they're harmful. With these points, I hope to show sharks in a new light.
🩸1 - Great White Shark
Popularized by the Jaws movie, the Great white shark has become the dominant archetype in the representation of sharks in fiction. Often, works choose to use this shark or a generic gray version of imprecise anatomy, with no defined species. However, there are over 400 species of shark, and very few are explored creatively.
🩸2 - Man-eater
The persistent idea that sharks have humans as a natural part of their diet is one of the most widespread stereotypes. Although there are reports of incidents, most attacks are isolated and often by mistake. Any animal, including humans, could turn to unexpected sources of food in a situation of desperation or starvation.
🩸3 - Forced Behavior
It's common to see sharks portrayed with distorted or exaggerated behaviors that don't match their nature just to cause tension, such as:
Hunting small fish, ignoring the fact that sharks avoid expending energy on low-energy prey.
Abandoning easy prey just to arbitrarily chase the protagonist.
Going crazy at the smell of blood.
Showing a wild and constant hunger.
Obsessively pursuing a single prey.
Making aggressive shark species known for being peaceful or timid.
Attacking and destroying objects, structures or vessels with disproportionate fury just to reach someone.
🩸4 - Monstrous appearance
It's common to see sharks' appearance exaggerated to intensify visual fear, making them look like monsters rather than real animals:
A gaping mouth, with huge, crooked teeth that are constantly stained with blood.
Menacing, demonic red, black empty and soulless eyes.
Body covered in grotesque scars, exposed wounds and even weapons embedded in the skin.
A disproportionate figure, with pointed shapes, a swollen or deformed body.
Bizarre mutations that completely alter their anatomy.
Technological modifications to make them more weapon-like, emphasizing the idea of the "Killing Machine".
🩸5 - Shark de-characterization
Especially in children's works, in order to be accepted by the public or the other characters in the plot, the shark is often forced to change its identity. It is transformed into a “domesticated” version, such as:
Becoming a vegetarian or a toothless shark, losing its ecological role as a predator.
Taking on exaggeratedly “funny” behavior, becoming a caricature.
Having its behavior and appearance altered to look more like a dolphin or other friendly shape, excluding striking features such as prominent fins, visible gills or a fusiform snout.
Choose to portray a specific species of shark because it seems more “friendly” to the public, such as the whale shark.
🩸6 - Limited Nature
The representation of sharks in fiction is usually limited to sensationalist aspects, such as the power of their bite, the old phrase that they "smell a drop of blood in 2 million liters of water", or things like "killers from the womb".
However, sharks have some very interesting characteristics that are little explored creatively:
Acute hearing, capable of picking up sounds more than a kilometer away in the ocean.
Their electroreception, which allows them to perceive tiny electrical impulses emitted by living prey and even sense the electromagnetic field around them.
Possible link between their migrations and the lunar phases.
Incredible healing capacity and immune resistance.
Skin made up of denticles made of the same material as our teeth.
They constantly change their teeth.
Longevity and they never stop growing.
Many fish such as rémoras and pilot fish depend on and live alongside sharks.
Sensitive to pressure changes and can even predict hurricanes and tropical storms.
🩸7 - Red Presence
Striking presence of red, either with the presence of blood or the color present in the design. This emphasis on red reinforces the shark's direct association with violence, danger and death, contributing to the construction of the “bloodthirsty monster” stereotype.
🩸8 - Dark Music
It is common for sharks to be associated with tense, dark and threatening soundtracks whenever they appear on the scene. More often than not, I notice that when sharks are mentioned in song lyrics, it is to express some sort of comparison to some negative stereotype.
🩸9 - Threatening setting
Scenarios with sharks are almost always represented in a gloomy, dark, desaturated way, empty of marine life. The environment is treated as a dangerous place by nature, shipwrecks, dark caves, areas full of garbage, explosive mines or the inhospitable depths of the sea
🩸10 - Masculinization
The theme involving sharks has always been very masculine. Shark characters are rarely female, while the human characters who interact with these animals, scientists, hunters, divers or specialists, are almost always white men. Women and minorities almost never occupy central or specialized roles in these narratives.
🩸11 - Villainization
Sharks are often portrayed as villains by default, carrying negative and caricatured stereotypes, for example:
Aggressor or school bully
Brutish idiot or dumb henchman
Corrupt politician or authoritarian fascist figure
Indomitable monster or irrational beast
Recurring enemy, obstacle or final boss in video games
🩸12 - Objectification
Sharks are often treated as mere resources or utilitarian objects in fiction. They are represented as trophies, rewards, collectibles or consumables, as if they existed only to be hunted, exhibited or eaten.
This objectification also appears in the constant presence of jaws decorating environments, teeth used as accessories, fins amputated as an ingredient, and in the display of the animal's body in a morbid way: corpses exposed, parts dissected or being devoured by other creatures.
🩸13 - Death
As if it weren't enough to have become a symbol of death incarnate, even in animations aimed at children, sharks almost always have the same fate: death. What's worse, their death is usually celebrated as a relief or a victory.
Impaled, butchered, set on fire, crushed, blown up, fished out or killed by another "heroic" creature, tossed about by hurricanes… In many cases, these scenes are treated with humor or graphic exaggeration, turning the destruction of the shark into a spectacle.
I was unsure about publishing this list as it is just personal observations from someone who loves sharks. A few people asked me for this list and said it would be worth posting, don't take it too seriously.
These stereotypes are not necessarily bad or invalid, after all, we are talking about works of fantasy and fiction. However, they could be resignified through new creative ideas that arouse feelings other than fear and terror.
Although many people's passion for sharks arose precisely from movies like Jaws and the stereotypes it popularized, it's important to remember that these same elements have been repeated almost unchanged for decades. This exhaustive repetition was largely because it was profitable, turning sharks into yet another victim of entertainment capitalism. Over time, this type of representation ended up distancing ordinary people from the reality of these animals, reinforcing fear rather than curiosity. Nowadays things are a little better, but not better enough.
The reality of sharks goes far beyond that. They are mysterious and fascinating animals, older than the first trees or dinosaurs. They have survived five mass extinctions, incredibly adapted from the abyssal depths to mangroves and freshwater rivers. They have unique senses and behaviors that are still shrouded in mystery, as well as a biology so singular that it inspires advances in science and technology. For many ancient cultures, sharks are revered as true gods of ocean balance.
I dare say that by looking after the health of the seas for millions of years, sharks made it possible for our own species to emerge from the depths of the primordial ocean. They are, in a way, guardians of our cradle of origin. And so we owe them a great deal of respect and preserve them at all costs.
To date, no creative work has managed to surpass “Jaws”. Who will be creative enough to create a new work and transform the collective imaginary of sharks from fear to fascination? 🦈✨
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