A tabloid is a newspaper that is almost half the size of a newspaper containing sensational matters with many photographs in a sensational style. The newspaper is highly illustrated to attract the readers’ eye as many of them concentrates on daily life matters. Some stories in the tabloids are heartbreaking due to the sufferings that women, minorities and the mentally and physically challenged people go through. Tabloids contain stories on matters concerning the attitudes towards women, minorities, and physically or mentally challenged such as discrimination, stereotyping, sexual, and physical abuse.

Stereotyping is very common in several communities especially towards women, minorities, physically or mentally challenged. As expressed in many tabloids, there are issues concerning attitudes towards persons and groups ‘cultures, the way of life, and their capabilities. Some myths and misconceptions about the minorities and the mentally or physically challenged persons are simply the stereotypes. People and to place people with disabilities, women, and the minorities in categories that undermine their natural capacities. For instance, notions such as people with disabilities are different from other human beings and are limited are issues of stereotyping. Some communities simply categorize to such person as others and that any successful handicapped person or woman is superhuman. Other people consider people with disabilities as a source of sorrow to the family members and the community and think that the disability is kind of an illness. According to other stereotyping people with disability are a menace to others and the society especially those with mental disability. The pictures of disability portray the minority and people with disability as social and cultural misfits who should not feature in the public.

The other attitudes that are expressed in the tabloids concerning the minority groups, women, and the physically or the mentally challenged persons is discrimination. Discrimination is in several forms such the stigmatization of and negative attitudes towards the minority, women, and physically or mentally handicapped. Some depictions of people with mental illnesses in drama and entertainment give them a picture of persons without a normal life. Stigma is a mark of shame or degradation that can affect the psychological well-being of an individual. Stigma and discrimination may bring shame and distress to individuals and make them have low self-esteem. In fact, stigma is one of the greatest obstacles to the improvement of mental health care in the US as it lowers the people’s dignity interfering with full participation in the society. Discrimination is also common in the job market as employers shy away from employing physically challenged persons.

Sexual and physical abuse is common to women of the minority groups such as the African-Americans and women with disability. Women with disability are always sexually abused leading to consequences such as unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. Such issues are largely expressed in tabloids with several stories relating to sexual violence towards mentally and physically disabled women including very young girls. The perpetrators of the violence are mostly spouses and other close relatives who take advantage of the handicapped situation of the victim. According to a recent research findings, women with disabilities experience more sexual and physical violence compared to the women without any disabilities. In the tabloids, it is possible to find such headings as “a man defiles his 8-year-old mentally challenged niece, a mother locks up her mentally challenged daughter for ten years and many more stories”. Such stories show the negative attitudes people have on the minority groups, women, and people living with physical and mental disabilities. Men with mental and physical disabilities also undergo mistreatment in the hands of their relatives. Many are locked or tied up in cages to limit their movement and disturbance. The attitudes presented in the tabloids show that the society is still cringed to the past beliefs that some categories of individuals cannot perform some functions. Some of these attitudes are not sensible; as many people with disabilities have proved that they can live normal lives and work perfectly.

Tabloids are good for expressing issues of life especially regarding the attitudes of women and the minority groups in both developing and developed countries. Some of the attitudes are violence towards the mentally and physically challenged persons especially girls and women. Discrimination is rampant especially at the workplace, offices, and the communities in which the challenged and the minority groups live. Stereotyping is also very common in these groups, as many do not believe that they are capable of doing anything of value. On the contrary, many challenged groups, women, and the minority do very well in their work just like the other individuals. Negative attitudes towards the minority and the physically or mentally challenged is associated with stress and depression in some individuals and attitude change is necessary.

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