SUU Popular Culture & Communication

More superhero films are being produced now with females portrayed as the superheroes saving the world. Filmmakers are starting to create more female-fronted superhero stories, bringing representation of women characters in action movies. These films are promoting feminism and showing us, the audience, that girls can be superheroes too. Women have always been included in superhero films but mainly as sidekicks or love interests. However, now it seems that recent films have been more inclusive of women being super heroes and the star of the show.  These films mainly represent a liberal feminist perspective, which according to Sellnow, “A liberal feminist perspective focuses primarily on providing opportunities for the inclusion of women in traditionally male-dominated areas.”  For example, Elastigirl from the Incredibles , quotes: “Girls, come on. Leave the saving of the world to the men? I don’t think so.” This quote alone provides opportunities for the inclusion of women in t...

     (Photo Source: Best Life) I am a self-proclaimed Maxxinista (frequent shopper at the store TJ Maxx). I love going to the store and searching for the perfect item I didn’t know I needed before I walked in the doors. When I was on my most recent TJ Maxx adventure with my friend Katelyn, we thought we found the famous Stanley tumbler. The gasp that left our mouths could be heard throughout the entire store. We thought we had hit the jackpot! As we looked at the tag on the tumbler, however, we discovered it was a completely different brand. In fact, it was a completely random brand that neither of us had ever heard of. The more we looked around the store, the more seemingly random and irrelevant brands we found, all reproducing popular items by name-brand companies. By the end of our shopping spree, we found the knock-offs of a Lululemon belt bag, the Stanley tumbler, Drunk Elephant skincare products and more. The quality of these reproduced, knock-off products is obvi...

The hit show How to Get Away with Murder aired in 2014, nearly one decade ago. The six seasons included a variety of characters, new adventures, and one storyline that kept the audience coming back for more.  This series takes numerous hegemony stances and reinforces a message that ties in with Sellnow’s Feminist Perspectives. The main character - Annalise Keating - is a black, highly educated, single woman.  Throughout the series, Annalise Keating defies typical gender roles and strengthens her role as a successful woman. She deals with hardship, loss, and sexism, yet perseveres into a stronger educator. All of these attributes seem to contribute to the series’ success. While this is just one example of one series that takes these positions, this leads into the main question - are more shows likely to take this storyline position? Sellnow (2022) points out the sites of struggle when it comes to taking a feminist perspective. She also states that oppositional readings may inc...

“I need something mindless I can turn on and not have to think too hard.” If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably said this phrase, or something similar, at the end of a long day. Whether it is the Great British Baking Show, The Kardashians, lawn mowing videos on YouTube, or reruns of Friends -- everyone likely has that one “comfort show” they go to anytime they need to decompress and don’t want to watch something too deep or heavy. While there is nothing inherently wrong with falling back on a “comfort show” for mindless watching, it does reinforce Adorno and Horkheimer’s idea that pleasure can turn into boredom because by its very nature, it doesn’t require much effort. I think that is part of why, when pop culture feels formulaic, we still consume and enjoy it. It doesn’t require a lot of effort for us to follow along, and even if we are bored of the formula, we like the comfort of knowing how the story is going to end. I find this to be especially true with structured reality t...

High-Speed Chases, Explosions, Super Hero's & Pop Culture  Is it Food or Cake (Netflix TV show) *Pop Culture "Deception" Maxwell Horkheimer Cliches & Deception One of the Frankfurt School contributors Philopsher  Maxwell Horkheimer emphasizes that society consumes so much of the same media that most media has become interchangeable and is often used for deception to gain profit. Southern Utah University (SUU) Dr. Briscoe Stein provides an example of Siskel & Elbert Movie Cliches where they discuss several cinema cliches. One cliche that is discussed in particular is "Car Guy". The "Car Guy" is described as that one person in movies who treats their vehicle like a new pair of Jordan shoes that they don't want to get creased or the friend who is a mechanic genius who can fix anything. Both of these cliches have been overused in several forms of media but I believe stay relevant because everyone can relate in some rather they know someone...

     In high school I took an AP English language and composition class and the one thing that my teacher always told us was that, “everything has an argument.” That class had some of the most interesting discussions about the most controversial topics. Even if the point of something is to be neutral or does not have a purpose, that still makes a point about the lack of care or the desire to not cause any disturbances. Both the Frankfurt and Birmingham Schools of Thought agree that pop culture has messages that can impact the general public, but they differ on how people respond to those messages, or arguments. The Frankfurt School tended to be more of the opinion that these arguments were spoon-fed to the starving masses who were easily influenced. On the other hand, the Birmingham School believed that the public could discern the information and could evaluate based on it.       The queen of hiding messages and secrets in pop culture, at the present,...

One of the differences between the Frankfurt and Birmingham school was the belief of the people attending the Birmingham schools that people have the power to resist the messages from pop culture when need be. This was an intriguing fact and point of view especially given they created the studies of pop culture. It made me think of a recent viral interview of a famous comedian named Katt Williams. The interview went viral because the comedian gave inside information about situations that have happened in Hollywood. The comedian claimed he only spoke truth and all of what he was saying was the truth. He exposed some secrets if what he was saying was true, and it has the public going crazy.The clip I am attaching is only a short look into the interview with him mentioning artist P Diddy and comedian Dave Chappell, confirming rumors about P Diddy. Pop culture influence is very much evident currently with social media and technology use increasing. Hollywood is at the core of pop culture a...

     Please Reprogram my pseudo-intelligence because my fake happiness is killing my pocketbook       Disgruntled middle-class working men and women follow the rules of what is popular so they can buy things they don't need and dream of things they will never accomplish. Similar to a Marxist gaze, David Fincher's Fight Club, starring Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden recreates the road less traveled but newly adopted.      Popularized by the Birmingham School of Cultural Study, a Marxist interpretation of why popular culture needs to be studied, reminds the masses that individuality is a far-fetched ideology that only helps a capitalist narrative. We are programmed to think the way we do so we can be turned into consumers at best and our pseudo-intelligence is merely a conduit for mass purchases.        Switching from the Birmingham School of Cultural Study to the Frank...

Source: UCLA Health Researchers indicate that diagnoses of depression have increased in the last two decades among youth and young individuals, with technology use contributing to this surge (Mojtabai, Olfson, & Han, 2016). Comparing Adorno and Horkheimer’s suggestion that pop culture produces a wide range of products to appease every member of society, and John Storey’s idea that mechanical reproduction removes the originality of products, I suspect a shift in people’s perceptions of their surroundings and themselves. There seems to be a trend of assigning more value and significance to products portrayed by refined actors in TV shows, videos, and social media posts. This, in turn, may lead individuals to believe they are worthless because they do not possess what is constantly showcased in mass media. But how did we reach this point in the first place? Parents have always reminded us that there will always be someone better, and that's okay because life isn't solely ...

During the summer of 1975, Steven Spielberg redefined the concept of the blockbuster by releasing “Jaws” (Spielberg, 1975). Soon after, George Lucas would release the first film in the “Star Wars” franchise. The directors would soon be accused of destroying cinema. Before the release of “Jaws” and “Star Wars,” films were not as widely distributed . The marketing campaign and plot structure created a market for films aimed at everyone. While allowing films to be more accessible to massive audiences, it made it so film distribution no longer required the film to be good. The introduction of merchandising also introduced a certain level of censorship to the industry by encouraging movies to maintain a PG-13 rating in order to sell more product. It’s difficult not to pinpoint this point of cinematic history as the moment when the art jumped the shark. Big blockbuster franchises like “ Marvel ” have slowly started to wear down audiences. It seems we're pushing for a blockbuster break....

During my study this past week, my son hosted six young adults in his weekly Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) campaign. Although this gathering happens often, this time, I found myself more invested in their session than in the past. D&D and critical theory from the Frankfurt School may seem like unlikely companions. Still, as I listened to their interactions, I could make the case that the game has underlying social, cultural, and power dynamics.  My son, the dungeon master, guided the six players through an imaginary world where each one was free to shape their journey through the choices of their characters. As I observed their interactions, I could see reflections of the power dynamics that exist in the real world. During my continued silent observation of this D&D session, I was surprised by the number of instances that mirrored or critiqued various aspects of social and political inequality. The distribution of resources within the game reminded me of the disparities...

One of the things I found most interesting within this week’s readings was in Fisk’s Popular Discrimination. In it, he talks about the fact that consumers of popular media writing their own plot lines for their favorite shows or films in their heads. Fisk talks about the fact that plot lines have become so conventional and superficial that people are kind of able to guess or have an idea of where they want things to go, and then get upset when it doesn’t go the way they expect.   “The conventionality of plot lines, too, enables readers to write ahead, to predict what will happen and then to find pleasure (or sometimes frustration) in comparing their own projected ‘scripts’ with those actually broadcast. They frequently feel that their ‘scripts’ are superior to the script-writers’, that they ‘know’ the characters better and are thus better able to say how they should behave or react.” This makes me think of what my friend calls “Fix it Fanfics”. Fan fiction, set in a world of a...

Photo credit:  pikku_rotta Lately my social media feed, and consequently everyone in my household, is a compendium of cat memes, posts, and reels. And you know what? I’m fine with it. There can never be too many cat posts with which to fill a random dull moment of the day (or a meeting that’s just dragged on for too long!). Similarly, my sister recently showed me a message from her daughter, my 13-year-old niece, which read, “Mom, my phone is listening to you. All of my suggested videos are now about sourdough!" Now, one would think that those pesky content engagement algorithms would have caught on by now and we’d both be seeing all sorts of related product ads alongside these entertaining posts, but thankfully no.  However, buy one thing on Amazon and you can expect your social media feed to be instantly overrun by ads for the same thing you’ve just purchased. I often find myself thinking, come on algorithms, keep up! Show me something I don’t know I need yet, not what I jus...

While reading through the two schools' perceptions of popular culture, Frankfurt School and Birmingham School, I was fortunate to go to Universal Studios in Hollywood California. Seeing how pop culture in film drives people to visit one of the studios and get excited to see all the objects from previous films. The main thing that my boys were excited to see was Nintendo World which opened up recently. My daughter was mostly excited to see The Voice sound stage. I'm not going to lie, I was excited to see the city hall from Back to the Future movie.  During our visit, I realized that the whole area was just one big product or commodity. Not only taking our money for visiting them but also for keeping us excited about the areas of interest that my family had. The studio had things for all ages and what people liked. That became my question that I felt does need to be answered: Do studios make movies of what people like or do they make movies that oppress actions? Theodor Adorno an...

One of the key points Storey makes about the Frankfurt school is that the general population is pacified and kept from any desire to revolt against the current status quo “through false fulfillment of wish-dreams like wealth, adventure, passionate love, power, and sensationalism in general.” While I do not believe this to be wholly accurate, I do see the tendency that some people may have toward this school of thought. There are a few films that leave me feeling truly inspired, and excited, and sometimes even leave me with a feeling of undeserved accomplishment. Rather than sit back and be fulfilled only in my mind, however, I find these films most often inspire me to take action. If films and other media are done well, I believe they function more as a call to action than a false sense of accomplishment.  One of these films I find so inspiring is the Disney live-action movie Cruella. In this film, the audience follows the back story of the main antagonist in another Disney film,...

Have you noticed how most films that have been released or in production within the last few years have been film adaptations to an older version, a sequel/prequel, or a live-action/cartoon adaptation? In the box office now we have Wonka (which has four film adaptations now), Mean Girls (which came out in 2004, has a sequel, and now an adaptation from the Broadway Musical), and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (which is a prequel from the Hunger Games trilogy). Adorno and Horkheimer explained, “movies and radio no longer pretend ot be art. The truth that they are just business is made into an ideology in order to justify the rubbish the deliberately produce.”  Most movies now are no longer unique or seem like something we haven’t seen before. Even TV shows that are being produced have similar storylines or plots. For example, I have watched popular TV shows, like The Summer I Turned Pretty and The Vampire Diaries , where the main plot is that there are two b...

Social media users are trying desperately to be different. Almost everyone tries to diversify their content with unique pictures, clever captions, stunning poses, etc. I have heard social media managers, influencers, and other professionals say that the best way to gain a big following on social media is to “be different” and “find your niche.” It's all about showcasing your individuality.                However, in a world with billions of people and millions of social media users, it’s statistically improbable anyone could think of an idea that is so unique that no one else had thought of it before. It’s also unlikely that a social media user could come up with a niche that does not relate to another topic that’s already on the internet. Any idea will inevitably fall closely aligned with thousands of other ideas. Famous writer Mark Twain once said, “There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas an...