Popular Culture and Perceptions - Essay Example

Popular culture and perceptions What I now believe about how commonly held, frequently unquestioned assumptions about race, class, sexuality and gender encoded in US popular culture come together to shape how we come to think of who we are and what we aspire to be is different than when I first started in the class because / in the following way(s) Popular culture is one of the inevitable elements of contemporary life experience. Before I took this course, I had never taken a critical look at popular culture. Personally, popular culture is embedded in my lifestyle. This ranges from intimate matters such as the choice of clothes to technological revolution such as the social media. I had romanticized obsession with popular culture as a mark of civilization and being up-to-date with things happening in the world. In my school experiences, individuals with more knowledge of the popular culture appeared more fashionable than the studious types. Popular culture, in this sense, is a concept that traverses commercial advertisements, sports, television, movies, internet products, and other related concepts. I realized that popular culture is an element that individuals have followed due to its allure. The efficiency and convenience of using internet products such as social networking sites distract individuals from evaluating whether such concepts corrupt our conscience. This suggests that popular culture is not a wholly beneficial concept. For instance, although commercial advertisements promote our awareness on products, they use certain images that promote a distorted view of sexuality. In addition, social media is a platform that can fuel hate messages about certain forms of sexuality. In this sense, critics of media content may be sometimes ignored because individuals are drawn to the entertainment perspectives of popular culture. One of the assumptions that support this campaign argues that analysts should view popular culture superficially. This suggests analyzing popular media in its intended realm. For instance, an advertisement on a beauty product promotes analysis from an aesthetic perspective. I have learnt, however, that popular culture is not as superficial as it seems. This is because media content submerge into our conscience. Repeated commercial images eventually inform how individuals perceive the world. In addition, such images infringe on the rights of individuals who deserve perception in their unique ways. For instance, commercial advertisements may not give a comprehensive view of how women feel. This is because they do not reflect the emotions and doubts of women as they face the challenges of regular lives. For instance, advertisements may connote wrong perception of femininity as a concept whose value resides in the aesthetic aspect. Popular culture relies on its overwhelming power that helps it penetrate every sensitive aspect of modern lives. For instance, sexuality is a sensitive part of life that deserves right interpretation. When individuals misinterpret sexuality, it may initiate irresponsible sexual behavior that compromises on future sexual relationships. Unquestioned assumptions about identities such as race, gender, class, and sex redefine our primordial essence. This, in turn, is catastrophic to cross-racial interactions as individuals utilize stereotypes in understanding each other. In addition, it objectifies certain groups of our populations who, thereby, face a confined cultural space of defining themselves in the right way. The media-created labels help create flawed categories within which we perceive the emotions of others. 2. What I now believe about how our beliefs and values about gender are shaped by the kinds of popular media we watch, play, and listen to and consumer goods we buy, including social media to which we contribute through user-generated content is different than when I first started the course because / in the following way(s): After weeks of studying this course, I have realized that most of the perceptions we hold, are, essentially, the products of the media content individuals consume. I did not notice how the products of popular culture infiltrate in our lives. For instance, our communication entails the popular culture of social media and music. The television is a regular component of people’s lives that is highly likely to inform individuals more than books and newspapers do. Popular culture, however, is a hollow ideal that does not reflect the true human situation. In Kim and Chung’s article of orientalism in the Western culture, I realize that most people in the US hold various misconceptions about Asian woman and femininity. Instead of travelling to the East, most people have relied on the media to inform them about the life in the Asian countries. The article analyzed three advertisements that highlight how the US media establish distorted images of Asian women in the American consumer’s psyche. For instance, certain advertising campaigns would normalize the Asian women’s bodies against the Western stereotypes of ideal bodies (Kim and Chung 88). In addition, these images could stress the Asian cultural incompatibility to the Western elements. The liquor campaigns could project the Asian women as virgin lesbian objects of the American male’s fantasy. The Asian-American woman, therefore, plays the role of a femme fatale. This projects an element of distrust to the Asian woman, who appears as lacking emotions. These images collectively removed the Asian woman from the home front and placed her in an unrealistic exotic realm. This trend is associable to our controlled consumption culture. The consumption is fuelled by capitalism and the revolution in technology that allows the advertisement of products beyond the elite audiences. Innocent individuals innocently receive these marketing messages without questioning their content. The accompanying glitziness blurs individuals from perceiving the racially inclined and gendered images. Marketing has thrived on the notion of the woman as a homemaker and an entertainer of men. These images, however, cater for the desires and tastes of the heterosexual male consumers. Marketing, especially, ensures the distinctiveness of a product by emphasizing on the given differentials to women and men (Kim and Chung 88). This influences a culture of consumption that artificially creates certain needs rather than sell the actual value of a product itself. Since these products posses limited inherent meaning, their value resides in promoting relationships that influence their consumption. 3. Personally, I now see my self-understanding and ways of relating with others shaped by the way gender norms are expressed in the objects and images in circulation in the popular amusements that surround me differently than when I first started in the class because / in the following way(s): I had limited realization that the images I received from popular culture influenced my perceptions on race and gender, and sex. Undergoing the course has instilled the consciousness that politics of identity is a matter that dominates our cultural space. Samuel Chambers reinstates this position by arguing that popular culture, as an expression of our own vulnerability, have always thrived on politics of identity and manipulations to create the different hegemony in the human population (Chambers 82). Heteronormativity is a consequence of this culture. In this sense, the media strives to project given genders as complementary and distinct. This leads towards the categorization of men and women according to prescribed expectations. Individuals with different sexuality such as lesbians thereby face the emotional stress of satisfying these roles. I had never realized that ever since I was young, I have been receiving images of gender stereotypes. In my small world, I knew men were to be the rescuers of women. I remember the advertisements where, for instance, a man would arrive home to a cooking wife. These images helped reinstate my view of a woman as a person whose duties belong to the kitchen. Other advertisements would project classy women as those who make more purchases in supermarkets. On the other hand, projections of men in alcohol advertisements would manifest them as strong and well built. These perspectives ignored the wholesome view of society whereby, for instance, men would be weak against certain circumstances. The gender stereotypes ignore the existence of groups such as the gays. I realized that I developed a robust heterosexual view of the world that would later affect my relationships. Besides, I had received beauty ideals of women from the media. I had a romanticized image of wedding as comprising a suited man and lean-bodied woman. Such a woman would possess small lips, dark eyes, and flawless skin. It did not occur to me that such an image was a product of incessant advertisements on television. I, especially, had been keen on the shape of a woman as a mark of individuality. I conceived lean women as more gracious, loving, and inviting romance more than weighty women. In addition, women occurred to me as people whose role resided in being physically pleasing. The course, therefore, has helped me internalize these experiences and analyze them from an objective lens. Works cited Chambers, Samuel. Reading the L word. New York, NY: I.B Taurus, 2006. Print. Kim, Minjeong, and Angie Chung. “Consuming orientalism: images of asian/american women in multicultural advertising.” Qualitative Sociology 28. 1(2005): 67-91. Print. Read More