The popular culture of America is critical because it has great influences that have an impact on everything from entertainment, food packaging, and fashion. The phenomena are connected to mass communication, education, and production. Companies have also found themselves having a role in popular culture.
The Role of Companies
The National Amusements owns movie theatres that are located around the world which are estimated to be around 950. Comcast is considered to be one of the remaining US internet service providers that provide phone and cable television services to business and residential customers. Companies such as the National Amusements and Comcast are vital in determining the nature of the popular culture. The companies have the role of shaping the future of popular culture more specifically of media and technology. For example, Comcast aims at providing the best content plus it concentrates to continuously pursue innovation to satisfy the needs of customers. It also does this through the provision of broadband internet, landline telephone, and cable television.
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Understanding the role of the companies helps in understanding the nature of popular culture in terms of being able to determine the culture that is popular at a certain period. These companies help people interact with one another in terms of dress styles and the language used. Understanding the role of the two also helps in determining the trend in the popular culture especially with the advancement in technology ( Kidd, 2018) .
Question Two: Privilege Functions
Popular culture has become vital in all the aspects of the contemporary society. Dustin Kidd gives the tools needed in critical thinking on the cultural soup that is provided by music, the internet, film, print media, and television. Kidds devotes chapters provides vital topical and timely examples. While taking advantage of every chapter, Kidd has been able to present the tension that is between the individuality and inclusion that is in the commercial culture and mass media while using the tension as an entry point in an expansive topic.
Privilege functions within the popular culture is evidently an aspect of the three categories identified by Kidd. It is worth noting that there are different kinds of privileges that include the white privilege which is controversial because people so not detailed understanding of the issue. White privilege is not about gaining advantages because one is white but it involves having a nude colour that matches one’s skin. The other is the gender privilege which often among the males who are paid more. The third is the heterosexual privilege which is the benefits that come when ones do not fall within the LGBTQ+ spectrum.
In his chapters, Kidd tries to analyse the relationship between popular culture and identity. As a result, he provides the readers with the opportunity to understand the contemporary popular culture through various sociological perspectives. Three of the categories which have been identified by Kidd include sexuality, race, and class. Privilege has become vital in the popular culture in terms of indicating the importance women in popular culture. It helps in recognizing how privilege can have an influence on the aesthetic interpretation.
Question Three: The Bechdel Test
The basic assumption of Bechdel test is that there are few women who have significant movie roles and there is some truth to the claim. There has been increased debate on the value of the data that is produced by the Bechdel Test where some people actually think the data does not provide a reliable indication of a film’s quality. More specifically, the data that is based on the test aims at proving that a specified film is well-written, entertaining, or feminist. However, a high number of films cannot pass the test. The data that is developed from the test is not valuable because evidently no one method can cover all the feminism test because of the increased subjective and diffuse nature of the word which then means that it means different things to various people. It means that no one agrees on the characteristics of a feminist film while cultural critics often use the term to mean everything such as the function of the female character to the film’s ability to show equality. It is hard to design a test that indicates the absence of all the issues.
The data gives information that might be taken for granted such as the issues that can make the women in the audience feel empowered, happy, engaged, and respected. In other words, its provides information on the issues that make the audience feel good about the female characters. It also gives information on the various issues that empower women in films apart from just ensuring that they are the lead characters.
Question Four: Kidd’s Argument
The tragic death of 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer was one that brought focus on critical issues that affect the society. His death was after being bullied online with gay statement for a period of more than a year. Many people expressed outrage on the relentless torment that he went through on social media. The treatment bordered between cyber-harassment, hate crime, and harassment and those involved were students. Considering the manner in which the story ended, a cynic can argue that it is a demonstration of the ineffectiveness of the It Gets Better project. However, Kidd argues against this fact and considers it to be very powerful. The project has been able to create awareness of the issues that affect the LGBTQ community which has then helped people in appreciating the group both in the society and the social media. It has empowered, connected, and uplifted people around the world.
Kidd also indicates that even though the project failed to provide a positive representation of LGBTQ, the society will continue to accept the homophobic culture that is similar to that which resulted to Rodemeyer’s bullying. Kidd indicates that culture is directly to blame and part of the problem is the fact that there is a clear gender split in gay in pop culture. Many female gay stars are adored within the mainstream cultures are adored while gay men are discriminated. Gay musicians turn away from the entertainment industry for fear of not being accepted. Such analysis helps in understanding how the issues affect the industry.
Conclusion
It is evident that the popular culture in America is important. Popular culture has become vital in all the aspects of the contemporary society. Privilege functions within the popular culture is evidently an aspect of the three categories identified by Kidd. Privilege has become vital in the popular culture in terms of indicating the importance women in popular culture. It helps in recognizing how privilege can have an influence on the aesthetic interpretation. Privilege in popular culture can be determined using the Bechdel test. The basic assumption of Bechdel test is that there are few women who have significant movie roles and there is some truth to the claim. The data gives information that might be taken for granted such as the issues that can make the women in the audience feel empowered, happy, engaged, and respected. The tragic death of 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer was one that brought focus on critical issues that affect the society and the failure of It Gets Better project. However, Kidd argues against this fact and considers it to be very powerful. The project has been able to create awareness of the issues that affect the LGBTQ community.
Reference
Kidd, D. (2018). Pop culture freaks: Identity, mass media, and society . New York, NY : Routledge
