POPULAR MEDIA CULTURE AND DIVERSITY
LECTURE 1: INTRODUCTION
Voorbeelden aangehaald in de eerste les
- Soundos El Ahmadi - vs. de afspraak Bart Schols (probleem rond onveiligheid voor vrouwen)
- The Voice vs. #metoo
- Bad Bunny vs. Super Bowl
- William Boeva vs. disabilities → spending years learning to accept our disability in a society that is
already hard enough for us, just to be called ‘a source of inspiration’ afterwards
o These people work very hard to accept who they are → society already makes life more diIicult
for them
o After all that eIort = they don’t want to be used as a “feel-good story”
o They don’t want the media to treat them like inspirational objects instead of real people
o = the same with snow white
- Heated Rivalry → serie over een geheime romantische relatie tussen 2 mannelijke ijshockeysterren
o = about a secret relationship between 2 male icehockeyplayers
- The Last of Us
People with dis/abilities are always playing a very stereotypical character in a movie or series.
“Downtertainment”.
- Disney decided to make from every fairytale a life-action film. In Snow White, the actors where
dwarfs. There was critique that they don’t have to remake everything literally. BUT little actors often
don’t get a job. There are not enough roles. They can only be in sitcoms or comedy …
- The Snow-white remake has caused a lot of discussion → diIerent groups are unhappy for diIerent
reasons:
o Some people with dwarfism say → roles of dwarfs should be played by actors with dwarfism
o Peter Dinklage says → The whole story is old-fashioned & insulting, because it shows seven
dwarfs living in a cave (=grot)
o Anti-woke people say → Disney is changing too much to be politically correct
o Others say → it’s good to bring back the original 7 dwarfs
o = a lot of discussion & 4 diIerent reasons → this remake became a symbol of the bigger debate
about diversity, representation & ‘woke’ culture
EX. THE LAST OF US
- The Last Of Us was a video game, which is now a series. It is about a dystopian future where a virus is
spreading. Ellie, a young girl, turns out she is immune to the virus. She might be a key to solve the
virus, so she needs to be protected.
- Episode 3 is being review bombed. It scored the lowest. It was because it is about two men in love.
o Review bombed → people online gave it very low ratings on purpose; this because episode 3
focusses on a romantic relationship between two men → which made some viewers angry
EX. CLOSE & LE OTTO MONTAGNE
- Both films about a male intimacy. It is about struggling how it is about being masculine. (not really
mentioned this year)
1
,Headlining Festivals
- They want to make sure that 50% are male artist and 50% women artists. BUT Male artist gets bigger
ranking.
- They want to emphazise the female success by focussing on their music. Now, things are shifting.
They are all headlining and won diIerent grammy awards.
Heightened sensitivity towards the role of popular media culture in challenging and shaping perceptions &
beliefs about minoritized identities
- People today are more sensitive about how the popular media culture shows minority groups
- Increased demand for fair & balanced representation
- The topics are changing. Now we talk about abortions, transgenders etc
- Social media has accelerated the debate.
- … “the pendulum has swung too far” → some say = “It has gone too far now”
Culture wars are not new
- 19th Century → establishment/ the rise democratic nation-states
o People also fought about values and norms
- ‘wars’ over the position of religion in modern states, and over the set of norms and values
representing the ‘modern states’
- Primarily fought through the cultural media
Media uproars/ commotion/ controversy (=ophef) over identity
- May be perceived as banal or insignificant (small/ silly) (to outsiders).
- But for people who belong to minority groups, these debates can aIect their daily lives.
- These media uproars about identity are NOT harmless → even if they are banal, they can influence how
society treats minority group & whether their rights stay protected
People with minoritized identities
- Debates and backlashes can have an impact on their everyday lives. This is temporary and the
constant risk, about being reversed.
Minoritized groups: granted legal rights, legal protection; inclusive policies → these groups have legal rights
and protections
E.g. → woman & men becoming more politically divided; Muslims in Europe facing more discrimination;
Abortion rights being reversed in the US; same-sex parents in Italy losing legal recognition
… BUT these rights can also be conditional (= voorwaardelijk), temporary, and at risk of being reversed/ or
even taken away again
- Politicians/policymakers are aware of the symbolic role of media & popular culture (and shaping
opinions)
- Commercial interests of big tech and cultural industries > diversity and inclusion
o Big tech & entertainment industries often care more about profit than about diversity &
inclusion
- Representation in media really matters
- Activists & minoritized audiences: investigate/study the role that popular media culture plays in
advancing or hampering/hindering the living conditions of minoritized groups
2
,LECTURE 2: CONCEPTS, DEBATES, AND APPROACHES
IDENTITY AND DIVERSITY IN WESTERN SOCIETY
ABOUT IDENTITY
Ubiquity/ everywhere-ness (= alomtegenwoordig) of identity & identity markers/labels → identity = everywhere
- People use several markers or labels of identity to make sense of who they are and how to present
themselves to others.
- E.g. They may present themselves as ‘male’, ‘bisexual’, ‘black”, and/or ‘Hindu’. Some of these terms
were attributed to people. Think of how many persons were described as ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ when born,
solely based on their sex characteristics.
- People may use certain identity categories for self-identification.
o When a man experiences sexual desire for people of the same sex or gender, this person
may identify as gay or bisexual. The instances illustrate how bodily traits (e.g. skin colour,
biological sex characteristics, sexual desire, capabilities, age) have been used as a basis for
identity categories.
- Sociocultural features (e.g. nationality, religion, social class) have also led to identity markers (e.g.
Dutch, Muslim, working class).
o When someone is raised in a blue-collar community/ working class neighbourhood
(=arbeiderswijk) and a household with little to no discretionary/ spendable income, the
person can be seen as a part of the working class.
Bodily traits and sociocultural features: basis for identity categories
Richard Jenkins
- Identification = “the systematic establishment and signification, between individuals, between
collectivities and between individuals and collectivities, of relationships of similarity and diEerence”
o = process → who is similar to us and who is diIerent (= how we sort people into groups
based on similarities and diIerences)
o If you identify as a woman, and you see other women, you notice similarities; if you see
men, you notice diIerences. The process is never finished.
> We compare ourselves to others → we notice who is “like us” and who is “not like us”
→ this process never stops – we keep doing it our entire life’s
o External identification: how others label you
o Internal identification: self-identification (how you label yourself)
o = it is a process of comparing yourself to others and noticing similarities or diIerences
- Identity “denotes/ means the ways in which individuals and collectivities are distinguished (=
onderscheiden) in their relations with other individuals and collectivities (=groepen)”
o A person may self-identify as gay because he experiences his sexual desire as similar to how
people who are described and/or who identify as gay, homosexual, or queer experience
sexuality, and as diIerent from how people who are described and/or who identify as
heterosexual experience sexuality.
o = A state; your self-definition (e.g. “I am Gay/ nonbinary/ heterosexual”)
o → who you are/ the group you belong to
- Both an interactional product of ‘external’ identification by others, as of ‘internal’ self-identification.
o A person may self-identify as a woman because she has been repeatedly identified by others as
a woman since the day she was born. However, ideas about womanhood, which inform the
process of identification, do not emerge out of thin air → A person may identify as a woman partly
3
, because; others have called her a woman since birth (external) & she also feels like a woman
internally (internal) → BUT this idea of “womanhood” comes from culture and NOT only from
nature
> External = how others label you
> Internal = how you label yourself
> Identity = interaction between external & internal identification
- Identification is also shaped by and dependent on culture. We base ourselves on the world/ image we
have of ourselfs. It is in culture, which encompasses/includes cultural artefacts (e.g. books, clothing),
practices (e.g. rituals, habits), and norms and values (e.g. proper behaviour, what is seen as good/ bad/
normal …), where people encounter discourses and representations of identities.
o Culture gives us the ideas, norms, and meanings we use to understand identities
o What it means to be a “man”, “woman’, gay” … → depends on the culture you live in
- Bodily Traits: Religions, social class and sexual orientation.
o People use physical- and social traits to label identities:
> E.g. → religion, skin colour, disability, gender
CULTURAL DISCOURSES & REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT IDENTITIES
- (Re)produced in popular media culture, because discourses get stuck.
o Popular media (films, series, TikTok, news, influencers …) constantly produces and repeats
ideas about diIerent identities → cultural discourses & representations are created in media
- They help people make sense of who they are as a person (sexual desire, minority, giving peace of
mind/connection) → help them understand themselves
o People use media to figure out: who they are, how they should behave, what is “normal” … →
it gives us reference points
- … but may also hamper/ limit people’s lives as they engender/ cause normative assumptions about
people (dangerous to get pushed in to a category and follow assumed practices).
o These representations can create norms & expectations about how certain groups “should”
be.
o That can make life harder for people whose identity doesn’t fit those norms
- They are → Context-specific! In which they are and expectations (rules, norms, values,…)
o What is seen as “normal”, “acceptable” or “typical” depends on:
> The time and place
> Identity representations are not universal – they change depending on where and when
you live (e.g. culture)
Male friendship, you see practices that are culture and normalised in our society (western). These norms and
discourses, pressureses you being something you don’t want to be. We might see diEerent norms and
practises when we cross the world.
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONIST PERSPECTIVE
Identities are socially constructed and vary culturally and historically. Social construction is a theory of
knowledge that has become a dominant approach to thinking about identity from the 1970s on. It does not
dismiss that there is an objective reality (which refers to its ontological position) but argues that how we make
sense of that reality is socially constructed (which refers to its epistemological position).
- Who we are is shaped by society and NOT by biology alone (depending on time, culture and place)
- Identity is not the same everywhere or always → it changes with culture and history
- The social constructionist view is the opposite of essentialism
4
LECTURE 1: INTRODUCTION
Voorbeelden aangehaald in de eerste les
- Soundos El Ahmadi - vs. de afspraak Bart Schols (probleem rond onveiligheid voor vrouwen)
- The Voice vs. #metoo
- Bad Bunny vs. Super Bowl
- William Boeva vs. disabilities → spending years learning to accept our disability in a society that is
already hard enough for us, just to be called ‘a source of inspiration’ afterwards
o These people work very hard to accept who they are → society already makes life more diIicult
for them
o After all that eIort = they don’t want to be used as a “feel-good story”
o They don’t want the media to treat them like inspirational objects instead of real people
o = the same with snow white
- Heated Rivalry → serie over een geheime romantische relatie tussen 2 mannelijke ijshockeysterren
o = about a secret relationship between 2 male icehockeyplayers
- The Last of Us
People with dis/abilities are always playing a very stereotypical character in a movie or series.
“Downtertainment”.
- Disney decided to make from every fairytale a life-action film. In Snow White, the actors where
dwarfs. There was critique that they don’t have to remake everything literally. BUT little actors often
don’t get a job. There are not enough roles. They can only be in sitcoms or comedy …
- The Snow-white remake has caused a lot of discussion → diIerent groups are unhappy for diIerent
reasons:
o Some people with dwarfism say → roles of dwarfs should be played by actors with dwarfism
o Peter Dinklage says → The whole story is old-fashioned & insulting, because it shows seven
dwarfs living in a cave (=grot)
o Anti-woke people say → Disney is changing too much to be politically correct
o Others say → it’s good to bring back the original 7 dwarfs
o = a lot of discussion & 4 diIerent reasons → this remake became a symbol of the bigger debate
about diversity, representation & ‘woke’ culture
EX. THE LAST OF US
- The Last Of Us was a video game, which is now a series. It is about a dystopian future where a virus is
spreading. Ellie, a young girl, turns out she is immune to the virus. She might be a key to solve the
virus, so she needs to be protected.
- Episode 3 is being review bombed. It scored the lowest. It was because it is about two men in love.
o Review bombed → people online gave it very low ratings on purpose; this because episode 3
focusses on a romantic relationship between two men → which made some viewers angry
EX. CLOSE & LE OTTO MONTAGNE
- Both films about a male intimacy. It is about struggling how it is about being masculine. (not really
mentioned this year)
1
,Headlining Festivals
- They want to make sure that 50% are male artist and 50% women artists. BUT Male artist gets bigger
ranking.
- They want to emphazise the female success by focussing on their music. Now, things are shifting.
They are all headlining and won diIerent grammy awards.
Heightened sensitivity towards the role of popular media culture in challenging and shaping perceptions &
beliefs about minoritized identities
- People today are more sensitive about how the popular media culture shows minority groups
- Increased demand for fair & balanced representation
- The topics are changing. Now we talk about abortions, transgenders etc
- Social media has accelerated the debate.
- … “the pendulum has swung too far” → some say = “It has gone too far now”
Culture wars are not new
- 19th Century → establishment/ the rise democratic nation-states
o People also fought about values and norms
- ‘wars’ over the position of religion in modern states, and over the set of norms and values
representing the ‘modern states’
- Primarily fought through the cultural media
Media uproars/ commotion/ controversy (=ophef) over identity
- May be perceived as banal or insignificant (small/ silly) (to outsiders).
- But for people who belong to minority groups, these debates can aIect their daily lives.
- These media uproars about identity are NOT harmless → even if they are banal, they can influence how
society treats minority group & whether their rights stay protected
People with minoritized identities
- Debates and backlashes can have an impact on their everyday lives. This is temporary and the
constant risk, about being reversed.
Minoritized groups: granted legal rights, legal protection; inclusive policies → these groups have legal rights
and protections
E.g. → woman & men becoming more politically divided; Muslims in Europe facing more discrimination;
Abortion rights being reversed in the US; same-sex parents in Italy losing legal recognition
… BUT these rights can also be conditional (= voorwaardelijk), temporary, and at risk of being reversed/ or
even taken away again
- Politicians/policymakers are aware of the symbolic role of media & popular culture (and shaping
opinions)
- Commercial interests of big tech and cultural industries > diversity and inclusion
o Big tech & entertainment industries often care more about profit than about diversity &
inclusion
- Representation in media really matters
- Activists & minoritized audiences: investigate/study the role that popular media culture plays in
advancing or hampering/hindering the living conditions of minoritized groups
2
,LECTURE 2: CONCEPTS, DEBATES, AND APPROACHES
IDENTITY AND DIVERSITY IN WESTERN SOCIETY
ABOUT IDENTITY
Ubiquity/ everywhere-ness (= alomtegenwoordig) of identity & identity markers/labels → identity = everywhere
- People use several markers or labels of identity to make sense of who they are and how to present
themselves to others.
- E.g. They may present themselves as ‘male’, ‘bisexual’, ‘black”, and/or ‘Hindu’. Some of these terms
were attributed to people. Think of how many persons were described as ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ when born,
solely based on their sex characteristics.
- People may use certain identity categories for self-identification.
o When a man experiences sexual desire for people of the same sex or gender, this person
may identify as gay or bisexual. The instances illustrate how bodily traits (e.g. skin colour,
biological sex characteristics, sexual desire, capabilities, age) have been used as a basis for
identity categories.
- Sociocultural features (e.g. nationality, religion, social class) have also led to identity markers (e.g.
Dutch, Muslim, working class).
o When someone is raised in a blue-collar community/ working class neighbourhood
(=arbeiderswijk) and a household with little to no discretionary/ spendable income, the
person can be seen as a part of the working class.
Bodily traits and sociocultural features: basis for identity categories
Richard Jenkins
- Identification = “the systematic establishment and signification, between individuals, between
collectivities and between individuals and collectivities, of relationships of similarity and diEerence”
o = process → who is similar to us and who is diIerent (= how we sort people into groups
based on similarities and diIerences)
o If you identify as a woman, and you see other women, you notice similarities; if you see
men, you notice diIerences. The process is never finished.
> We compare ourselves to others → we notice who is “like us” and who is “not like us”
→ this process never stops – we keep doing it our entire life’s
o External identification: how others label you
o Internal identification: self-identification (how you label yourself)
o = it is a process of comparing yourself to others and noticing similarities or diIerences
- Identity “denotes/ means the ways in which individuals and collectivities are distinguished (=
onderscheiden) in their relations with other individuals and collectivities (=groepen)”
o A person may self-identify as gay because he experiences his sexual desire as similar to how
people who are described and/or who identify as gay, homosexual, or queer experience
sexuality, and as diIerent from how people who are described and/or who identify as
heterosexual experience sexuality.
o = A state; your self-definition (e.g. “I am Gay/ nonbinary/ heterosexual”)
o → who you are/ the group you belong to
- Both an interactional product of ‘external’ identification by others, as of ‘internal’ self-identification.
o A person may self-identify as a woman because she has been repeatedly identified by others as
a woman since the day she was born. However, ideas about womanhood, which inform the
process of identification, do not emerge out of thin air → A person may identify as a woman partly
3
, because; others have called her a woman since birth (external) & she also feels like a woman
internally (internal) → BUT this idea of “womanhood” comes from culture and NOT only from
nature
> External = how others label you
> Internal = how you label yourself
> Identity = interaction between external & internal identification
- Identification is also shaped by and dependent on culture. We base ourselves on the world/ image we
have of ourselfs. It is in culture, which encompasses/includes cultural artefacts (e.g. books, clothing),
practices (e.g. rituals, habits), and norms and values (e.g. proper behaviour, what is seen as good/ bad/
normal …), where people encounter discourses and representations of identities.
o Culture gives us the ideas, norms, and meanings we use to understand identities
o What it means to be a “man”, “woman’, gay” … → depends on the culture you live in
- Bodily Traits: Religions, social class and sexual orientation.
o People use physical- and social traits to label identities:
> E.g. → religion, skin colour, disability, gender
CULTURAL DISCOURSES & REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT IDENTITIES
- (Re)produced in popular media culture, because discourses get stuck.
o Popular media (films, series, TikTok, news, influencers …) constantly produces and repeats
ideas about diIerent identities → cultural discourses & representations are created in media
- They help people make sense of who they are as a person (sexual desire, minority, giving peace of
mind/connection) → help them understand themselves
o People use media to figure out: who they are, how they should behave, what is “normal” … →
it gives us reference points
- … but may also hamper/ limit people’s lives as they engender/ cause normative assumptions about
people (dangerous to get pushed in to a category and follow assumed practices).
o These representations can create norms & expectations about how certain groups “should”
be.
o That can make life harder for people whose identity doesn’t fit those norms
- They are → Context-specific! In which they are and expectations (rules, norms, values,…)
o What is seen as “normal”, “acceptable” or “typical” depends on:
> The time and place
> Identity representations are not universal – they change depending on where and when
you live (e.g. culture)
Male friendship, you see practices that are culture and normalised in our society (western). These norms and
discourses, pressureses you being something you don’t want to be. We might see diEerent norms and
practises when we cross the world.
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONIST PERSPECTIVE
Identities are socially constructed and vary culturally and historically. Social construction is a theory of
knowledge that has become a dominant approach to thinking about identity from the 1970s on. It does not
dismiss that there is an objective reality (which refers to its ontological position) but argues that how we make
sense of that reality is socially constructed (which refers to its epistemological position).
- Who we are is shaped by society and NOT by biology alone (depending on time, culture and place)
- Identity is not the same everywhere or always → it changes with culture and history
- The social constructionist view is the opposite of essentialism
4
