POPULAR MEDIA CULTURE AND DIVERSITY
LECTURE 1: INTRODUCTION
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 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.
Close & Le Otto Montagne
- Both about a male intimacy. It is about struggling how it is about being masculine.
Headlining Festivals
- They want to make sure that 50% are male artist and 50% women artists. BUT
Male artist get bigger ranking.
- They want to emphazise the female success by focussing on their music. Now,
things are shifting. They are all headlining and won different grammy awards.
Heightened sensitivity toward role popular media culture in challenging/shaping
perceptions & beliefs about minoritized identities
Increased demand for fair/balanced representation… The topics are changing.
Now we talk about abortions, transgenders … Social media has accelerating the
debate.
…“the pendulum has swung too far”
Culture wars not new
19th C: establishment democratic nation-states
‘wars’ over position religion in modern states, set of norms and values
representing the ‘modern states’
Primarily fought through cultural media
Media uproars over identity
May be perceived as banal or insignificant. Emphazise people with a minority
identity.
People with minoritized identities
1
, Debates and backlashes can have an impact on their everyday lives. This is
temorary and the constant risk, about being reversed.
Minoritized groups: granted legal rights, legal protection; inclusive policies
…but also conditional, temporary, and at
risk of being reversed
• Politicians/policy-makers: aware of symbolic role of media & popular culture
• Commercial interests of big tech and cultural industries > diversity and inclusion
• Representation matters
• Activists, minoritized audiences: scrutinize role popular media culture plays in
advancing or hampering living conditions minoritized groups
LECTURE 2: CONCEPTS,
DEBATES, AND APPROACHES
IDENTITY AND DIVERSITY IN WESTERN SOCIETY
ABOUT IDENTITY
Ubiquity of identity & identity markers/labels.
- 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 of 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 and a household with
little to no discretionary 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 difference”
o If you identify as a man or a woman and you see other women, you see
similarities. The proces is never finished.
2
, o External identification: When you start watching other people, you see and
start to give labels.
o Internal identification: You as a person who is being labelled.
- Identity “denotes the ways in which individuals and collectivities are
distinguished in their relations with other individuals and collectivities”
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 different from how
people who are described and/or who identify as heterosexual experience
sexuality.
- 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.
- Identification is also shaped by and dependent on culture. We base ourselves on
the world we think about ourselfs. It is in culture, which encompasses cultural
artefacts (e.g. books, clothing), practices (e.g. rituals, habits), and norms and
values (e.g. proper behaviour), where people encounter discourses and
representations of identities.
- Bodily Traits: Religions, social class and sexual orientation.
CULTURAL DISCOURSES & REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT IDENTITIES
• (Re)produced in popular media culture, because discourses get stuck.
• Help people make sense of who they are as a person (sexual desire, minority,
giving peace of mind/connection).
• … but may also hamper people’s lives as they engender normative assumptions
about people (dangerous to get pushed in a category and follow assumed
practices).
• Context-specific! In which they are and expectations (rules, norms, values,…)
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 different 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).
Opposes an essentialist understanding of identity. Where and when we are. They go back
to the essential way of thinking. They assume that being a women, man, white or black it
is historical, natural and historical. We assume everyone feels the same.
ESSENTIALISM
3
, 1. Assumes that certain identities (e.g. being a woman) are natural, biological, and
ahistorical, existing prior to the birth of a person.
2. Assumes persons with same identity share the same feelings and
experiences, throughout history and across the globe (E.g. If you are a woman,
you share certain feelings and experiences with all women, throughout history
and across the globe).
3. Men and women ‘inherently different beings’, who belong to separate categories.
! Social constructionism, unlike essentialism that sees identities as fixed and
belonging to separate categories, argues that identities are shape by how people
interpret them within specific social and cultural contexts. From this perspective, gender
differences are not denied but are understood as the result of social and cultural
processen.
Differences exist, but should be seen as the outcome of social processes and cultural
practices
10 years ago, gender was assumed by biology and not by culture.
- Differences are the ourcome, social practices. As a man you should not show your
emotions. There are differences.
SOCIOCULTURE DIVERSITY, INEQUALITY, AND IDENTITY POLITICS
- Sociocultural diversity: “all kinds of differences between individuals and
groups” (Arnesen & Allan, 2009) – used as an umbrella term. The coexistence of
people who differ by, for instance, gender, sexual orientation, racial, ethnic or
diasporic identity, social class, or dis/ability.
- Discourses about diversity are deeply political. In diversity, they fear of equality.
- Discursive constructions of identities as ‘normal’, ‘mainstream’, or ‘superior’
vs. identities constructed as ‘abnormal’, ‘deviant’, or ‘inferior’. How many times
have you heard the term ‘normal’?
- Constructing identities as binary, oppositional, & hierarchical
- Constructing cultural repertoires that limit diversity within identity categories
structural inequalities in institutions, culture, and everyday life practices
- How to make visible, question, overthrow structural forms of oppression?
- Identity politics: “The forging of ‘new languages’ of identity combined with
acting to change social practices, usually through the formation of coalitions
where at least some values are shared” (Barker, 2012)
o Much diversity in women, use the label of women to change things. The
things we do share. Let’s celebrate what we share and use those positions.
The danger in those groups, they ignore the diversity. The women are
different. It is a comping mechanism. Women were ignored in those
actions. How can we claim rights and use identify?
- Celebrating a share culture…
- … but at times presented as homogenous and essentialist
- Alternatively, emphasising a shared identity as strategic:
o Helps formation of a social collective & clear set of (political and cultural)
goals.
o Should not imply that other intersecting identities are annulled
o Shared identity can be experienced & signified in diverse ways
4
LECTURE 1: INTRODUCTION
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 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.
Close & Le Otto Montagne
- Both about a male intimacy. It is about struggling how it is about being masculine.
Headlining Festivals
- They want to make sure that 50% are male artist and 50% women artists. BUT
Male artist get bigger ranking.
- They want to emphazise the female success by focussing on their music. Now,
things are shifting. They are all headlining and won different grammy awards.
Heightened sensitivity toward role popular media culture in challenging/shaping
perceptions & beliefs about minoritized identities
Increased demand for fair/balanced representation… The topics are changing.
Now we talk about abortions, transgenders … Social media has accelerating the
debate.
…“the pendulum has swung too far”
Culture wars not new
19th C: establishment democratic nation-states
‘wars’ over position religion in modern states, set of norms and values
representing the ‘modern states’
Primarily fought through cultural media
Media uproars over identity
May be perceived as banal or insignificant. Emphazise people with a minority
identity.
People with minoritized identities
1
, Debates and backlashes can have an impact on their everyday lives. This is
temorary and the constant risk, about being reversed.
Minoritized groups: granted legal rights, legal protection; inclusive policies
…but also conditional, temporary, and at
risk of being reversed
• Politicians/policy-makers: aware of symbolic role of media & popular culture
• Commercial interests of big tech and cultural industries > diversity and inclusion
• Representation matters
• Activists, minoritized audiences: scrutinize role popular media culture plays in
advancing or hampering living conditions minoritized groups
LECTURE 2: CONCEPTS,
DEBATES, AND APPROACHES
IDENTITY AND DIVERSITY IN WESTERN SOCIETY
ABOUT IDENTITY
Ubiquity of identity & identity markers/labels.
- 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 of 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 and a household with
little to no discretionary 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 difference”
o If you identify as a man or a woman and you see other women, you see
similarities. The proces is never finished.
2
, o External identification: When you start watching other people, you see and
start to give labels.
o Internal identification: You as a person who is being labelled.
- Identity “denotes the ways in which individuals and collectivities are
distinguished in their relations with other individuals and collectivities”
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 different from how
people who are described and/or who identify as heterosexual experience
sexuality.
- 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.
- Identification is also shaped by and dependent on culture. We base ourselves on
the world we think about ourselfs. It is in culture, which encompasses cultural
artefacts (e.g. books, clothing), practices (e.g. rituals, habits), and norms and
values (e.g. proper behaviour), where people encounter discourses and
representations of identities.
- Bodily Traits: Religions, social class and sexual orientation.
CULTURAL DISCOURSES & REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT IDENTITIES
• (Re)produced in popular media culture, because discourses get stuck.
• Help people make sense of who they are as a person (sexual desire, minority,
giving peace of mind/connection).
• … but may also hamper people’s lives as they engender normative assumptions
about people (dangerous to get pushed in a category and follow assumed
practices).
• Context-specific! In which they are and expectations (rules, norms, values,…)
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 different 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).
Opposes an essentialist understanding of identity. Where and when we are. They go back
to the essential way of thinking. They assume that being a women, man, white or black it
is historical, natural and historical. We assume everyone feels the same.
ESSENTIALISM
3
, 1. Assumes that certain identities (e.g. being a woman) are natural, biological, and
ahistorical, existing prior to the birth of a person.
2. Assumes persons with same identity share the same feelings and
experiences, throughout history and across the globe (E.g. If you are a woman,
you share certain feelings and experiences with all women, throughout history
and across the globe).
3. Men and women ‘inherently different beings’, who belong to separate categories.
! Social constructionism, unlike essentialism that sees identities as fixed and
belonging to separate categories, argues that identities are shape by how people
interpret them within specific social and cultural contexts. From this perspective, gender
differences are not denied but are understood as the result of social and cultural
processen.
Differences exist, but should be seen as the outcome of social processes and cultural
practices
10 years ago, gender was assumed by biology and not by culture.
- Differences are the ourcome, social practices. As a man you should not show your
emotions. There are differences.
SOCIOCULTURE DIVERSITY, INEQUALITY, AND IDENTITY POLITICS
- Sociocultural diversity: “all kinds of differences between individuals and
groups” (Arnesen & Allan, 2009) – used as an umbrella term. The coexistence of
people who differ by, for instance, gender, sexual orientation, racial, ethnic or
diasporic identity, social class, or dis/ability.
- Discourses about diversity are deeply political. In diversity, they fear of equality.
- Discursive constructions of identities as ‘normal’, ‘mainstream’, or ‘superior’
vs. identities constructed as ‘abnormal’, ‘deviant’, or ‘inferior’. How many times
have you heard the term ‘normal’?
- Constructing identities as binary, oppositional, & hierarchical
- Constructing cultural repertoires that limit diversity within identity categories
structural inequalities in institutions, culture, and everyday life practices
- How to make visible, question, overthrow structural forms of oppression?
- Identity politics: “The forging of ‘new languages’ of identity combined with
acting to change social practices, usually through the formation of coalitions
where at least some values are shared” (Barker, 2012)
o Much diversity in women, use the label of women to change things. The
things we do share. Let’s celebrate what we share and use those positions.
The danger in those groups, they ignore the diversity. The women are
different. It is a comping mechanism. Women were ignored in those
actions. How can we claim rights and use identify?
- Celebrating a share culture…
- … but at times presented as homogenous and essentialist
- Alternatively, emphasising a shared identity as strategic:
o Helps formation of a social collective & clear set of (political and cultural)
goals.
o Should not imply that other intersecting identities are annulled
o Shared identity can be experienced & signified in diverse ways
4
