THE IMPORTANCE OF STUDYING POPULER CULTURE AND IN RELATION TO THE CRITIQUES OF CAPITALISM AND PATRIARCHY
The very fact that culture came to be almost infinitely reproducible due to the development of techniques of industrial production posed considerable problems for traditional ideas about the role of culture and art in society . ( Benjamin:1973) When we look at the today’s world and our country,consumption desires and request pervades the whole of society. People are already
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Edward has also been a prisoner of consumption frenzy as each individual.He always takes care of his house and gets expensive furniture to be able to fill the void in his life .He is also suffer from insomnia.In the middle of the film , he meets Tyler Durden during a business trip.He is affected by Tyler’s crazy character and his unconcerned attitudes.After then, Edward moves to a large and ruin house of Tyler. Edward makes the philosophical and political discussions with Tyler and so is affected by the Tyler 's knowledge and personality, and then the two together they set up a fight club. This fight club becomes popular all over the country and the world in a short time. People who participate in this fight club is relaxed fighting with each other and they make sense of their lives.Tyler Durden has gained ideological identity although he is the leader of group.He says “Our generation has no great depression, no great war. Our war is spiritual war. Our depression is our lives”. We understand his words people how to destroy capitalism in terms of spiritual aspects. And also he says “ you are not your job, you are not your Money in your bank account” like words he draws attention to the capitalist system and consumer
Huxley describes the “New World” as being controlled by mass production and based around the idea of over-production. Huxley predicted that a world economy based on an endless growth model of disposable consumer goods and disposable energy to run the machines would lead humanity to environmental and existential crisis. John the Savage initially reacts to the “New World” with the words of Miranda, from Shakespeare’s Tempest, when she first encounters visitors to her island, “O Brave New World that has such people in’t.” John eventually sees the evil in over consumption and flocks to an abandoned lighthouse.
Throughout the movie “Pleasantville”, there are numerous social issues. This paper will look at and identify some of them, as well as defining the basic social issues and how they relate to the movie. Some sociological concepts found in the movie include Race and Ethnicity, Age Stratification, and Social Interaction. Throughout the movie, there are plenty of examples, but I will use the three main concepts I found. The example of Race and Ethnicity would be Discrimination.
When we think of heroes we often think of a masked vigilanty or a cape crusader swooping down from the heavens and saving the day. Although heroes come in many shapes and sizes, they also tend to come from different backgrounds. The people of the United States pride themselves with freedom and equality. However, still to this day there is a struggle with discrimination. Matt Zoller Seitz’s article “The Offensive Movie Cliché That Won’t Die” definitely sparked some interest and was definitely right when it came to the offensive issue most people do not see.
However, despite being “unsure of their futures, with nowhere to direct their anger and no one to assuage their fears” (GEN X – SITE SOURCE), the characteristic of Generation X which really draws parallels to Palahniuk’s novel is the high divorce rate of the time. The impact of an influential feminized society is yet again bolstered by the norm of a woman being in complete control as a result of fathers leaving the household. In the novel, Jack mentions his absent father, and thus begins seeing a father figure in Tyler after having lacked strong male models whilst growing up. To the cohort of members in Fight Club feeling effeminate as a result, Tyler concludes that they are a “generation of men raised by women” (PAGE), further nourishing the men’s desire to fight and express their wrath to regain their identities. Due to their upbringing, the men in Fight Club lack a masculine portrayal, and hence idealize Tyler as the sole example of what masculinity should be.
Statistics show that today there are over 1.7 billion members of the “consumer class”- half of them being in the developing world (2011, the World Watch Institute). Being part of the consumer class myself, I believe it is crucial to dispense a great deal of money on goods and services to improve the economy here in Canada. Does this mean I’m considered to be a consumer as a result of my views on world consumption? Yes, I fit into the category of a consumer due to the fact that I’m part of the endless cycle of supply and demand. From the moment I leave my house and walk the two minutes to the bus stop I’m already thinking about what I’m going to buy.
Despite both being from the same school of thought, the Frankfurt School, Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno found themselves debating the value of art in a world on the brink of war. The basis of Benjamin’s and Adorno’s argument was not a critique of the art itself, but rather ever-growing trend of the reproduction of art. For Benjamin, as described in, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”, the reproduction of art and the novelty of film, which stemmed from technological marvels, was a natural progression and a detractor to the growing fascist presence. However, for Adorno, as discussed in “The Fetish Character of Music and the Regression in Listening”, the simplification of art, specifically music, to a mass producible
To conclude my sociological analyzation of the movie Mean girls, conflict theory helped me describe why certain events happened and give me a better example of how it is very common in our society today. As we seen in the movie, people will always be characterized or put into a category of a certain group based on your social class, cultural background, etc. Whether you like it or not power is described as who has the most money and most power over the lower class. Anyone being oppressed will feel the need to bounce back and rebel against the people bringing them down, and this is how Karl Marx explained society and the structure of it through the Conflict
(MIP-3) In addition, this dissociation extends to the society one lives in. (SIP-A) As a result of their cultivated, materialistic lives, characters in Bradbury’s novel are isolated from their own society. (STEWE-1)
Popular Culture I Öğr. Gör. Gülbin Kıranoğlu The Capitalist and Patriarchal Elements in the Products of Popular Culture Betül Kılıç 110111077
Migrations from different countries led The United States of America to become a melting pot, a pot which contains a variety of people and their cultures all around the globe. Therefore, their cultural development process in terms of art and politics affected the world and us itself. Throughout the history of The United States of American, there were many movies, singers and political events that represented their culture to the world. But in this very paper, in terms of representing the U.S. with its culture, I will point out the significances of the movie Saving Private Ryan, the singer Louis Daniel Armstrong, and political event The Emancipation Proclamation. American patriotism is Americans cultural attachment to the United States as their homeland.
Therefore, in the perspective of understanding materialist art history by the discussion focused on the labor of the production line, different forms of arts then no longer refer to the product labeled and produced by the so-called ‘artistic genius’, but a product of complex relationship between social, economic and political sphere. (Klingender, 1943) To be more specific, the relationship between materialist art history and Marxist art history is demonstrated with the practice of artwork in relation to society, economy or politics, with detailed and specific analysis in the context of social cultures and the idea of class in the capitalist society. (D’Alleva, 2005) In a particular cultural environment, we can realize the outgrowth of the interactions between patrons and artists in a more complicated way.
There are many different ways that reader can choose to interpret a literary work that they are reading or examining. The Freudian lens is one of the many tools that helps reader understand the in depth meaning of the main characters through their behaviors, characteristics, actions and their surroundings. Fight Club, a novel written by Chuck Palahniuk, can also be interpreted by using the Freudian theory to analyze the main character, Joe (the narrator) and his discreet personality, Tyler Durden. The story is about the narrator’s depressing life in which he has been suffering from reality, until he has created another personality that represents his desire. In Fight Club, the narrator’s traits of aggressiveness, his desire and his sense of
This process of recuperation happens in two ways: by converting subcultural signs into mass-produced objects (the commodity form) and by labelling and re-defining deviant behavior by dominant groups (the ideological form). The commodity form benefits from the relationship between the spectacular subcultures and the industries, which is based on ambiguity and the difficulty to distinguish between commercial exploitation and originality, since consumption is an indispensable part of spectacular subcultures and they feed on production and publicity. However, this commercialization and mass production of cultural symbols takes their meaning away from the subculture and makes it available for everyone.
Appropriation is the act of borrowing and changing the meaning of cultural products, images, slogans and elements as well as reusing existing elements to create new works and meanings. Many artists believe that in borrowing existing images or elements of imagery, they are able to recreate the idea as it is now placed within a new concept. This essay will discuss how appropriation has been used in cultural and social contexts in order to create controversy and sell products, as well as be a form of expression. Pop culture often uses brash ways when trying to provide interest in society. As humans we are constantly wanting more and are never fully satisfied without entertainment, thus in order to meet these high demands many often turn to cultural appropriation as a void of entertainment.
People are immersed in popular culture during most of our waking hours. It is on radio, television, and our computers when we access the Internet, in newspapers, on streets and highways in the form of advertisements and billboards, in movie theaters, at music concerts and sports events, in supermarkets and shopping malls, and at religious festivals and celebrations (Tatum,