Masculinity In Popular Culture

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As we interact with popular culture, our intersectional identities do not enable us to resist hegemonic power structures. To the contrary, they make us more subservient to hegemony. The media structures itself so that ordinary citizens conform to a certain image that they deem acceptable. Therefore, the more identities a person has, the more susceptible they are to the media’s messages. Based on identities like gender, race, and age, a person is given labels or ideals to conform to. These sort of social constructs are important in not only the media, but also in things such as applications. For applications, a person is required to pick and identify with a certain ethnicity, gender and race and these labels group people into categories that …show more content…

To elaborate, popular culture sells images about different ideas regarding race, gender, etc. Therefore, a black person who holds the identity of being a man as well as being black is sold double the messages about himself through popular culture and can be sold stereotypes regarding their race through popular culture. Moreover, “the culture industry misuses its concern for the masses in order to duplicate, reinforce and strengthen their mentality, which it presumes is given and unchangeable” (Adorno 1). In other words, the culture industry that dominates society seeks control over the minds of the population. The more identities a person occupies, the more they can be influenced by the popular culture. Popular culture is also very judgemental and reflects the harmful opinions of society. Such opinions are not always representative and respectful for certain members of society and this is especially true for their representation of minorities. For example, LGBT are represented in TV however “many of these characters are minor, and they often serve as the butt of the joke” (Kidd, 143). Despite their presence in popular culture being limited, they …show more content…

For instance, white individuals in America are the dominant race and and while white Americans do have identities like being a women or gay, they are still more likely as a group to be of a higher social class. In other words, their social class can shield them from experiencing the harms that come from the intersectional identities they may have. We can see this in the case of upper-class black people and the way in which problems of racial inequality can seem less important due to the minimum effect it can have on a person due to their class.
To discuss the power of class in terms of the media, we see that people of the middle class or upper class are disproportionately more represented than those of a lower class. We can see people’s intersectional identities of being of a certain sexuality, race, or age being represented, but realistic class representation is not seen. From this, we can see how class functions in a way that overpowers other identities we have that can decrease our status in society. In other words, we can see the importance of class as it relates to our intersectional

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