Pop Culture Freaks Summary

Kidd, Dustin. 2014. “Not that There’s Anything Wrong with That: Sexuality Perspectives.” Pp. 129-163 in Pop Culture Freaks: Identity, Mass Media, and Society. Boulder: Westview Press.

Kidd expands on society’s sexual perspectives in mass media and illuminates the stress pushed towards the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender population. He outlines sexuality as one of many influences on the ways we interpret the culture we consume. He supposes that popular culture has five major social roles: generating basic social norms, producing social boundaries, producing rituals that generate social solidarity, generating modernization, and generating social progress. He pays particular attention to Emilie Durkeim and connects his sociological

They mention the transition of “the closet,” as being a place in which people could not see you, to becoming a metaphor over the last two decades of the twentieth century used for queers who face a lack of sexual identity. Shneer and Aviv bring together two conflicting ideas of the American view of queerness: the ideas of the past, and the present. They state as queerness became more visible, people finally had the choice of living multiple lives, or integrating one’s lives and spaces (Shneer and Aviv 2006: 245). They highlight another change in the past twenty years as the clash between being queer and studying queerness (Shneer and Aviv 2006: 246-7). They argue that the active and visible contests over power among American queers show that queers now occupy an important place in our culture. They expand on the fact that queerness, real, and performed, is everywhere (Shneer and Aviv 2006: 248). This source shows the transformation in American culture of the acceptance of queerness. It makes an extremely critical resource by providing evidence of the changes in culture throughout the last two decades. Having the information that queerness is becoming more accepted in culture links to a higher percentage of LGBTQ youths becoming comfortable with their sexual identity. However, compared to the other sources, this

They develop four main themes surrounding their finds: leaving aggressive social environments, facing 'coming out' in meaningful ways, remembering the social environment, and turning challenges into opportunities and strengths (Askura and Craig 2014: 254-5). Asakura and Craig confirm that life did not automatically get better for these participants. They conclude, “future activism and media campaigns should incorporate stories on how LGBTQ people’s lives are getting better and focus on how we as a society can make it better for today’s LGBTQ youths” (Askura and Craig 2014: 265). Asakura and Craig cover detailed information and exceptional insight to whether or not the “It Gets Better” campaign has had an impact on LGBTQ youths. In comparison to Kidd’s “Not that There’s Anything Wrong with That: Sexuality Perspectives,” this article gives personal quotes on suicide instead of just insight. This source perceives the argument that life does not automatically get better for LGBTQ youth after watching an inspirational “It Gets Better” campaign video. However, the question still hangs whether or not the “It Gets Better” campaign has provided enough strength and motivation to decrease the overall amount of LGBTQ youth