While reading through our assignment for this week, I could not help but get hung up on the Culture chapter in Theory Toolbox. I think that Nealon and Giroux make a few very fantastic points about how asinine the idea of "culture" truely is. If you think about it, the authors point out that the entire idea of culture was intended to give each grouping of people an identity or a group to which they could feel associated with. However, when you look at how that actually played out, we see that cultures really do separate people just as much, if not more, than they do bring them together.
Today cultures are so integrated and mixed that it is hard to definitively label any particular region with specific cultural norm as it is. For example, I grew up in Dallas, in a predominantly Christian, caucasion, affluent area. However, if someone from out of town were to come to that neighborhood today, they would see that it is just as integrated as any other part of Texas. My point is this: whereas once upon a time we could go to that neighborhood and label it as "classy" or "uppity" or "southern" or whatever you want to call it, today that label would hardly apply. The U.S., especially Texas, is so integrated with people from all over the world, of various "cultural" backgrounds, from various "cultural" beliefs etc, that those cultural identifiers no longer really fit. I always get a kick out of watching the commercials that play during football games on Sunday. Lately, in particular, the NFL has been running a series of commercials advertising the NFL Sunday Ticket, a program package that allows you to watch EVERY game, nationwide, as they air, no matter where you are. One of the commercials is set in a small-town, Texas diner that is obviously a long-standing "Cowboys" bar. The waitress addresses the audience, complaining that because of the Sunday Ticket, her once Cowboy-fans-only diner is now littered with Eagles fans who can watch their Eagles play right from their cell phones anywhere they want to. The joke is that "sacred" places, such as devoted small town sports bars, are no longer able to control what their audience is watching simply based on geographical restrictions.
This reading instantly made me think of this commercial for a bevy of reasons, but one thing in particular stood out about the inaccuracies of the portrayal: These places don't really, for the most part, exist anymore. Because the world is so interconnected and so accessible from all corners of the world, locations that were once stereotyped or labeled as being of a specific "culture" can't really be labeled that way any more. Sure, at some point the cultural stereotype of every restaraunt in Texas being a down-home, family run, hole in the wall, Cowboys-or-die kind of place probably held true to some extent. However, these days that just isn't the case. Heck, there is a Green Bay Packers sports bar not two blocks from my Mom's house in Flower Mound, Texas, what are the odds of that?!? Technology has blended culture far beyond traditional recognition. So, now, more than ever, cultural labels could not be further from the facts of how things actually are.
Finally, when I read the section about "popular culture" I had to sit and ponder for a few seconds about how completely ridiculous pop-culture really is. The annals of history, especially cultural history, are written in Hollywood for the most part. When we think 1920's we instantly think of flapper girls and mobsters, the 1970's, hippys and concerts, the 90's make us think of parachute pants and white washed jeans, its habit. It's what we saw on T.V., it is what has been burned into the memory banks, and those portrayals, for the most part, are how most people are going to remember those periods of time because that is how Hollywood decided to portray those periods. But, if you sit and think about it, who the hell gets to decide what the "it" fashion is of a time, the "it" music, the "it" whatever....? Just because NSync sold a gajillion albums throughout the 90's and dressed like idiots, and were wildly popular with a large part of society, who decides that's what we are going to remember? Cultural labels and what is considered to be "popular" culture at any given time are completely subjective idea. Just because 51% of a community bought into a certain band, fad, or style, why does that instantly get recorded as the cultural identifier of the time period? What happens to the other 49% and their experiences of life during those time periods? Are they just forgotten and ignored because Joe-Schmo Hollywood with is bleach-blond spiked haid, tattered jeans, and ridiculous pattern t-shirt, decided he wanted the Saved By the Bell characters to wear what he thought to be popular as opposed to what you thought to be popular. The whole thing seems kind of like a sham if you ask me. In ten years when I look back on the "popular" styles of 2010, am I going to be brainwashed into thinking that every female in America wore Nike shorts, and every guy wore graphic t-shirts, ? Who knows, but I'll tell you one thing for sure: just because mass media gets to define what the history books consider to be "popular," I won't necessarily be so quick to agree. I am sure the same can be said for the folks in the 20's that weren't gangsters (about 98% of the community if I had to guess), the folks in the 70's that weren't at Woodstock, etc. Cultural norms and identifiers are just like anything else, they are someone or some groups OPINION. That's it. Take it for what it's worth and remember things how they were for you, not how they were for the hot celeb of the month.
