Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Pop Culture: Guilty Pleasure Or Metric of Social Change?
Pop Culture: Guilty Pleasure Or Metric of Social Change?
Do you watch Keeping up with the Kardashians? One of the perks of formally studying
sociology is that an indulgence in pop culture is not only forgiven, it is also
encouraged.
In sociological circles, the amorphous collection of tastes
and preferences of a group of people that is culture inspires endless debate
over why we like what we like. Given
such a prompt, the mind flies in innumerable directions. I can feel Pierre Bourdieu climbing out of
his grave to come take my computer away from me. The ghost of Karl Marx is standing behind me
rolling his eyes and saying, “Just don’t even go there.”
Okay. Fine, Karl!
But I would like to talk about the importance of popular
culture to activism. While the processes
of production of pop culture warrant our scrutiny and skepticism, pop culture
as its own strange, unpolished amalgamation strikes me as something truly democratic. It is the voice of the people! With our language, our food, our clothing,
our purchases, we vote for the culture we want—we vote for the world we
want. That is why it is always exciting
when trends in pop culture reflect progressive social changes that are
philosophically consistent with intersectional feminism.
One surprising example of such a reflection recently debuted
in theaters across America: Magic Mike XXL.
This film is a light and playful story about the journey of male
entertainers as they discover the intrinsic rewards of loving every women for exactly
who she is, what she needs, and what she desires. Another example, in theaters right now, is
Mad Max: Fury Road—a feminist masterpiece.
It is worth noting that both of these films were made by men, and while
they have done us proud, we still need women telling women’s stories in the
mainstream media. And those stories need
to be taken just as seriously.
Further worth noting is that it is not always so
simple. Pop culture is not always a
forum conducive to having the complicated conversations that are necessary to
deconstruct the patriarchal-capitalist agenda, as we have seen with conflicts
such as this. Still, the image of one of the most famous
women on the planet standing in front of the word “feminist” while millions
watch her take superstardom to another level is a big moment for girls
everywhere. In sum, pop culture, while
often ludicrous, is in fact something that deserves our attention because the
visibility of these issues is key to engaging the nation in a dialogue and what
we consume matters.
Monday, July 13, 2015
Renee Powell Achieves Success in Golf
Renee Powell was recently given an invitation to become one
of the first seven female members of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club in St.
Andrews. Powell, 69, is an African American pro golfer. During her career on
the L.P.G.A. Tour from 1967-1980, Powell received many discriminating letters
and signed death threats. Her correspondence with the Royal and Ancient Golf
Club prove that her mailbox is no longer a source of prejudice.
Throughout her career, Powell faced a great deal of
discrimination on the road. Many times during the L.P.G.A. Tour, she was denied
a room at a hotel, a seat at a restaurant, and excluded from pro-am because of
the color of her skin. Since the L.P.G.A. was founded in 1950, six
African-Americans have played on the tour. Now, Powell can proudly say she
belongs to the most exclusive private golf club in the world.
Powell has competed in over 250 professional golf events and
won one in Brisbane, Australia. Her best finish on the L.P.G.A. Tour was a tie
for fourth at the 1972 Lady Errol Classic. Powell has often wondered how much
better she might have played if she had not encountered so much prejudice and
discrimination.
During the summer, Powell is teaching classes exclusively for
women. There are classes for women who are beginners, adults with dementia and
Alzheimer’s disease, and female military veterans. In Powell’s group lessons, female
veterans can learn a new game and make new friends with women with whom they
share similar experiences, that few can understand.
To learn more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/13/sports/golf/at-st-andrews-renee-powell-rises-above-prejudices-to-become-a-pioneer.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
Friday, July 10, 2015
What we’re Reading…
Summer is in full swing and it’s a busy time for everyone!
As you head off to the beach, amusement park, or a BBQ here are a few things
you need to know from the headlines this week.
The Confederate Flag
Came Down in South Carolina:
Today, July 10th, after a long and emotional
debate the South Carolina state government has decided to remove the
Confederate flag from capitol grounds. Post-removal, the flag will be placed in
a nearby museum. The debate has been taken up by the federal government in
response to a recent amendment to a funding bill. The amendment, which would
ban the flag from the grounds of National Parks, has been opposed by
conservative Republican leaders who have pulled support from the bill.
Read:
Watch:
The US Women’s Team is
the First Women’s Team Honored in NYC:
The US could not have gotten a better birthday gift – during
the 4th of July weekend the US Women’s Soccer Team won the FIFA
finals. The game broke records as the most watched soccer game in the United
States. Its audience was larger than the most recent NBA finals, and last year’s
World Series. Despite the notoriety of the game, the women were paid substantially
less than their male counterparts. The
inequality of pay between the women’s and men’s team has been taken up by many
activists although nothing has come of demands to resolve the disparity. On the flip side of the sexism faced by the US
team, they became the first women’s team to be given a parade in NYC today!
Read:
What To Do About
Trump?:
Whether you love him or hate him, Trump is making news. Trump
has been receiving heat for racist comments made about Mexicans and Mexican
Americans earlier this month. In response GOP leaders have actively sought out
ways to tone down and/or remove Trump from the election. The leader of the RNC scolded
Trump in a call asking him to “tone it down” (although Trump remembers this differently,
see below) and FOX news has changed their debate requirements. Even in the face
of GOP disapproval Trump has managed to come up top in some polls.
Read:
Thursday, July 9, 2015
Get a Kick Out of This…
The FIFA Women’s World Cup Final was the most watched soccer
game in the United States to date.
Across the world, an estimated 25.4 million viewers tuned in to watch
Japan and the US battle for gold. The game’s audience exceeded last year’s
World Series and the most recent NBA finals. However, while we are proud of what
the US women’s team has achieved, there is a larger conversation much of mainstream
media has ignored in the post-victory excitement. That conversation is equal pay.
The US Women’s team has been awarded $6 million less than the US Men’s team, who couldn’t even make it past the first round in last year’s World cup. The winning prize, $2 million, is four times less than the award for men’s teams who lost in last year’s first round, $8 million. The gap only grows when comparing the total payouts between each tournament, $15 million for the Women’s World Cup v. $576 million for the Men’s World Cup (roughly 38 times greater).
FIFA has yet to respond to requests from activists to resolve the discrepancy. Last year, however, the secretary general described the idea of pay equality within FIFA tournaments as “nonsense”.
For more on this story check out the digital campaign started by the women’s rights advocacy group Ultraviolet … http://act.weareultraviolet.org/sign/fifa_women_hp/?source=hp
If you’d like to get involved in the fight for pay equality
here at home check out the Massachusetts Equal Pay Coalition.
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
In a 5-2 victory over Japan, the United States Women’s National Soccer Team won the World Cup finals in what was America’s 3rd title thus so far in the FIFA Women’s World Cup this 4th of July weekend. Their performance in Vancouver was absolutely stunning from start to finish; but much credit is due to midfielder Carli Lloyd who managed a remarkable 3 goals in just 16 minutes and pulled off yet another just before halftime. Team Captain Abby Wambach beamed that it was Lloyd who “won us [Team USA] this World Cup.”
There is no question that soccer is by far the most popular sport in the world; the Men’s World Cup draws in captivated fans from farthest stretches of the globe. The FIFA enterprise and its influence knows very few, if any cultural, linguistic, or national boundaries. Players like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are often spoken of with language of a purely religious register. Much of soccer’s popularity stems from the fact that it is not a game which demands expensive and complex practice regimen; any child, living in virtually any socioeconomic circumstance can just pick up a ball, head off to an empty space, and learn to play. Some of the best players in the world (who also happen to be some of the wealthiest men in the world) learned how to play soccer while living in abject poverty. While the United States has not found itself as enchanted by soccer as the rest of the international community (rendering it an outlier in this regard), soccer has increasingly become more popular amongst younger generations of Americans in recent years.
Despite all of this, it seems as though the fanfare is far less pronounced when women take the field. While women players are some of the most athletic people in the world and their games can be just as nerve-wracking and spectacular, the fanbase of the women teams has not picked up the same traction as male counterparts. Many, including Maggie Mertens, a writer for the Atlantic have posed the question as to why sports are not seriously considered a feminist issue. Since the passage of Title IX, little has been done to radically alter the playing field so to speak when it comes to women in sports. Mertens elaborates stating that many within the women’s movement feared that female athletes were, in a way, antagonistic towards feminism and viewed sports at large as a realm in which men displayed extreme forms of masculinity. Feminist publications like Jezebel seem to fall short in adequately covering women athletics and the feminist issues that arise from it (such as the 3:1 pay disparity in male and female soccer play salaries), and it is apparent that sports media isn’t doing their part either considering:
“...in 2014, ESPN’s SportsCenter dedicated 2 percent of its on-air time to covering women’s sports, according to a study published this week in the journal Communication & Sport. The study found that three local Los Angeles news networks did slightly better, devoting 3.2 percent of their sports coverage to women athletes.”
Soccer is considered inherently meritocratic but the media heavily shapes how we perceive the nature of certain sports through the employment of certain camera angles, preliminary commentary, and general representation. Women’s teams have historically been denied the same media coverage as their male counterparts which makes it appear as though women’s teams are in some way inferior, that their games are slower, and that their plays are less interesting - however, this clearly isn’t the case once the World Cup comes around and we see the true athleticism of women whose names the world apparently couldn’t bother to remember.
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