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Mai Trinh

Prof. Archer

ENGL 20803

08 March 2019

The Dark Side of Popular Culture

Nike. Barbie dolls. Disney princesses. Snapchat. Twitter. All these prominent aspects of

pop culture are well known everywhere. Nike represents a fitness lifestyle that can encourage

exercise and health. Barbie dolls and Disney princesses encourage girls to be independent.

Snapchat and Twitter encourage communication, building connections around the world. These

examples show how popular culture can be beneficial to society, but it is important to take on

different perspectives to see the entirety of pop culture’s effects. The strong influence of pop

culture through the media easily persuades and informs- or misinforms- us, carefully selecting

information to control our knowledge. Social media creates false impressions of standards and

issues, leading to the promotion of stereotypes and gender gaps, and it sets unrealistic

expectations, contributing to adverse effects on mental health.

Even though pop culture does help to spread awareness of issues affecting society, the

effort is counteracted with humor in a way to mask the strong impact they have on us, especially

when addressing violence. In the article, “Childish Gambino’s ‘This is America’ Video is a

Beautiful Nightmare,” by Clinton Yates, it is emphasized that the trauma our generation faces

“somehow allows us to make fun of the very specific way that we choose to kill each other”. In a

world with so much bloodshed, we choose to laugh instead of act. Even when action is taken,

instead of acknowledging the issues and working to share the impact they have on our culture,

tweets and memes reinterpret them for amusement. In a tweet, Snoop Dogg shares a meme
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depicting Childish Gambino shooting in an odd stance with the caption, “A n***a kill me in this

stance, God gotta give me a redo.” (Yates). The actual picture was taken from Childish

Gambino’s music video, “This is America,” which addresses the continued oppression of blacks

since slavery and the increase of violence in America today. We have been desensitized by social

media, and this has created the opposite of progressive activity; it reduces the feeling of fear and

makes us forget the seriousness of issues affecting not just us, our friends, and families, but

communities around the world. We live in a bubble, refusing to acknowledge that “the reality is

actually scarier than the nightmare we’ve been trapped in,” avoiding confrontation with glaring

issues that scare us (Yates).

There are some important issues represented through the media, but the issues portrayed

misinform us about problems affecting society as a whole. It causes us to only focus on what the

media has selected for us to see and to disregard what is not regularly displayed. We tend to

focus more on race and stereotypes, and although these do affect society adversely, we lack

attention to issues like poverty and the role they play in our culture. Not only does poverty affect

us, it affects the earth we live on. The impact of the popular culture is not merely local or even

national, it is global and affects cultures all around the world. By curving attention towards

specific problems and away from others, we build false impressions on what issues hold priority

and what can be brushed aside. Really, they all depend on the situation and the communities

affected. In this “highly technological world in which people are brought closer and closer by

omnipresent media,” mass media and pop culture become closely intertwined (Delaney). Going

hand in hand, mass media decides what aspects of pop culture it wants to portray, but at the same

time, much of the information presented becomes part of pop culture, which “both reflects and

influences people’s everyday life” (Delaney). The media chooses what information it wants or
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doesn’t want us to know about, brainwashing us in a sense. It uses its power to influence and

pressure us with extravagant claims and interpretations, usually presenting things in black and

white. We must choose one extreme or another with no in between or compromise: there must

only be good or bad, wrong or right. What is worse is that many people use social media as an

informational source and take things at face value, not questioning the accuracy or even

credibility of these deliberately biased statements.

People easily believe facts spoon fed to them, and through this, popular culture creates

unrealistic expectations, contributing to the increase in stereotypes and gender gaps. In Stephanie

Hanes’ article, “The Disney Princess Effect,” the issue of the hypersexualization of women is

addressed. By 2009, “nearly every woman to grace the [Rolling Stone] magazine’s cover was

conveyed in a blatantly sexual way, as compared with 17 percent of the men” (Hanes). These

images, consistently displayed through the media, create “certain standards and commonly held

beliefs… reflected in pop culture” (Hanes). Not only is sexual material displayed all around

stores through magazines and billboards, it has weaved its way into children’s animation. Disney

princesses such as Jasmine, wear sultry off-the-shoulder tops and bare their midriff and even

Miss Piggy shows cleavage (Hanes). This aspect of popular culture emphasizes the expectation

of women to be sexy, creating the stereotype that only the “beautiful” succeed, contributing to

gender gaps grown not from gender roles but the idea of the “ideal” female. So many of these

expectations have snaked their way into our culture that even innocent children feel the pressure

to conform to these sexualizing standards. In 2003, “NPD Fashionworld reported… that more

than $1.6 million is spent annually on thong underwear for 7-to-12-year-olds” (Hanes). Girls lose

their identity as they try to fit into the mold popular culture has created, hiding and altering

characteristics that make up who they are.


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Stereotypes and gender gaps are not the only problems progressed by popular culture.

Popular culture promotes consumerism and materialism, pushing individuals to attain

unnecessary goods and contributing to the increase in mental health issues. People feel the need

to buy this and do that just because it is the new trend and everyone wants to fit in. Even though

shared ideas and “things” can create a level playing field where people of different social

statuses and backgrounds share a commonality, they contribute to feelings of isolation and result

in conformity. In a way, popular culture hinders the development of individuality through the

constant pressure it puts on people to take part in what is going on at the moment, such as buying

certain clothes and participating in certain styles even if they do not particularly enjoy them.

“Consuming pop culture items often enhances an individual’s prestige in their peer group,” but

when these individuals are not able to access these certain materials, they feel left out and lost

(Delaney). Depression and anxiety are major health issues in our world right now and feeling

unwanted and pressured by popular culture should be minimized. The number of people who

deal with mental health issues is sharply increasing, and the correlation with the drastic growth

of technology and increased use of social media in daily life is not coincidental. On top of daily

responsibilities, like school or work, the pressure young adults feel to be “normal” and well-liked

have added unnecessary stress and caused detrimental effects, in some cases even suicide.

In many ways, popular culture dictates our lives as we let it influence us without thought.

It forms demanding, irrational standards and expectations while negatively affecting us in the

process. We are puppets in a world controlled by mass media and must make a habit of thinking

for ourselves. Nike. Barbie dolls. Disney princesses. Snapchat. Twitter. Nike represents a fitness

lifestyle that can encourage materialism. Barbie dolls and Disney princesses encourage girls be a

specific type of beautiful. Snapchat and Twitter encourage absurd humor, desensitizing people to
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issues affecting the world. While the benefits of popular culture can be easy to accept, realizing

and acting on the issues it creates and promotes can lead to a positive change in the mindset of

the world.
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Works Cited

Delaney, Tim. “Pop Culture: An Overview.” Philosophy Now, 2007,

https://philosophynow.org/issues/64/Pop_Culture_An_Overview. Accessed 12 Feb. 2019.

Hanes, Stephanie. “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect.” The Christian

Science Monitor, 24 Sep. 2011,

https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2011/0924/Little-girls-or-little-women-The-

Disney-princess-effect. Accessed 15 Feb. 2019.

Yates, Clinton. “Childish Gambino’s ‘This is America’ Video is a Beautiful Nightmare.” The

Undefeated, 8 May 2018, https://theundefeated.com/features/childish-gambinos-this-is-

america-video-is-a-beautiful-nightmare/. Accessed 15 Feb. 2019.

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