Henderson 1

Andrew Henderson

ENGL 20803

Professor Archer

8 March 2019

Following the Story

We can all agree that pop culture has good and bad aspects to it. Worshipping the

Kardashians as gods and broadcasting Bono’s charity events all fall under the productions of

Hollywood and mass media. In truth however, popular culture follows the story, and whether

that be positive or negative merely depends on the demands of the audience. This is why pop

culture can insinuate an increase in stereotypes, yet at the same time bring attention to issues that

would’ve otherwise gone unnoticed.

One of the common trends in today’s society is for others to not accept blame for their

own actions. This is quite common, millennials in this era tend blame many of the problems

existing in the world on previous generations. Nothing exemplifies this better than the issue at

hand regarding child beauty pageants. This disgraceful addition in the media is purely for the

entertainment of adults, and in the process negatively impact child development. It introduces

physical standards, especially bodily concerns, at a very young age. It is surprising that “50

percent of 3-to-6-year-old girls worry that they are fat” and is preposterous that this statistic

merely exists in society today (Hanes). Having concerns about physical fitness as a young child

is extremely unhealthy and negatively impacts their mental development. The way it negatively

impacts a child’s brain is that at a very young age they are already concerned if they are too fat,

too skinny, too ugly. This is why the Disney Princess effect article was written, it seems

outlandish to blame your child’s bodily image concerns on loving movies about fairy tales and
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adventures with female protagonists. Why is this issue just being brought up today? For example,

the movie Cinderella was released in 1950, but do you see the children of the generation who

grew up watching it turning up in droves to complain to the media about imposing perceptions of

what the “ideal” female body looks like? No, this is an entirely new subject coming to light in

society today. Which leads to the possibility of two conclusions. Either that women’s opinions

were heavily oppressed when the movie was originally produced and therefore could not speak

out about the stereotypes this was imposing, or that this is modern day society attempting to put

down anything that shows women as a damsel in distress in. In this case, I find that it is a

combination of both. On the lighter side of things, it can be assumed that this exaggeration or

perpetration of negative cases are only in a minute amount of mass media. Yet these seem to be

brought to fruition on almost a daily basis in our lives. In essence, it is very important to take

everything you read on the internet with a grain of salt and make sure you fully understand the

background information before you formulate an opinion based off what a random article told

you to think.

Popular culture influences much of society today. It can influence the development of

children in positive and negative ways. It allows us to be more accepting of different opinions,

brings attention to aspects of life that otherwise we would be unbeknownst to us, and most

importantly it keeps us informed. We can all recall the days in which science geeks and nerds

were made fun of and bullied in the media, but now we are seeing children develop interests in

these subjects and having it be celebrated. There have even been “instances and reports about

students taking an interesting in Chemistry because of Breaking Bad,” there is award winning

television programs out now that are celebrating something that we used to shun (Ratha). It helps

the audience connect with the subject at hand because we see these characters and develop
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connections to them, and thus develop an interest in their lives. Therefore, it can be easily

explained how pop culture does have positive impacts on the lives of individuals. In essence, the

show Breaking Bad, pushed forward a stereotype that broke down barriers. The stereotype being

that science and chemistry were cool, not something associated with a nerdy culture. This was a

show in recent times, and to show how far we have come in so little years, in the television show

“Friends” and “How I Met Your Mother” there are many occasions in which the characters are

criticized by their friends with groans of boredom whenever a smart comment is made. Ross in

“Friends” is a paleontologist and is consistently made fun of by the others in the group for

having a nerdy job. Ted in “How I Met Your Mother” will often indulge himself in the fine arts

and fancy means of life, taking great passion in his knowledge for famous writers and poets, only

to be met with means of distaste and laughter from his friends when he attempts to express any

interests in the topic (Ratha)These shows supposedly have negative impacts on the youth and

child development. Now it very well can, seeing popular characters being put down for

expressing interests in certain topics can definitely turn away children from following their

passions if they share interests. With that being said, there are positive contributions that mass

media opinions can bring to the table.

Childish Gambino’s This is America sought out to bring attention to a very real and

present issue in America today, that being the problem of racism. Yes, society has made great

leaps and bounds with regards to eliminating discriminating and reducing racism, but the scars of

the past run deep. The video portrays African Americans living with gun violence and crime,

essentially chaos. In comparison to the Disney Princess Effect article which was outright

complaining, This is America did not appear to be pointing the finger at any particular group. It

intended to showcase the woeful conditions that many people of the black community live in.
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And the way it was accomplished was very in your face, but it did not feel like shouting. It felt

believable, it was much easier to connect to and understand the feelings of the afflicted, most

likely because there was a personal narrative component to it. The actions and messages are less

about a crazy nature of unending chaos and more so are “inevitable and ever-present” (Yates).

This popular culture piece is by no means perpetuating black stereotypes because it is casting the

stereotypes in a negative light. This idea that the issues expressed in the video are still here today

really hit hard that this is something that needs to be fixed in today’s society.

The Marvel movie Black Panther was produced and released in direct response to the

changing tide of America in which rampant racism was said to exist. This film idealized and

celebrated what it meant to be black in the United States and across the world. This was the inner

core of what Black Panther sought out to accomplish. The means to which they did so was

through having a nearly all black cast and calling back to an era when the continent of Africa

was not associated with sadness and poverty but filled with great civilizations and kings. The

general message of the movie itself was to celebrate black culture and “prismatic perspectives on

black life and tradition” (Smith). This movie was released at an important time in American

history. A Neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, North Carolina occurred, and the nation soon

became quickly irate at the apparent lack of concern by the president for his inevitability to

condemn such grievous actions. The release of Black Panther came at an opportune time, just

months after the attack, alleviating the nation’s concern that yes there are attempts to combat

racism in this country. In essence, this piece of pop culture alleviated negative stereotypes that

racism was present in America. However, there was backlash in response to its release, many

found that the movie itself only increased stereotypes of African-Americans. Many made fun of
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the movie online in chat rooms and only served to widen the gap between understanding the

affliction of the black race and hating it.

The world is heading towards a better direction with less tragedies, crime, racism, and

overall negativity. But that is not what the media would like their audience to believe. The media

only reports on the negative because it is what the people want, they want action, problems,

excitement. Nevertheless, popular culture does nothing more than to increase and perpetuate

media-generated stereotypes, but in the process they bring attention to issues that some portions

of the population would have failed to recognize.

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Works Cited

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

Science Monitor, 24 Sept. 2011, www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2011/0924/Little-

girls-or-little-women-The-Disney-princess-effect. Accessed 19 Feb. 2019.

Ratha, Sre. “The Impact of Pop Culture on Society.” Medium, 18 Mar. 2017,

https://medium.com/@thenewswell/impact-of-pop-culture-on-society-fde92ae986f0.

Accessed 5 Mar. 2019.

Williams, Delíce. “Three Theses about Black Panther.” Africology: The Journal of Pan African

Studies, vol.11, no.9, August 2018, pp. 27-30,

http://lib.tcu.edu/PURL/EZproxy_link.asp?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?di

rect=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,uid&db=a9h&AN=131466892&site=ehost-live.

Accessed 19 Feb. 2019.

Yates, Clinton. “Childish Gambino's 'This Is America' Video Is a Beautiful Nightmare.” The

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

video-is-a-beautiful-nightmare/. Accessed 19 Feb. 2019.