Critical Theories of Popular Culture

The rainbow flag, alternatively referred to as the LGBT pride flag, has been a symbol of the LGBT community for over forty years. The original rainbow flag was designed by Gilbert Baker and flown at the 1978 San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade. Prior to that event, the pink triangle, once used by the Nazi regime to identify homosexual men interned at concentration camps, had been used a symbol for the LGBT community. However, the community sought a new symbol in Baker’s design which had eight color strips representing sex, life, healing, sunlight, nature, magic, serenity, and spirit. Over the years, it has been adapted and redesigned, resulting in the popularized six-color version of today. Historically, the rainbow flag has belonged to the LGBT community as a niche countercultural artifact in the larger heteronormative society. Its rise to general popularity is inseparable with the rise in LGBT advocacy, with President Clinton first declaring June as “Gay & Lesbian Pride Month” i...

When I was in preschool, one of my friends would always come to school with his nails painted. I asked him why he got his nails painted because I had only ever seen women with their nails painted. His fingertips were a mesmerizing shade of blue, and I knew that I needed to get my nails painted as well. On the ride home from school, I asked my grandmother to take me to get them painted, but she insisted that having one’s nails painted is reserved for only women. As years passed and I got older, the stigmas around being a straight male with his fingers painted did not dissipate. Having painted nails became more associated with homosexuality and femininity in grade school, and I lacked the confidence and comfortability to ever have my nails painted. I was still curious how my nails would feel and look if they were painted, but the enthusiasm that I had when I was 3 had vanished. This summer, however, my girlfriend asked me if she could paint my nails a clear coat, and I readily agreed as ...

*Note: In this paper, there are multiple spellings of Spider-Man. This is because in the 2002 movie hyphenated “Spider-Man” and in the most recent version of the film the hyphen was dropped. The story begins with Peter Parker, a nerdy teenager from New York trying to navigate the horrors of school. One day, he is bitten by a radioactive spider and acquires superhuman speed, strength, and “spidey” senses. By day, he is a science dweeb with girl troubles. By night, he is a web-slinging crime fighter. With these newfound powers, Parker transforms into a hero: the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. While there have been different versions of Spider-Man, the character’s origin has generally remained the same. When the movie Spider-Man (2002) premiered it grossed $821.7 million, making it the highest-grossing superhero movie at the time (2010). The movie’s marketing strategy reflected the politics of the early 2000s as many advertisements were impacted by the tragedy of Al Qaeda’s...

Murder and Makeup… on a Monday? Water and oil don’t mix, but true crime and makeup… might. Bailey Sarian is a 33 year old American Youtuber who has managed to effectively combine two of popular culture’s current infatuations which happen to be two of her favorite things: true crime and makeup. Since joining Youtube in 2013, she has accumulated more than 5.8 million subscribers and 642 million views. Sarian’s channel initially looked no different than any other beauty guru’s channel. However, it adapted a completely different look after she took a chance posting a video in which she delved into a popular murder mystery case while doing her makeup. This video was a success to say the least. Currently, the theme of her channel has changed drastically to a dark love for true crime and makeup. She has two ongoing series on her channel. The series “Murder, Mystery, & Makeup” has a new video every Monday and her podcast “Dark History” has a new video every Thursday. The audience she reach...

Score an invite to an A-list gallery event or the opening of a well-anticipated exhibit, and your first thought might not be about the art, but about who will be in attendance. Why? Because art consumption has long been thought of as an upper-class endeavor – much like attending the opera or ballet. In fact, this notion is so engrained that the National Endowment for the Arts nearly had their funding pulled by the House Budget Committee because its programs were believed to be “generally enjoyed by people of higher-income levels” (Mallonee, 2021). It is understandable then that the keepers of the gate, including art dealers, curators and collectors, are shaking in their Gucci loafers as the rise of mass media has threatened “high culture” art with “mass culture” NFT (nonfungible token) art. As culture critic Dwight Macdonald noted, traditional culture is “high culture’ – that is chronicled in the textbooks” and desired by the elite and upper classes (1953). While fine art has tradi...

  Over the past decade Walt Disney Studios has been on a mission to remake its classics. From Disney princess to beloved animated favorites like the Jungle Book, Disney is fashioning a future for a young generation that is ready to consume the same content as if it were new. I believe the punch line is something along the lines of “…like you never seen before,” Another familiar favorite: “experience it in IMAX.” But maybe now of perhaps its Ultra 4K HD. But what is this connection between technological advancement in cinema and our consumption of film? Let’s talk about CGI. In 2019 Disney released a completely CGI generated version of the 1994 animated classic The Lion King. Turning an animated movie into live action has the same appeal as reselling Peter Pan on Blu-Ray instead of DVD or re-releasing It’s a Wonderful Life in color instead of black and white. It’s something we as an audience have never experienced—but of course, we have. “But not like this!” as promos love to claim....

Carli Bybel started off her YouTube career way back in 2010 before influencers and the world of micro celebrities existed. She originally started posting videos because she was a freelance makeup artist and her clients wanted to see her work, so she filmed tutorials. She never imagined it would lead to the life she lives now. Carli currently has 6.1 million subscribers on YouTube and 4.6 million followers on Instagram. Although Carli’s channel started off as purely makeup, over the years she has branched into other areas including fashion, lifestyle, and most recently mom life. She has even had collaborations with big brands including Anastasia Beverly Hills and Missguided. Her fans value her opinion and trust the products she puts out. Now, while her intended audience started off as people wanting to see different makeup looks, over time she has been able to transform and grow her brand to reach a wider audience of people who may still want to see makeup but who are also invested in h...

Michelle Choi’s Living Alone Diaries: Relatable, Realistic and Intimate Calling New York City your home during your 20s is a whole vibe for youngsters today. New York radiates excitement, independence, self growth and discovery. In a city filled with a diverse range of values, races, movements and nations, there is an unending list of things to learn – the people, culture, art, food and career. The media has constantly reinforced the idea that New York is the place to be, romanticizing it as a place where imaginations and dreams are brought to life on screen. The glamorized image of New York is shown by traditional celebrities, who “embrace social media to create direct, unmediated relationships with fans, or at least the illusion of such” (Marwick, 2015, p.18). Traditional media portrays the city’s most affluent and successful lives, following the narrative that the city adheres to the worldly values of achievement and advancement. We see the Met Gala, with celebrities and red carpet...

  “it will be ok” Youtubers. Creators. Influencers. These titles are reserved for special individuals who are well known for their individuality and creativity to produce content for their designated audiences. An exemplary example of this is YouTube Sensation, Emma Chamberlain, who managed to gain over 10 million subscribers on the platform. Her relatable content and self-deprecating humor are what young individuals subscribed to. Unashamed of appearing bare-faced, she unveils her life as a regular person doing regular things while living an imperfect life. This coffee-obssessed, filter-free content creator has revealed her authenticity and managed to give herself an outlet for all to see. In “Communicative Intimacies: Influencers and Perceived Interconnectedness” by Crystal Abidin, it states that “Influencers are everyday, ordinary Internet users who accumulate a relatively large following on blogs and social media through the textual and visual narration of their personal lives ...

  What is so captivating about the Rubik’s Cube? Is it the way the pieces turn, smoothly with a satisfying click? Is it the overwhelming frustration of solving one side, only to mess it up later? Or is it the deceiving nature of the cube — simple but almost impossible to solve? Though this question remains unanswered, one thing is certain: the Rubik’s Cube is a significant popular culture artifact. This simplistic cube has quite a non-traditional history. Before becoming the best-selling toy and world’s most popular puzzle, the Rubik’s Cube was just a model built to teach college students about 3D movement. Invented in the 1970s by Ernő Rubik, a Hungarian sculptor and professor, the Cube became an instant hit with his students (“Our heritage,” 2019). During that time, Hungary was still a communist nation behind the Iron Curtain after the Soviet Union intervened, causing political instability. Therefore, Ernő Rubik faced great difficulty trying to pitch his new toy idea, as Hungary ...

  The clock strikes midnight and the facade of Cinderella being the best fairytale disappears. In 2004, the Disney princess movie Cinderella (1950) was remade into A Cinderella Story , creating a realistic and relatable modern-day version of the tale. The idea of finding a “Prince Charming” is placed into a technologically involved, high school environment.   The original Cinderella focuses on the rags to riches story of Cinderella transforming from being overburdened with housework to being a princess, leaving her stepmother and stepsisters behind. For the Walt Disney studio, it was important for Cinderella to be successful both monetarily and with audiences because after World War II, the studio was disconnected from its overseas audience. Additionally, they had released a series of failed movies, leaving the company $4 million dollars in debt. Luckily, the tale was well-liked, and over the years, has earned back $85 million dollars, and sparked many re-releases, seq...

Hairspray: Musical Masterpiece or Musical Mess? Hairspray offers the hilarious tale of 1960s teenagers pursuing fame on a local Baltimore television show while exposing the racist attitudes of the media industry during the civil rights movement. Tracy Turnblad and Penny Pingleton dance their way through the film's sixties’ inspired soundtrack, evading their parents and finding love along the way. So what’s not to like about dancing teenagers in an aestheticized 1960s world, with subplots of understanding racism? Well, that would be an oversimplified account of the complexities of the portrayal of the civil rights movement in both the original 1988 adaptation of Hairspray and more recent 2007 adaptation. The films offer an unrealistically utopian ending to a time period marked by hate and segregation. For all the musical lovers out there- the 2007 adaptation is the film for you. The musical aspect in the later adaptation is integral to the plotline and plays a much bigger role in ...