How Popular Culture Stereotypes Me, Free Essay Sample

Popular culture has different meanings, and this depends on the person who is defining it. The difference in the definition may stem from the different cultural inclination of the people. Popular culture is the accumulation of cultural aspects such as literature, music, art, film, dance, radio and television. The popular culture is determined majorly by the personal interactions between individuals in their daily activities, and this may also include mode of dressing, use of slang and the mass media. The paper shall provide details on how popular culture stereotypes me and its impact in developing a person's identity.

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To begin with mass media and entertainment form a dominant force in the creation and perpetuation of popular culture stereotypes. I am an African American, and the media has in many ways developed and passed racially and ethnically motivated messages (Childs, 291-300). In the movies and television, the characters who have roots from the not popular or the nondominant racial and ethnic groups often fall victim. It affects me primarily because of their usual storylines easy to follow in their cliche narratives, for instance, the black boys and the men are portrayed by the media or linked to criminality as drug dealers, abusive and drug dealers or users. The positive attributions to as the blacks are often limited to two areas, sports, and music. The media has in many ways created negative perceptions that affect even my interactions with my fellow students in schools especially those with White origin.

Another example of popular culture is music. In the popular culture there have been cultural misrepresentations and to be specific in the hip-hop culture. Hip-hop music can be a powerful instrument or tool to assist in the addressing, for instance, the racial identity in the United States with worldwide audiences that bring together blacks and whites audiences. The popular culture has however created stereotypes that affect me as a fan of Hip hop music. Many of the hip-hop music themes touch on equity and social justice and hence it would be wrong to generalize or stereotype me because of my genre of music. The pop artists create music that portrays us Black people with misogyny, hypersexuality, materialism and violence and this unfairly portrays us the black folks as violent people (Spenser 215). The stereotypes in this music have taken prevalence in the society, and this popular culture has played a role in creating strained relationships between people with different ethnic or racial backgrounds.

Culture plays a vital role in shaping a person's identity, but gender and ethnicity can also be considered the most obvious traits to recognize in a person. Impacts of culture on a person's identity include; First, impact on behavior, culture impacts in many different ways on a person for instance how an individual reacts in the event of a conflict situation and also the body languages that people use to express displeasure or happiness. The culture may be defined for instance by religion. In Islam religion presents the gender issue, for example, men are allowed to marry more than one wife, and this indicates that they are polygamous (Holtzman and Leon). Second, Impact on attitudes, culture creates different perceptions and attitudes towards different things or situations for example In Islam, the Muslim congregations segregate children, men and women and they worship in different groups. The people who get socialized in this kind of culture will develop an attitude and may not understand why in other cultures they worship in the same place.

In conclusion, culture highlights the way of life of the people. Culture is essential in the society, and some of its aspects create a sense of identity to some people. Also, culture is critical in explaining why some groups of people in the society succeed while others do not succeed. Culture is however not responsible for all of the things that happen in the society, and therefore the use of culture for instance to define failure or success obscures widespread biological and socioeconomic factors. Culture interrelates with other various factors and is not inert in itself.

Works Cited

Childs, David Jason. "Let's Talk About Race": Exploring Racial Stereotypes Using Popular Culture in Social Studies Classrooms." The Social Studies 105.6 (2014): 291-300.

Holtzman, Linda, and Leon Sharpe. Media messages: What film, television, and popular music teach us about race, class, gender, and sexual orientation. Routledge, 2014.

Spencer, Margaret Beale. "Cultural cognition and social cognition as identity correlates of Black children's personal-social development." Beginnings: The Art and Science of Planning Psychotherapy 215 (2013).