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Samenvatting Media, Culture & diversity
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Complete summary of Media, Culture & Diversity lessons and courses. Consists of 38 pages. Very successful in the first session.
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Watch: Shura – what’s it gonna be& Balance ton quoi - angèle
MEDIA, CULTURE & DIVERSITY
H2 CORE CONCEPTS APPROACHES AND DEBATES
1. Identity & sociocultural diversity
2. Identity politics & intersectionality
3. Wokeness & cancel culture
4. Representation – politics of representation & practice of stereotyping
IDENTITY AND DIVERSITY
1.1 ON SELF-IDENTITY AND SOCIAL IDENTITY
We make sense of ourselves through identity categories vb. Man, gay, black, Belgian …
They can be attributed to us, or we can use them to make sense of who we are
Basis for our identity
- Embodied traits
vb. Skin color, sexual desire, characteristics…
- Sociocultural features
Vb. National identity, religion, social class
CHRIS BARKER
He argues that identity refers to those conceptions, ideas, narratives we use and/or create to describe and
interpret how we make sense of our own selves as well as how we make sense of the selves of others
- Self-identity
= the verbal conceptions we hold about ourselves and our emotional identification with those self-
descriptions
- Social identity
= the expectations and opinions that others have of us
ANTHONY GIDDENS
He says that it is essential to understand that the way we make sense of ourselves and the world is based on
how we interact with others.
Socialization = the process whereby the helpless infant gradually becomes a self-aware knowledgeable person,
skilled in the ways of the culture into which she or he was born
Culture = consists of ways to think and talk about human activity within particular contexts and societies
making sense of our personhood depends on what culture enables us to be & what others expect us to be
1.2 SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONIST PERSPECTIVE
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM
= Identities and cultural repertoires that underpin identity categories differ from one cultural context to
another
= A theory of knowledge from the 1970’s. They do not dismiss the fact there is an objective reality but argue
that how we make sense of that reality is socially constructed. They vary culturally and historically
Culture as language & other discursive practices, which are used to describe and interpret aspects of the self
non-essentialist philosophy
1
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ESSENTIALISM
Assumes that certain embodied identities are natural, biological and exist prior to the birth of a person
Vb. Homosexuality
Social constructivism Essentialism
How a person makes sense of their sexuality depends on Homosexuality is something of all times. You are born with
how people signify aspects that relate to sexuality and it
gender. The outcome should be seen as the outcome of
social processes
1.3 SOCIOCULTURAL DIVERSITY, INEQUALITY, AND IDENTITY POLITICS
Identities are able to create a sense of belonging as the ‘sameness’ but it also implies that you differ from
other people
SOCIOCULTURAL DIVERSITY
= All kinds of differences between individuals and groups. It’s a deeply political practice as it is caught up in
highly contested sets of norms and values
Hierarchical – binary & oppositional
Certain identities have been discursively constructed as normal, mainstream and superior while others are
abnormal, deviant and inferior
Cultural repertoires that limit the diversity
Vb. There are many ways to be a man but only a limited set of behavior, attitudes and expressions are considered normal or
appropriate
By repeating these binary, normative assumptions we embed, normalize and obfuscate structural inequalities
Identity politics
Barker: “The forging of new languages of identity combined with acting to change social practices, usually
through the formation of coalitions where at least some values are shared
People are able to form a group to claim agency and act out to change the sociocultural status quo
Does not imply that they have the exact same identities & that the shared identity is experienced and
signified in a similar manner
Vb. #MeToo movement
Started as an activist group. When some Hollywood actresses used it, it suddenly became very popular and everyone started
to use it to stop sexual assault, sexual harassment. It does not mean that everyone who shared their story or is active in the
movement is the same. There are also as such, various strands of feminism
1.4 INTERSECTIONALITY
KIMBERLY CRENSHAW (1991) – ARTICLE ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN OF COLOR
Stressing the value of identity-based politics
- Is able to expose practices of oppression as social and systemic
- Have been a source of strength, community, and intellectual development, able to unite people
around a shared identity and cause
Issue with identity politics
- It conflates or ignores intragroup differences
it contributes tension among group
There is a need for intersectionality
= An analysis of various forms of discrimination, not looking at them separately
2
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Three forms of intersectionality
- Structural intersectionality
The ways in which the location of women of color at the intersection of race and gender makes our
actual experience of domestic violence, rape, and remedial reform qualitatively different than that of
white women
White women do not experience the same than non-white women (family honor, being refugee…)
- Political intersection
Is about making sure that an intersectional perspective is used as a basis for politics, creating policies
and laws that acknowledge structural intersectionality
Often you must split your energy between two formations – feminist movements & antiracist
movements.
- Representational intersectionality!!
Refers to the cultural construction of women of color
Allows us to look at representations from an intersectional lens and ask questions about the
sociocultural implications of representations
CASE: 2 LIVE CREW – CHARGED FOR SEXIST LYRICS
Two positions in the case
1. Feminist prism
The music was misogynistic filth and engaged in objectifying black women and condoning sexual
violence
Exclusively feminist lens failed to see that lawsuit is also shaped by race
What about the misogyny expressed by white rock bands?
Lawsuit based on stereotypical ideas about black masculinity and hip hop music
2. Antiracist prism
Forms of exaggerations intended to expose ridiculousness of stereotypes of black masculinity
o Political argument
The band wanted to advance the black antiracist agenda by liberating black men from these
stereotypes
o Cultural argument
they simply wanted to by funny, and it wasn’t intended to cause pain or injury
Anti-racist prism dismisses the symbolic and material power of men over women in society
Intra-group humour dismisses intersectional relationship: men mocking women as a means to bond
with other men
Crenshaw: Humor in which women are objectified as packages of bodily parts to serve some male needs
subordinates women in much the same way that racist humor subordinates
Intersectional approach
Categories of identities are still valuable but that they should be renegotiated to consider the intersectional
experiences which are often marginalized. Race and gender are valuable categories because it is required to be
able to unite them
It starts from the premise that people have multiple identities and being members of more than one group,
they can simultaneously experience oppression and privilege
1.5 AND WHAT ABOUT WOKE AND CANCEL CULTURE
Wokeness: The way divergent opinions and arguments about distinct identity-related issues are all seen as
woke
HISTORY
- Early 20th century
Reminder to be vigilant and stay alert as black Americans are treated differently
- 1962 William Melvin Kelley – article about woke
to be a socially conscious Black American, someone aware of the ephemeral nature of balck
3
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& Balance ton quoi - angèle
vernacular, who might actively be shifting that vernacular away from white people who would exploit
it or change its meaning
Throughout the 20th century it got different meanings
Main idea: being aware of systemic and social injustice
Consequences
- Corporate wokeness – woke-washing
Big corporations that do window-dressing
- International resignification (herbenoeming van het woord)
o In Belgium we only started using it by 2018
o Social conservative critics use the term in a derogatory manner and say it is an attack on
traditional norms and values
CANCEL CULTURE
The demand by activists for accountability of high-profile people or organizations and asking withdrawal of any
kind of support when they have said or done something unacceptable or highly problematic
it often happens on social media where there is no room for nuance, contemplation, and debate. Media
plays an important role
ON REPRESENTATION
2.1 POLITICS OF REPRESENTATION
Representation: how identities are talked about, described, discussed (they are not value-free but are political)
Stuart Hall: representation is the production of meaning through language
British cultural studies tradition
= study of cultural texts and practices that allows us to comprehend society, in which culture is produced and
consumed
Culture = the entire range of a society’s arts, beliefs, institutions, and communicative practices
POPULAR CULTURE
It articulates certain norms and values, favoring certain practices over others and can be seen as a form of
politics. The representations are able to maintain a social and cultural status quo They are ideological
BUT
Meaning is constantly renegotiated, and media can be part of both a struggle for and against hegemonic ideas
about society. It can feature resistant ideas
2.2 STEREOTYPING
WALTER LIPPMANN – PUBLIC OPINION (1922)
Stereotyping = A process of social categorization (social function). In the great blooming, buzzing confusion of
the outer world we pick out what our culture has already defined for us, and we tend to perceive that which we
have picked out in the form of stereotyped for us by our culture.
We use what we have learned to make sense of the world and people around us. The world is increasingly
complex, so we use it in an economic manner to make sense of the world quickly
RICHARD DYER (1993)
Critique on Lippmann: It also has an ideological function aside from a social function
Social function Ideological function
Social categorization (Lippmann) The consolidation of social hierarchies in given
societies
Those who create the order have the power to construct social hierarchies
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