thefearwasreal (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thefearwasreal) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh2013-02-01 01:34 am
thefearwasreal) wrote in fandomhigh2013-02-01 01:34 am
Entry tags:
Pop Culture: Everything I Ever Needed To Know I Learnt From... [Thurs, 1st Period]
Oz numbered off the students as they entered the classroom today.
"Right, hegemony," Oz said, once the entire class had arrived. "Like I said week before last, the concept of a cultural hegemony is a society where instead of the Man keeping you down directly, the cultural norms are such that it seems like common sense to keep yourself down. This in turn will often lead to counterhegemony, which as the name suggests is resistance or opposition to the status quo, people saying 'your common sense is neither of those things', sometimes they'll appropriate the tools of mass media to in order to convince other people of this, if any of you have ever heard of culture jamming, that's what I'm talking about. Enough people subscribe to your newsletter and might have a flow-blown counterculture on your hands."
Oz paused to sip his coffee. "But of course, since the Man benefits from having a nice orderly society where everyone thinks it's just common sense he's in charge, they're usually not going to respond to countercultural movements with 'good for you, have some pie'. Sometimes they crack down on it, which if the counterculture isn't actually harming anyone, is a total dick move, and can backfire if people start wondering why you're smacking the hippies down so hard, sometimes they don't react effectively enough and the balance shifts over to the counterhegemonic movement altogether, with the counterculture becoming the new cultural norm, which can be good or bad depending on what these new cultural norms are. But usually it ends up somewhere in the middle with the dominant culture either adapting to the sub- and countercultures, or co-opting it for their own ends. Which is why you kids can now buy symbols of countercultural rebellion at Hot Topic."
"Now for the class activity. Ones are counterhegemonic idealist, twos are loyal to the Man. Find a partner from the opposite side. Ones come up with a way to convince people to stick it to the Man, twos try to figure out how you're going to react to that, ones then react to that reaction, and so on. Halfway to the end of class, swap around."
"Right, hegemony," Oz said, once the entire class had arrived. "Like I said week before last, the concept of a cultural hegemony is a society where instead of the Man keeping you down directly, the cultural norms are such that it seems like common sense to keep yourself down. This in turn will often lead to counterhegemony, which as the name suggests is resistance or opposition to the status quo, people saying 'your common sense is neither of those things', sometimes they'll appropriate the tools of mass media to in order to convince other people of this, if any of you have ever heard of culture jamming, that's what I'm talking about. Enough people subscribe to your newsletter and might have a flow-blown counterculture on your hands."
Oz paused to sip his coffee. "But of course, since the Man benefits from having a nice orderly society where everyone thinks it's just common sense he's in charge, they're usually not going to respond to countercultural movements with 'good for you, have some pie'. Sometimes they crack down on it, which if the counterculture isn't actually harming anyone, is a total dick move, and can backfire if people start wondering why you're smacking the hippies down so hard, sometimes they don't react effectively enough and the balance shifts over to the counterhegemonic movement altogether, with the counterculture becoming the new cultural norm, which can be good or bad depending on what these new cultural norms are. But usually it ends up somewhere in the middle with the dominant culture either adapting to the sub- and countercultures, or co-opting it for their own ends. Which is why you kids can now buy symbols of countercultural rebellion at Hot Topic."
"Now for the class activity. Ones are counterhegemonic idealist, twos are loyal to the Man. Find a partner from the opposite side. Ones come up with a way to convince people to stick it to the Man, twos try to figure out how you're going to react to that, ones then react to that reaction, and so on. Halfway to the end of class, swap around."
Sign In - Pop Culture [04]
Re: Sign In - Pop Culture [04]
Re: Sign In - Pop Culture [04]
Re: Sign In - Pop Culture [04]
Re: Sign In - Pop Culture [04]
Re: Sign In - Pop Culture [04]
Re: Sign In - Pop Culture [04]
Re: Sign In - Pop Culture [04]
no subject
no subject
no subject
Listen to Oz - Pop Culture [04]
Re: Listen to Oz - Pop Culture [04]
Look, it was the only way she was staying awake in this nonsense.
Class exercise - Pop Culture [04]
Re: Class exercise - Pop Culture [04]
Life as a One. Tough stuff.
Re: Class exercise - Pop Culture [04]
Re: Class exercise - Pop Culture [04]
... Evan and naivety were close friends, sometimes.
Re: Class exercise - Pop Culture [04]
A pause. "And I'm a two, so I have to say that."
Re: Class exercise - Pop Culture [04]
It... wasn't that hard to find, really.
"But what about all of the people that it lets down? It brags about equal representation, but people like mutants are expected to live separate from everyone else, and a lot of the time, 'away' still isn't good enough. Equality isn't really all that equal if a country still practices segregation, is it?"
Re: Class exercise - Pop Culture [04]
Re: Class exercise - Pop Culture [04]
"It's all fear-mongering," he leaned toward, instead of the obvious argument that Sentinels weren't in anybody's best interests. "It's... it's the government looking for scapegoats, to draw people's attention away from the real problems at hand. Things like..."
And because he didn't want to drag Victor into a serious conversation about mutant rights that neither of them really wanted to get into, he grabbed for the first utterly ridiculous thing that came to mind.
"... Reality television!"
Re: Class exercise - Pop Culture [04]
"Reality television is important," he said. "It helps show the public how attention wh- people who like attention a lot live. It's educational! I don't see how anyone can have a problem with it."
Re: Class exercise - Pop Culture [04]
"So, you think Jersey Shore is educational? Or that creepy show where they dress little girls up like adult supermodels?"
Because what.
Re: Class exercise - Pop Culture [04]
If he ignored the fact what he was saying was totally stupid, this was kind of fun.
Re: Class exercise - Pop Culture [04]
Because now the government was controlling people. Roll with it, Vic.
"They just... They're filling our heads with chemicals, using stuff like that, so they can make us do whatever they want! Why else would people want to be orange?"
Re: Class exercise - Pop Culture [04]
Re: Class exercise - Pop Culture [04]
He had no idea.
... But Ben Grimm was pretty awesome, he had to allow.
Re: Class exercise - Pop Culture [04]
"But, man," he said, "why are we here if we aren't supposed to try to be perfect? We just need role models like Snooki to help us, y'know ... achieve our destiny."
Re: Class exercise - Pop Culture [04]
Well, it was.
Re: Class exercise - Pop Culture [04]
"Orange is my favorite color," he said, and that was even true. "If sheep started coming in orange I would love it. You just oppose innovation, and science, and -- designer sheep."
Re: Class exercise - Pop Culture [04]
"Designer! Everything has to be designer nowadays! Designer this, designer that! You know who can actually afford designer sheep? The man, man! And what are they going to do with designer sheep?" Evan looked frantically around the room, trying to come up with something. "... Animal testing! For more spray-tan mind control!"
Hence why they were orange.
Re: Class exercise - Pop Culture [04]
WHAT.
Re: Class exercise - Pop Culture [04]
Evan was just laying out the facts as he saw them, Victor.
Re: Class exercise - Pop Culture [04]
Again: Robot taste buds were weird.
Re: Class exercise - Pop Culture [04]
"... Really?"
Chocolate and fruit punch? Did that even work?
Re: Class exercise - Pop Culture [04]
He was now completely off-topic.
Re: Class exercise - Pop Culture [04]
"... You know, I think I might have to. Thanks, Victor!"
Evan was going to regret this forever.
Re: Class exercise - Pop Culture [04]
You didn't want to hear Emily's real ideas.
Talk to Oz or the TA - Pop Culture [04]
Re: Talk to Oz or the TA - Pop Culture [04]
But Emily was too young to get there. Sure, she had already switched identities, convinced a law enforcer authority figure to protect her and gotten herself a Mysterious Asian Man.
She wouldn't underestimate her teacher though.
OOC - Pop Culture [04]