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GENDER & SEXUALITY: POP CULTURE

Is Pop Culture Good?

How Gender and Sexuality Formed Pop Culture

Nakara Richards

Salem High School

Abstract
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Pop culture has been evident within society, starting from the basics of the human.

Throughout many centuries along with the advancement of humanity, there were groups of

people who took advantage of the movement to introduce new moral ideas to the public.

Through this educating process, people soon realize the importance of pop culture became so

evident because of roles, gender and sexuality being displayed to the future generations.

Keywords: queer, gender, pop culture

How Sexuality and Gender Formed Pop Culture


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Pop culture has stemmed from variants of individuals looking for a purpose for the future

to move forward, originating from prehistoric times until most recent years. With the discussion

of popular culture, there is the apparent argument that it corrupts the mind of the youth and isn’t

teaching them valuable information for them to apply when they are grown up. However, the

projection of the opposite gender and a wide spectrum of love for the same gender, and or

different genders has turned the public eye towards the most important thing. Popular culture

couldn’t have become such an essential piece to society if it wasn’t for the woman that carried

the strain on their shoulders as well people of spectral sexualities receiving discriminatory

oppression.

The battle between genders has been a constant topic before written on papers. Men have

and will always be viewed as the more dominant role in the public, politically and socially.

Women in pop culture were viewed as the “damsel in dismay”, often looking for the heroic male

to sweep her off of her feet to more precious lands. Women grew tired of the treatment, having

enough experience of what dominance is under their belt. Jennifer Lee O’Donnell (2014), a

professor at the University of Massachusetts, explains through a book review how women are

viewed through the public eye, and explains “the importance of recognizing abuse, incest, and

rape culture in the community”. This shows, even in recent years, that women are trying to make

an effective change by opening up about sensitive concepts that are demeaned by the public.

Beyond this book review provided by this professor, there has been an immense amount of

women that have done similars aspects such as Audrey Hepburn, known as a “UNICEF

representative and dedicated her life helping others”, and Gloria Steinem, who “wrote a powerful

expose about Playboy after going undercover”. Jessica Barber (2016) continues to give more

examples of women such as “Nina Simone”, “J.K. Rowling”, and “Debbie Harry” as other
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distinguishable women that have improved the meaning of popular culture for their actions.

Women, after the centuries of oppression delivered by their counterparts, have asserted above all

beliefs of conservatism to ensure the future of popular culture.

After women placed their assertions on the community, there came another group of

minorities contributing their time and effort to bring their spin of popular culture to a wider range

of individuals. People who found their love embedded in someone who wasn’t the opposite sex

often found themselves not having anyone to look up to through their upbringings, publically

known as “queers”. Until recent years, sexuality was deemed as a an immoral concept in some

popular culture aspects, but the degradation goes further back. Samantha Ladwig (2018), a writer

for important newspapers such as the Huffington Post and others, wrote an article concerning the

LGBTQ+ struggles in the Hollywood community during the early 20th century. In her article

“How Hollywood Closeted Queerness for Capital”, Ladwig explains that, “There was a level of

discretion within the industry, not to mention a publicity system contrived by studios that

covered up any mishaps by paying off reporters or offering up a juicier scandal,” as well as “

Unless their so-called immoral interests directly threatened box-office sales, the industry turned

its head,”. Even if these people during the turning point of the century were tested on importance

of their salary or their own sexuality, many individuals fought for the right of having both during

the production, and continued to push this needed agenda to shed knowledge through popular

culture, and wash away the orthodox thought process.

In recent years, it has been filled with people with orthodox and unorthodox views

towards the movement of women and queers in pop culture. Due to the uprise of their gratitude

in improvement of the popular culture recently, there has been many people who deemed their

ways as corrupted or perverted to them in addition to the minds of their children. When it comes
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to topics such as “rape, incest, and abuse” (O’Donnell 2014), a wide majority are willing to

disregard the entire controversy as a whole; therefore, neglecting to give their children the proper

education on situations revolving these topics. However, the exposure of these topics “ [have the

ability] to make complex material familiar and familiar material complex.”, O’Donnell explains,

emphasizing the importance of familiarity since many people are still not convinced. Along with

the dismissing point of how ‘vulgar’ women can be to include the future in current and pop

culture, queers also faces the same unorthodox manner of corrupting children if it’s presented to

them. William H. Hays created a Production Code during the 1920’s that studios had to abide by,

including “the removal of nudity, white slavery, homosexuality, and others” (Ladwig 2018).

With the creation of this code, queers caught on a tighter leash than before, but fought against the

discrimination to prove the point that love comes in a spectrum that shouldn’t be limited to just

one gender.

Queers and women have been the backbone of popular culture for many centuries now.

There are moments shown in history where women have spent their time exhausting their voices

and their rights so they would be viewed the same. Also in similar moments, queers accepting

the demeaning requests from people above their heads while working silently to improve the

community. Popular culture couldn’t have had this strong of a formation from just a few males

wanting to step outside of the box for a change. Popular culture could have only excelled to have

such a healthy backbone was because of the discrimination and the oppression that was placed

on the shoulders of women and queers from the beginning.


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References

Barber J. (2014, March 14). 13 Awesome Women From Pop Culture

Retrieved April 30, 2019 from

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/13-awesome-women-pop-culture

Ladwig, S (2018, January 8). How Hollywood Closeted Queerness for Capital
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Retrieved April 30, 2019 from

http://web.b.ebscohost.com.eztcc.vccs.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=11&sid

=8e2cbe4b-f891-4a57-8eb3-36acfa8eadb7%40sessionmgr103

O’Donnell, J. (2016). Gender & Pop culture: A Text Reader

Retrieved April 30, 2019 from

http://web.a.ebscohost.com.eztcc.vccs.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&sid=

43e47bba-3b1b-471c-8c02-93b9bb652b63%40sdc-v-sessmgr01

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