Blog Post #3
Quote: “Contemporary popular culture in the United States rarely represents the poor in ways that display integrity and dignity. Instead, the poor are portrayed through negative stereotypes.”
-Outlaw Culture, Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor Pg.196
The quote I chose from this reading I thought explained the overall theme of Hook’s piece really well. This quote in particular stood out to me the most however because it highlighted a subject that we don’t typically address in our society very openly. When we think about social inequality we often think of genders, roles, and allocation of resources. This quote I think goes beyond that and highlights how certain people are represented in different ways depending on their socioeconomic status.
This quote is telling of two things. The first being that within popular culture itself, the ‘poor’ aren’t given the same human characteristics such as integrity & dignity as others. This is detrimental not just to those who are ‘poor’ but also to those who are having their perceptions altered due to what popular culture is portraying. The second thing this quote is telling of is that the ‘poor’ are being portrayed for through a stereotypical lens that is only further separating the gap between social classes.
Hook’s article went on express how the ‘poor’ are represented in our society. Going further, she explained how in our capitalistic society we have become increasingly materialistic and we emphasize individualism over communalism.
One article I found that relates to this quote went over some of the problems that are present in the media. This article went on to list four different problems in how media depicts ‘poor’ people. Those four problems were: The Poor as Invisible, The Poor as Statistics, The Poor as Poor Due to Their Own Life Choices, and lastly, The Poor as “Temporarily Down on Their Luck”. In exploring each one of these further it becomes evident that all of these problems are truly portrayed in contemporary popular culture within the United States. I believe these are points Hook’s would stand behind as further causes to discriminating the ‘poor’. If we can stop labeling the ‘poor’ under these contrived circumstances, then perhaps we can become more cohesive as a society as opposed to divided.
The next article I found focused on the growing materialism qualities of our culture. Hook’s mentioned in her piece how the ‘poor’ are stereotyped as people who just want material objects to break the stereotypes they are put in. This article puts that in a different light, and instead draws materialism as something that is plaguing all of society, not just the ‘poor’. The article goes on to explain how having more money and items doesn’t really enhance your well-being as a person and I think that is what Hook’s was getting at in her piece.
This quote has helped me think of our society in a different way. I think that this piece has helped me discover something that is often overshadowed in our society. That is, that those labeled as ‘poor’ are stereotyped and looked at as lesser beings just because they may not have as much money or items as others. Even worse, is that our media depicts inaccurate stereotypes onto these people without understanding the harmful effects they are spreading into our culture. Perceptions are altered due to this, and we must address these problems to bring our society closer together instead of dividing it.
-Evan Fister COMM 160
References
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