Gender, Race, Sexuality and Pop Culture

Our discussion in class today got me thinking about zombies, besides the fact that I had no idea that people thought so much about zombies, I also found it interesting just how much they have permeated contemporary culture.  I found this article online and felt its discussion of the relation between consumerism and debt linked to a fascination with zombies in popular culture was similar to the theories we addressed in class.  In the article Fred Botting, a critical theory professor at Kingston University, compares interest in vampires vs. interest…read more

(This post is a response to the module on representations in reproduction) This module got me thinking again about one of the episodes of the very popular HBO show GIRLS.  In the series second episode the character Jessa believes that she is pregnant, her supportive friends decide to “throw” her an abortion and they all come to the clinic to help her through this troubling time.   Only things don’t go exactly according to plan, the unreliable and irresponsible Jessa doesn’t show up because she is busy drinking and hooking up with a…read more

I was out running errands the other day and noticed that just about every business that I entered played the Taylor Swift song “Shake it Off” at some point while I was there.  It is an extremely repetitive song that has the uncanny ability to burrow it’s hook into your brain so that you will embarrassingly start humming it throughout the day.  Once I caught myself doing this I starting thinking about it in relation to the texts discussions about pop music and Adorno’s conversation about how popular music promotes…read more