The article by Stuart Hall addressing ‘Black Popular Culture’ and Pedro Zamora’s Real World of Counterpublicity makes apparent the intricate lines that bind human identification in society. Hall states that even when assessing at ‘Black Popular Culture’, it is best understood by focusing on three historical times meaning, presently, black popular culture is not popular culture. What stands out, which Hall makes clear is that the issue we face is a fight over cultural hegemony and breaking the barrier of what is popular to include a more holistic representation of the majority. Black culture, which is deeply rooted in American history, is sidelined from the conversation of popular culture. Hall’s interest is to deconstruct the popular and include a true representation of everyone’s experiences, traditions and choices in order to be accepted as popular. This is not to discount the differences that exist among people.
A theme that joins Hall’s article and Zomara’s story is the realization that we as humans are always stuck between different personalities and different identifications, and this is a difficult idea to try and encapsulate into one social facet. Pedro Zamora’s story of being a Cuban-American, gay man living with AIDS in the spotlight of popular American culture exemplifies the need to reshape the dominant culture to make it more inclusive. The interesting aspect about Pedro Zamora’s personality while on MTV and off was he was fighting for the rights and protection of future queer and Latino individuals living in a world structured by homophobia and racism. He understood that the mainstream media did nothing to integrate people outside of the norm and worked towards normalizing queer and non-Caucasian people appearing on popular TV. Zomara’s inclusion onto MTV’s The Real World was his revolutionary stage where he begun to breakdown the barriers of normal for others to see that life as a gay person with AIDS was not any different from the lived experiences of a straight HIV negative individual.
Caitlyn Jenner from the Popular reality TV family the Kardashians, underwent gender transition and uses his-now her celebrity status and fame for the same ideals as Zamora. Caitlyn formally known as Bruce Jenner, changed her gender after living with insecurities of not being her true self. She publicly came out on TV and announced that most of her life she had felt she was a woman and wanted to live as she wished. She now uses her continued fame to help empower and protect individuals living with similar issues. She guest stars in TV talks openly discussing her transition, to an audience that is homophobic and sexist. Caitlyn has been the focus of a media frenzy over the past year and has inspired so many more individuals to be ok with themselves, just like Zamora, Caitlyn sees it as important for people to understand that someone her age can live a life that pleases them and society should never dictate otherwise.