Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Dominant culture
Since I led class on Tuesday, I'll start off with some thoughts about the impact of the dominant culture on our everyday lives. How much does the culture affect you and those around you? We already started talking about how aspects of the dominant culture seem to breed resistance. That's one way subcultures form. Have you had any experience with resistance?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I feel that the dominant culture has an impact on all of our lives and viewpoints, even if that impact is not consciously noticed. I think that many people are either striving to be accepted by the mainstream culture, or they striving to be out of the mainstream culture. In the case of the nonconformists, the effect of the dominant culture is a negative one (characteristics to be avoided). Personally, I feel that the media all around us is pushing for us to be a part of the dominant culture. Whether this means distancing ourselves from individuality or simply living a "normal" life is a point to be argued.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I spent most of my adolescent life resisting everyone and everything. This included trying out a number of aggressive identities that had little to do with who I feel like I am today. However, I've always had trouble being anyone other than who I am, and I feel like all these passes through different cultures (emo/punk/indie/hippie/hipster) were merely reflections of the values I idealized at that time in my life. They weren't projections or reaches for something I wasn't, but they're certainly not who I am now, either. Identities, for me, as resistant to mainstream culture as they might have been, felt true and real to me at the time and I held onto them until I felt like someone different. I hope I can continue to be honest with myself as I go through my adult life, but I have a sneaking suspicion I am way too stubborn in my convictions to do anything else.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in this idea of youth culture and its use of resistance as a way to develop an identity. After the first day in this class I had a week of confusion in which I just couldn't figure out what youth culture I had ascribed to in high school, or even what group I would be placed in now. As I asked other friends what youth culture they fit into and/or what their relationship was to the mainstream culture I realized everyone seemed to be responding in similar ways. Some can claim to have dabbled in defined youth cultures, but most are puzzled by an attempt to categorize themselves.. more importantly, no one wanted to be associated with mainstream culture. There seems to be a negative connotation that implies a lack of identity associated with mainstream. So maybe as youth grow and try to create a specific identity, resistance to the most prominent culture feels like a concrete way to be unique.
ReplyDelete