There's been so much on my mind lately as I am constantly torn between excitement and discomfort. It is a constant unease -- a fantasy-based (but very real) suspicion that cultural identity is heavily abbreviated before making it into popular culture. It's been on my mind lately because I've been teaching a course on popular culture for a few months now, and with each course, it is consistently challenging to get a good conversation going. I experience ups and downs when I see any sign of critical thinking or closer examination of our ready-made subjects.
Deep down this worries me. What do we see? Is it worth getting emotional about? Is it an overreaction, which will pass eventually in light of much more important -- and less self-centered -- communal goals?
In short, can't we get over ourselves? Is everything really okay? UH, NO. Here's two examples, which pose distinct problems -- the media coverage and overwhelming support for a fair trial in the Pussy Riot case, and the deceptively positive reviews of the recent film, Beast of the Southern Wild.
How are these two examples connected? It's because they both stirred the same succession of emotions, and I knew later that was a sign of real danger.
When I first heard news of Pussy Riot's trial, a nostalgic admiration seeped into my readings of the various articles -- punk rock in Russia!?!? As Melena Ryzik astutely noted in a recent NY Times article that examined Pussy Riot's "successful" protest appeal as follows:
This question introduces the much quieter moments of rebellion that occur; they happen when everything seems fine and there seems to be no discernible struggle. I felt this when I watched (and cried during) Beasts of the Southern Wild.
Deep down this worries me. What do we see? Is it worth getting emotional about? Is it an overreaction, which will pass eventually in light of much more important -- and less self-centered -- communal goals?
In short, can't we get over ourselves? Is everything really okay? UH, NO. Here's two examples, which pose distinct problems -- the media coverage and overwhelming support for a fair trial in the Pussy Riot case, and the deceptively positive reviews of the recent film, Beast of the Southern Wild.
How are these two examples connected? It's because they both stirred the same succession of emotions, and I knew later that was a sign of real danger.
When I first heard news of Pussy Riot's trial, a nostalgic admiration seeped into my readings of the various articles -- punk rock in Russia!?!? As Melena Ryzik astutely noted in a recent NY Times article that examined Pussy Riot's "successful" protest appeal as follows:
It’s been a long time since music had the whiff of danger, and longer still since it carried the beat of political change, at least in democracies. Hardly anyone would’ve expected that to come out of Russia, where both the songcraft and the messaging seem outdated, vestiges of retro power-pop and a barely concealed propaganda machine.She's right -- it's an underdog tale made for America. Popular culture is based on the cult of the individual -- the hero who sticks to his or her ideals. They beckoned and we answered -- even the Guerrilla Girls (many young artists' first dose of anti-establishment outing of the art world) spoke back. According to Ryzik's article in the NY Times, the revered art banditas expressed solidarity from a perceived safe distance. Kathe Kollowitz, a member of the Guerrilla Girls, expressed her solidarity:
"Pussy Riot are our kind of girls: feminist activists in masks making trouble," Kathe Kollwitz and Frida Kahlo, pseudonymous Guerrilla Girls, wrote in an e-mail. "But, they added, "we live in a very different culture where art is not as dangerous, and we can pretty much do what we want"Kathe is right to an extent -- but this is the part where I feel a little crazy myself -- why don't I feel safe then? As an artist, an educator, and a woman -- why can't I trust that whatever happens in the States is relatively lighter in fare? Is our popular culture more understanding about these revolutionary musings that possess us (sorry, bad hysteria joke!) ladies every once in awhile?
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| August 17 sentencing for Pussy Riot members. Photograph courtesy of Natalia Kolesnikova/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images. |
