Pop Culture and Class Warfare

Throughout the duration of English 110, my mind has been opened to many different perspectives on work and class and how the two are related to one another. In particular, in the process of choosing primary sources, seeing other peoples sources, and looking at blogs related to work and class has made me more aware of how pop culture and the media are able to both reflect and have an effect upon different social classes.

Although my primary source was a comedic sketch produced by Mad TV, there are so many of examples of pieces in which the media or pop culture sources portray class warfare. For example, advertisements, like the Levi’s ad we analyzed in class, are likely intended to appeal to the masses so companies can sell as many of their products as possible. However, they do so by using class association as a motivator. But, regardless of their intentions, advertisements and other forms of pop culture may also be having an influence into how classes interact with one another. The media is often scrutinized for sending negative implicit messages, especially toward children and teenagers—who are considered by critics to be more easily influenced—and the same holds true for class warfare.

I think that in investigating texts which deal with class warfare I have learned that there is an evident relationship between how individuals act and how pop culture portrays people to act in our society. The same holds true for the ways the media presents class, work, and the relationship between people of different social classes to the public. Therefore, I feel that it is important that we as individuals are aware of invested in what we are choosing to read, listen to, and watch, and the messages that our forms of entertainment are sending.