Pop Culture

Blog 11

No one can go through life today without being affected by pop culture. It’s a wickedly strong social force that is impossible to ignore. Pop culture can affect people in different ways, both positively and negatively, depending on the person. 

Growing up my mom read the best books to me. She read everything from The Velveteen Rabbit, The English Roses by Madonna, to every single Dr. Seuss book she could get, and many more. As a child I grew up with Barney the purple dinosaur, Garfield the orange and lazy cat, the clean comedic characters of The Muppets, all the 101 Dalmatians, Simba and Pumba from the Lion King, every Disney princess and prince, and many classics. As for music, my parents contributed to 100% of my musical experience as a child. My musical diet consisted of a healthy serving of classic jazz and blues, a hefty amount of rock’n’roll, and a little bit of country every now and then. I didn’t care what anyone thought of me and I thought I was pretty much awesome. 

Then when I started school in the mid-90’s my exposure changed. While I still secretly slept with my stuffed animals, read Dr. Seuss often, and adored everything Disney, my tastes elsewhere drastically changed. My friends and I were all about some Britney Spears, boy bands, plaid, scrunchies, Spice Girls, bubble gum, Mary-Kate and Ashley movies, shows like Hey Arnold and All That, and crimping our hair. I liked me, my friends liked me, and of course Justin Timberlake thought I was mighty fine. Pop culture had little to do with how I felt about myself or gender other than that I knew that the Back Streets Boys were a heck of a lot cuter than any boy I had class with. 

I changed a lot between those days and middle-school. I was a full blown “nonconformist” tomboy by then. I had no interest in girly things, fashion magazines, and all that. I liked alternative music and watched little TV. I had very low self-esteem and therefore chose rather to just not think about how much prettier the other girls were and just hid in my over-sized T-shirts. However, after meeting my best friend of that time, who was the complete opposite of me, things started to change. Social media, TV, music, movies, pop culture was my life. I loved to get all dressed up EVERY SINGLE day and always had my headphones on, blasting the latest underground music. I got my first cell phone around then and became the “texting queen,” as my parents called me. 

Pop culture certainly made me feel like a lesser person at different times of my life. Sometimes it made me feel like I wasn’t pretty enough, my boobs weren’t big enough, my skin wasn’t clear enough, my shirt wasn’t low enough, my skirt wasn’t short enough, my outfit wasn’t cool enough, the music I liked wasn’t rad enough, I didn’t know enough, and the list goes on and on. However, pop culture has also benefited me by helping me come out of my dark shell and becoming the happier, girlier, more involved person that I am. It’s all about finding a balance between who you are, your insecurities, and pop culture.