L1: introduction
Actuality
- Alyssa Milano: not the first of #MeToo, originated from Tarana Burke
- The Voice of Holland was cancelled for a year because of sex scandal increased more
awareness of sexual harassment
- In 2015 #OscarsSoWhite only a few people of colour were nominated in the Oscars
- Problematic episodes of ‘FC De Kampioenen’
- Video game & series ‘The Last Of Us’ review bombed: received twice as much reviews and
was the lowest scored because it was about 2 men
- Heightened sensitivity toward role popular media culture in challenging/shaping perceptions
& beliefs about minoritized identities
o Increased demand for fair/balanced representation
o … ‘the pendulum has swung too far’
- Culture wars not new
o 19th century: establishment democratic nation-states
o ‘wars’ over position religion in modern states, set of norms and values representing
the ‘modern states’
o Primarily fought through cultural media
- Media uproars over identity
o May be perceived as banal or insignificant, why is it important?
- People with minoritized identities
o Debates and backlashes can have an impact on their everyday lives
- Minoritized groups: granted legal rights, legal protection; inclusive policies but also this is
conditional, temporary and at risk of being reversed
o E.g. overturning of Roe v. Wade
- Politicians/policy-makers: aware of symbolic role of media & popular culture
- Commercial interests of big tech and cultural industries backtracking on their so-called
diversity and inclusion
- Activists, minoritized audiences: scrutinize role popular media culture plays in advancing or
hampering living conditions minoritized groups
L2: concepts, debates, and approaches
Identity and diversity in Western society
About identity
- Identity = way of thinking about ourselves crucial to see the constructions mostly based on
physical embodiment traits, turn into categories
- Ubiquity (alomtegenwoordigheid) of identity & identity markers/labels
- Basis for identity categories: bodily traits and sociocultural features
1
, - Richard Jenkins
o Identification: ‘the systematic establishment and signification, between individuals,
between collectivities and between individuals and collectivities, of relationships of
similarity and difference’ (process to make sense of ourselves comparing and
seeing differences and similarities) = form/claiming identity
o Identity: ‘denotes the ways in which individuals and collectivities are distinguished in
their relations with other individuals and collectivities’
o Both an interactional product of ‘external’ identification by others, as of ‘internal’
self-identification (personal like gender identity)
Internal categories: how you think based what you learned
External categories: labels in society
o Shaped by and dependent on culture: discourses & representations of identities
Non binary is not a trend, but is a language to allow people to make sense
about their non-binarity (electing certain words/terms to make sense)
Terms we use are dependent on culture
Cultural discourses & representations about identities
- (re)produced in popular media culture
- Help people make sense of who they are as a person (sexual desire, minority, giving peace of
mind/connection)
- May hamper people’s lives as they engender normative assumptions about people
(dangerous to get pushed in a category and follow assumed practices)
- Context-specific is important, it differs in different countries
Social constructionist perspective
- Theory of knowledge (1970)
o Idea that we have a reality make sense of reality is based on subjective processes
o Trying to understand our own identity and to understand that those ideas still
circulate what makes sense to you
- Identities are socially constructed and vary culturally and historically, it depends on when and
where we are
- Opposes an essentialist understanding of identity
o Essentialism (e.g. Andrew Tate)
Assumes that certain identities are natural, biological and ahistorical, existing
prior to the birth of a person (traits of men like aggression for all men)
Characteristic is fixed before you were born
Assumes persons with same identity share the same feelings and
experiences, throughout history across the globe (‘set in genes’)
Men and women ‘inherently different beings’
- Differences exist, but should be seen as the outcome of social processes and cultural
practices
o Why a certain category is created and why some categories are more powerful than
others
2
,Sociocultural diversity, inequality, and identity politics
-Sociocultural diversity: ‘all kinds of differences between individuals and groups’
-Discourses about diversity are deeply political
o Part of a powerplay to differentiate between people create hierarchy, power
dynamics
- Discursive constructions of identities as ‘normal’, ‘mainstream’ or ‘superior’ vs identities
constructed as ‘abnormal’, ‘deviant’ or ‘inferior’
o Constructing identities as binary, oppositional & hierarchical
o Constructing cultural repertoires that limit diversity within identity categories
Discourses became the structural inequalities in institutions, culture and everyday life
practices
o E.g. gender pay gap (women make less money on average)
- How to make visible, question, overthrow structural forms of oppression?
- Identity politics: ‘the forging of ‘new languages’ of identity combined with acting to change
social practices, usually through the formation of coalitions where at least some values are
shared’
o New languages are not enough need activism (identity politics are the start of
equality and demanding representation)
- Celebrating a share culture…
o Unite to demand something put differences aside and agree to this on demand
(e.g. expansion voting right for women)
o Often starting from a position of discriminations (shared values)
- … but at times presented as homogenous and essentialist
o Essentialism vs embracing diversity
- Alternatively, emphasising a shared identity as strategic
o Helps formation of a social collective & clear set of goals (more join = more power)
o Should not imply that other intersecting identities are annulled
o Shared identity can be experienced & signified in diverse ways
E.g. #MeToo
- ’me too’ movement: activist group, set up by Tarana Burke in 2006, support survivors of
sexual violence and other forms of systemic abuse of power (mainly women of colour)
- Viral in 2017: hashtag to call out sexual abuse and encourage other survivors to make explicit
the magnitude of abuse
- Abuse mainly reported by white Hollywood actresses received more media attention than
abuse reported by young women of colour
o High-profile celebrities hold celebrity capital
Celebrity capital: ‘accumulated media visibility through recurrent media
representations’ used to call out sexual harassment
o Women in precarious positions don’t dispose of the same symbolic or materials
means to call out powerful positioned men
3
, Intersectionality
- Kimberle Crenshaw (scholar in law, critical race theory and civil rights)
- ‘mapping the margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of
Color’ (1991)
- Identity politics: importance and pitfalls
o Importance: things have changed and become more aware and make communities
o Pitfall: communities don’t take into account the differences in groups
- Violence against women of colour: shaped by intersecting patterns of racism and sexism
3 intersectionality movements (Crenshaw)
1. Structural intersectionality: intersection of race and gender makes actual experiences of non-
white women qualitatively different than that of white women
o Experience violence: if your identity is a minoritized gender/race: white women will
experience violence and the aftermath differently than black women
2. Political intersectionality: intersectionality needs to be the fundamental basis for politics and
policies
o Feminist and anti-racist politics’ hegemonic logics have reproduced oppressive
discourses
3. Representational intersectionality: cultural construction of women of colour (when making,
consuming a critiquing popular culture)
o Using an intersectional lens to ask questions about the sociocultural implications of
representations
E.g. American lawsuit against the members of 2 Live Crew (Me So Horny, 1990)
- Arrested and charged under Florida’s obscenity statute, June 1990
- Two days before: federal court judge considers As Nasty as They Wanna Be (the album)
legally obscene and lacking artistic value
o ‘it is an appeal to dirty thoughts and the loins, not to the intellect and the mind’
- Members were acquitted (vrijgesproken) (October ’90) – album’s ‘obscene character’ only
later overturned (in ‘92)
- Crenshaw: focused on the public debate about the case (intersectionality becomes
important)
o What was being said about the representation of black women (at that point not
being included, even though the song was about black women)
o Debate dominated by two positions
1. Feminist position: music degrades and objectifies black women
Misogyny, objectification, condoning sexual violence against women
Lyrics: sexually explicit, co-construct black women as ‘bitches’, ‘cunts’, ‘hos’,
and ‘almighty dicks’
Exclusively feminist lens failed to see that case is also shaped by race
What about the misogyny expressed by white rock bands? (why hip
hop targeted for the first time targeted to black audience?)
Federal court’s ruling based on stereotypical ideas about black
masculinity and hip-hop music
Naturally aggressive, hyper sexual projecting stereotypes on hip
hop music and black people (question of race?)
4
Actuality
- Alyssa Milano: not the first of #MeToo, originated from Tarana Burke
- The Voice of Holland was cancelled for a year because of sex scandal increased more
awareness of sexual harassment
- In 2015 #OscarsSoWhite only a few people of colour were nominated in the Oscars
- Problematic episodes of ‘FC De Kampioenen’
- Video game & series ‘The Last Of Us’ review bombed: received twice as much reviews and
was the lowest scored because it was about 2 men
- Heightened sensitivity toward role popular media culture in challenging/shaping perceptions
& beliefs about minoritized identities
o Increased demand for fair/balanced representation
o … ‘the pendulum has swung too far’
- Culture wars not new
o 19th century: establishment democratic nation-states
o ‘wars’ over position religion in modern states, set of norms and values representing
the ‘modern states’
o Primarily fought through cultural media
- Media uproars over identity
o May be perceived as banal or insignificant, why is it important?
- People with minoritized identities
o Debates and backlashes can have an impact on their everyday lives
- Minoritized groups: granted legal rights, legal protection; inclusive policies but also this is
conditional, temporary and at risk of being reversed
o E.g. overturning of Roe v. Wade
- Politicians/policy-makers: aware of symbolic role of media & popular culture
- Commercial interests of big tech and cultural industries backtracking on their so-called
diversity and inclusion
- Activists, minoritized audiences: scrutinize role popular media culture plays in advancing or
hampering living conditions minoritized groups
L2: concepts, debates, and approaches
Identity and diversity in Western society
About identity
- Identity = way of thinking about ourselves crucial to see the constructions mostly based on
physical embodiment traits, turn into categories
- Ubiquity (alomtegenwoordigheid) of identity & identity markers/labels
- Basis for identity categories: bodily traits and sociocultural features
1
, - Richard Jenkins
o Identification: ‘the systematic establishment and signification, between individuals,
between collectivities and between individuals and collectivities, of relationships of
similarity and difference’ (process to make sense of ourselves comparing and
seeing differences and similarities) = form/claiming identity
o Identity: ‘denotes the ways in which individuals and collectivities are distinguished in
their relations with other individuals and collectivities’
o Both an interactional product of ‘external’ identification by others, as of ‘internal’
self-identification (personal like gender identity)
Internal categories: how you think based what you learned
External categories: labels in society
o Shaped by and dependent on culture: discourses & representations of identities
Non binary is not a trend, but is a language to allow people to make sense
about their non-binarity (electing certain words/terms to make sense)
Terms we use are dependent on culture
Cultural discourses & representations about identities
- (re)produced in popular media culture
- Help people make sense of who they are as a person (sexual desire, minority, giving peace of
mind/connection)
- May hamper people’s lives as they engender normative assumptions about people
(dangerous to get pushed in a category and follow assumed practices)
- Context-specific is important, it differs in different countries
Social constructionist perspective
- Theory of knowledge (1970)
o Idea that we have a reality make sense of reality is based on subjective processes
o Trying to understand our own identity and to understand that those ideas still
circulate what makes sense to you
- Identities are socially constructed and vary culturally and historically, it depends on when and
where we are
- Opposes an essentialist understanding of identity
o Essentialism (e.g. Andrew Tate)
Assumes that certain identities are natural, biological and ahistorical, existing
prior to the birth of a person (traits of men like aggression for all men)
Characteristic is fixed before you were born
Assumes persons with same identity share the same feelings and
experiences, throughout history across the globe (‘set in genes’)
Men and women ‘inherently different beings’
- Differences exist, but should be seen as the outcome of social processes and cultural
practices
o Why a certain category is created and why some categories are more powerful than
others
2
,Sociocultural diversity, inequality, and identity politics
-Sociocultural diversity: ‘all kinds of differences between individuals and groups’
-Discourses about diversity are deeply political
o Part of a powerplay to differentiate between people create hierarchy, power
dynamics
- Discursive constructions of identities as ‘normal’, ‘mainstream’ or ‘superior’ vs identities
constructed as ‘abnormal’, ‘deviant’ or ‘inferior’
o Constructing identities as binary, oppositional & hierarchical
o Constructing cultural repertoires that limit diversity within identity categories
Discourses became the structural inequalities in institutions, culture and everyday life
practices
o E.g. gender pay gap (women make less money on average)
- How to make visible, question, overthrow structural forms of oppression?
- Identity politics: ‘the forging of ‘new languages’ of identity combined with acting to change
social practices, usually through the formation of coalitions where at least some values are
shared’
o New languages are not enough need activism (identity politics are the start of
equality and demanding representation)
- Celebrating a share culture…
o Unite to demand something put differences aside and agree to this on demand
(e.g. expansion voting right for women)
o Often starting from a position of discriminations (shared values)
- … but at times presented as homogenous and essentialist
o Essentialism vs embracing diversity
- Alternatively, emphasising a shared identity as strategic
o Helps formation of a social collective & clear set of goals (more join = more power)
o Should not imply that other intersecting identities are annulled
o Shared identity can be experienced & signified in diverse ways
E.g. #MeToo
- ’me too’ movement: activist group, set up by Tarana Burke in 2006, support survivors of
sexual violence and other forms of systemic abuse of power (mainly women of colour)
- Viral in 2017: hashtag to call out sexual abuse and encourage other survivors to make explicit
the magnitude of abuse
- Abuse mainly reported by white Hollywood actresses received more media attention than
abuse reported by young women of colour
o High-profile celebrities hold celebrity capital
Celebrity capital: ‘accumulated media visibility through recurrent media
representations’ used to call out sexual harassment
o Women in precarious positions don’t dispose of the same symbolic or materials
means to call out powerful positioned men
3
, Intersectionality
- Kimberle Crenshaw (scholar in law, critical race theory and civil rights)
- ‘mapping the margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of
Color’ (1991)
- Identity politics: importance and pitfalls
o Importance: things have changed and become more aware and make communities
o Pitfall: communities don’t take into account the differences in groups
- Violence against women of colour: shaped by intersecting patterns of racism and sexism
3 intersectionality movements (Crenshaw)
1. Structural intersectionality: intersection of race and gender makes actual experiences of non-
white women qualitatively different than that of white women
o Experience violence: if your identity is a minoritized gender/race: white women will
experience violence and the aftermath differently than black women
2. Political intersectionality: intersectionality needs to be the fundamental basis for politics and
policies
o Feminist and anti-racist politics’ hegemonic logics have reproduced oppressive
discourses
3. Representational intersectionality: cultural construction of women of colour (when making,
consuming a critiquing popular culture)
o Using an intersectional lens to ask questions about the sociocultural implications of
representations
E.g. American lawsuit against the members of 2 Live Crew (Me So Horny, 1990)
- Arrested and charged under Florida’s obscenity statute, June 1990
- Two days before: federal court judge considers As Nasty as They Wanna Be (the album)
legally obscene and lacking artistic value
o ‘it is an appeal to dirty thoughts and the loins, not to the intellect and the mind’
- Members were acquitted (vrijgesproken) (October ’90) – album’s ‘obscene character’ only
later overturned (in ‘92)
- Crenshaw: focused on the public debate about the case (intersectionality becomes
important)
o What was being said about the representation of black women (at that point not
being included, even though the song was about black women)
o Debate dominated by two positions
1. Feminist position: music degrades and objectifies black women
Misogyny, objectification, condoning sexual violence against women
Lyrics: sexually explicit, co-construct black women as ‘bitches’, ‘cunts’, ‘hos’,
and ‘almighty dicks’
Exclusively feminist lens failed to see that case is also shaped by race
What about the misogyny expressed by white rock bands? (why hip
hop targeted for the first time targeted to black audience?)
Federal court’s ruling based on stereotypical ideas about black
masculinity and hip-hop music
Naturally aggressive, hyper sexual projecting stereotypes on hip
hop music and black people (question of race?)
4
