arrimusings

[arrimusings]

Response Post 3

Hi! Due to a series of unfortunate events that have occurred this week, I do not have a way of accessing my school account at this point in time. As such, I also do not have a way of looking for my classmates’ blog links, so I’m responding to people I’ve already made response posts to. Sorry for the confusion!

To @rachelclumpkin (love your posts!):

I love Hot Topic too! Whenever my boyfriend and I, or my friends and I, go out on a shopping trip, that’s one of our must-go places. My boyfriend isn’t much of a fan himself, but I love looking at all of the cute clothes, plushies, and pins. The pins especially, because they’re usually only a few dollars and they make for cute accessories and Christmas gifts. I can’t always afford to spend $40-60 on clothes, but I can always afford to spend $10 on multiple pins!

You mentioned in your blog post that when people think of Hot Topic, they’re probably thinking of this dark, gothic-themed place that seems more at home in the early 2000s. And on some levels, I think that’s part of Hot Topic’s marketing/branding strategy as well. There’s a certain charm and nostalgia factor to it in that way! I do agree though that that’s where a lot of people’s considerations on the store will end– some people will like that idea and enter the store, while others will be turned away. But, that shouldn’t be all Hot Topic is reduced to. Like you said, pop culture is a very big part of Hot Topic’s identity as a store. If you visit the store every few months or so, they’ll have new merchandise to accommodate the latest trend and/or popular media. They’re very in-tune with popular culture in multiple circles of the internet, I’ve noticed. They have a ton of band T-shirts, most of which I don’t recognize, but I see a lot of people stopping to look at them quite often. They also have video game and anime-related merchandise, which I believe is a more recent (but welcome) change. The first time I saw Five Nights At Freddy’s merch inside the store, I was very surprised– it had always been constrained to “gamer” circles on the internet as far as I had seen, so it was both surprising and exciting to see merchandise for it in a store I live close to! (I also had no idea they had so many options for unboxing, so thank you for letting me know!) Recently, they’ve brought back some more Demon Slayer merch in preparation for the upcoming movie in September. All that to say, I agree with your statement that pop culture is what makes Hot Topic such a big deal! They intentionally and carefully look at what’s trending in multiple circles of the internet, from music to shows to gaming, in order to provide a good and accurate selection for their customers. Very cool!

That’s all of my thoughts for the time being. I also love the “I’m just a girl” meme (because I am), and I think the license plate was an adorable find!

Link to post: https://www.tumblr.com/rachelclumpkin/788106226746736640/hot-topic?source=share

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Hello everyone! Today, I would like to talk about supermarkets as a part of popular culture. I’ll start off by talking about Walmart. It began as a single store in 1962, and eventually rose to become one of the biggest supermarket chains in the U.S. I don’t think this is one of the examples people typically think of in association to pop culture, but it is a popular part of our culture, so I definitely think it counts.

Now, obviously, Walmart is known for a lot, ranging from their distinct branding colors of white, blue, and yellow (the latter of which used to be red, apparently), to their “everyday low prices.” They’re in almost every city I’ve been to, and I can count on there being a Walmart nearby no matter what state I go to. For me, it’s kind of a comforting feeling, because it brings a sense of “normalcy” and “home” even when I’m far away from both of those things. I’m not actively thinking about any of those things whenever I go to a Walmart, of course, but it’s something I reflect back on every now and then. It’s been a constant in my life for as long as I can remember, and I probably wouldn’t go to a new grocery store if I moved to a place that had more options. A lot of that can probably be chalked up to an successful attempt at brand loyalty on Walmart’s part (and my fear of too much change), but I think many would agree that Walmart and other supermarket chains like Kroger and Publix are permanent fixtures in our daily lives. You go there for groceries, electronics, toys, and so on and so forth. I think I’ve gone through different points of my life where I’ve both loved and hated going grocery shopping– I loved getting to go places when I was little, disliked having to leave the house as a teenager, and now I enjoy it again because it gets me out of the house. So, I enjoy my weekly interactions with this part of pop culture! My mom’s joked, on multiple occasions, that I should buy my boyfriend a gift card to Walmart, since it seems to be his favorite place to be. And it’s true, we do enjoy visiting a lot. But I think it’s less about the grocery shopping and more about walking around and hanging out with each other. If we’re going in there to pick up snacks and a few other necessary things, we might only be in there for about 30 minutes, but if it’s true grocery shopping, we’ll be in there for an hour or more– which leaves a lot of time to talk with each other and enjoy each other’s company. My family enjoys going out to the store, too, since we don’t often go on big trips anymore. Though my experiences with Walmart and other grocery stores are my experiences and thus aren’t applicable to every single person’s experience, these are my thoughts on the effects of these stores on our culture as a society:

Things that supermarkets do:

Provides a space for human connection

Provides a space to purchase necessary resources (food, water, clothes)

Provides a space to buy utilities and appliances

Provides a space to buy unnecessary but desired items like phones, laptops, toys, etc.

With all of this in mind, I believe that grocery stores like Walmart have a place in popular culture because they’re an important resource in our modern society and people have positive associations with them. Furthermore, popular supermarket chains can influence people’s purchasing decisions through advertisements (seasonal or otherwise) and sales events, such as Black Friday (which is a whole other post and discussion). 

Those were all of the thoughts I could articulate on supermarkets at this time, but I would love to hear other thoughts on the subject. Bye for now!

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Hi everyone! I think my biggest pop culture interaction this week was Independence Day/Fourth of July. This holiday is meant to celebrate the United States’ independence from Great Britain, the 4th of July marking the date that the Declaration of Independence was signed back in 1776. I think it makes plenty of sense that it has become such a popular holiday, since it was a cause for celebration even before its official induction as a federal holiday. It continues to have a big influence on U.S. culture, so today, I just wanted to talk for a bit about my interaction with it this week and the things I see it impact whenever it comes around.

For my part, I never really celebrate “Independence Day.” While I understand the meaning behind it, I mostly interact with this holiday as just that– a holiday where I don’t have to do any work and my friends and I have an excuse to use fireworks. Before my grandparents passed, my family and I would do a small barbeque and set off some fireworks. After they passed, my friends and I ended up gathering each year at someone else’s house to hang out and set off fireworks. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed both! This year, though, due to a lot of outside factors, my friends and I decided to try zip lining and tubing (the former of which was considerably more enjoyable). I thought the experience was interesting– not just because of the high-risk sports, but also because it felt like it altered my connection to this pop culture phenomenon. I feel like I always associate the Fourth of July with fireworks and grilled food, and not experiencing those things made me feel as though I wasn’t really celebrating the holiday? In the same way that if you don’t have access to a phone, you feel disconnected with the outside world, it felt as though if I didn’t have access to fireworks or a grill, it didn’t feel like I was participating in this holiday. So, I thought it was interesting that it’s not only the pop culture impact but also the associations you have with it that determine how you feel in relation to the media or event. All in all, it was still a very exciting day! I just felt as though I wasn’t interacting with this piece of pop culture the “right way–” even though there is no set way to go about celebrating a holiday (particularly one that you don’t celebrate). 

The pop culture influence of the Fourth is very widespread. It affects how businesses decorate their storefronts, what kinds of deals and discounts they offer, and what merchandise they offer. Within the last week of June, our entire town had been decked out in red, white, and blue, with American flags flying on every lamp post we had. That’s another thing too– the colors red, white, and blue are all commonly associated with this holiday because they’re the colors of the American flag. It feels like:

Independence = Pride = Flag = Red, white, & blue = America = Independence = Pride = Celebration

Even if you somehow forget what day it is (which if you’re online frequently, is fairly difficult due to Fourth of July-related advertisements), you’re sure to remember as soon as you see those colors. They’re associated with this idea of “America,” which means they’re associated with ideas of independence and pride. They’re also associated with the flag itself, since country flags are typically seen as the symbol of their countries. So, since the United States flag represents these ideas of independence and freedom to its people, these are the colors and symbols you’ll see throughout this holiday.

That’s all I have for this post. Bye!

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Response Post 2

Hi all! This is my second response post. See below:

To @graytonsbigblog:

Hi Grayton! I definitely agree with your sentiment about disliking “nothing podcasts.” For me, I feel like those kinds of podcasts are super draining, because I’m learning no engaging or interesting information and am instead being bombarded with advertisements that I have no need for. I don’t mind the occasional advertisement in podcasts I enjoy, because they’re supporting good work by good people.

I really enjoyed your blog post about Stuff You Should Know. People have recommended educational podcasts to me before, but I never really got into them because I’m always so drained from school and my line of logic was, “Well, I’ve already been learning at school, so I don’t need to learn anymore right now.” I think you made a very persuasive and convincing argument for it though! I think I might start listening to SYSK soon.

In your post, you mentioned that in addition to the podcast, they also have a blog where they talk with researchers and experts about different topics. I think that’s really cool, because it not only adds credibility to the things they talk about on their podcast, but it also provides a place for them to interact with new people and learn new things to share with their audience!

You also gave an overview of one of the episodes they did over clocks. That sounds really interesting! I also had never really thought about how time and clocks work. It’s really odd, some of the things we don’t question because it’s become so normalized in everyday life! I feel like somebody should have questioned how the clock works (and, more importantly, how we know it’s correct) a long time ago. It’s cool that that’s a topic they go over on their podcast! Speaking of topics, you also mentioned that they have a wide variety of topics that they discuss, ranging from true crime to science. If you’re interested in true crime, have you listened to the Mr. Ballen podcast? My boyfriend convinced me to watch it at some point, and although every episode makes me increasingly more concerned about my survival chances if I travel alone in this world, each episode is very interesting, informative, and respectful to victims and families. Plus, each episode usually includes information about websites or organizations you can visit to donate towards locating victims, remains, or to solving cold cases, which I think is nice. Just something to think about!

I also think that it is really awesome that you feel like this podcast has made you a more curious person. When you think about the impact pop culture media has on people, sometimes it’s positive, and sometimes it’s negative. So, I think it’s good that you found and engaged with a piece of media that aims to both inform and push people to think more curiously and critically about what’s going on in our world today!

–

That’s all I have for this response post. I hope everyone has a good evening, and Happy Sunday!

Link to post: https://www.tumblr.com/graytonsbigblog/786968732580954112/post-4-sysk-better-than-nothing?source=share 

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Hello again, everyone! The second thing that I would like to talk about (though I unfortunately have not gotten the chance to watch yet) is KPop Demon Hunters (2025). It definitely is popular culture right now! I first heard about it on TikTok– which, usually, I don’t pay any mind to movie clips I see on TikTok because they corrupt my algorithm, but I really enjoyed the concept (and now I know the plot of the movie from watching it through clips on TikTok and YouTube Shorts). 

For those of you who haven’t heard about it, it’s a movie where this K-pop group called Huntrix (Rumi, Mira, and Zoe) are also demon hunters who are using their voices to strengthen the Honmoon, which is currently keeping the demons at bay (and this guy called Gwi-Ma, who, I don’t really understand yet because I haven’t watched the movie). To counteract this, a demon named Jinu comes up with the idea to start a K-pop boy band called the Saja Boys to steal Huntrix’s fans…and said fans’ souls. That’s conflict #1! Then there’s the whole conflict of Rumi being half-demon and struggling to accept both sides of herself (there’s also a little bit of romance with Jinu).

I really like the concept of this movie, and I think it is and will continue to have a big impact as pop culture media because it offers a thoughtful criticism of the K-pop industry, particularly through the Saja Boys:

Saja Boys

Names of members: Jinu, Abby, Mystery, Romance, Baby

The names and appearances of Abby, Mystery, Romance, and Baby are all calling out the ways in which some K-pop idols are treated

Some are overtly sexualized or romanticized (Abby, Romance), some are treated as a mystery (Mystery), and others are baby-ified (Baby)

They’re literally appealing to every K-pop stereotype

They’re demons and K-pop idols, so they have catchy songs. While it absolutely makes for a great movie, it also shows how blindly fans idolize and trust K-pop stars 

Their last song is literally called “Your Idol,” where they have lyrics like “Yeah you have me your heart, now I’m here for your soul”

In the movie, you can see the fans being drawn towards them, but I feel that the point is proved further in the reactions to the songs and the movie

I’ve seen comments under clips of the Saja Boys on TikTok that read “Yeah, my soul would have been captured so easily–” because even the fanbase for the movie recognizes the sometimes dangerous persuasive power that K-pop idols can have

I also think it’s cool that when “Takedown” starts playing unexpectedly during a Huntrix performance, Rumi immediately starts doing the choreography because while unprepared for this specific instance, K-pop idols train so extensively that they often memorize the dance moves in their muscle memory with the song.

To conclude, I think this movie is a fun concept, with K-pop demon hunters fighting against K-pop demons! I also think it’s a good introduction to the K-pop industry, showing the glamour of it all as well as the darker sides of it. I hope to be able to watch it soon, and I would encourage you all to watch it as well!

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Hi everyone! I don’t have any excuses for doing my blog posts on Sunday again, the week just got away from me…

I unfortunately haven’t seen much new online this week, but for one of my assignments this week, I had to talk about an example of a pop culture remix, so I want to talk more on that.

When you remix something, you’re juxtaposing two elements using an “aberrant reading strategy” to change the connection to one or both of those elements. I was struggling to think of an example of this that wasn’t Undertale because that would have been a good example, but I already used it for an assignment so I couldn’t reuse it again. Then, I remembered another game that had a big impact on pop culture because it remixed a genre of games– Fortnite!

Opinions on Fortnite are generally mixed from what I've observed, ranging from “this is a pretty fun game” to “this game is a sellout/ this game is too cutesy, etc.” I personally think it's pretty fun, if not occasionally frustrating (as most “shooter” games with battle royale game modes usually are). It's also pretty easy for my boyfriend and I to pick the game back up after not playing for a while because the controls are similar to other games we play. Plus, they added a “zero build” mode where you don't have to build, which is good for people like me who suck at building…

All of that being said, it made me think about how Fortnite got to where it is now– has it always been this popular? And the answer is, yes. 

When it was released in 2017, it got very popular very quickly because it had all these vibrant and cutesy graphics, AND you could even build structures within the confines of a battle royale. I think this was pretty big at the time because up until this point, gameplay mechanics where you could freely build structures like this were in games like Minecraft. At least, that's how I thought about it when I first started playing in 2020. At this point, my only interaction with big “shooter-” type games were in PUBG and Call of Duty. Both games I loved, mind you, because they were super fun to play with my friends. However, Fortnite was different because it was just so much more colorful, had animated graphics, and you could spend a few minutes during a quiet moment in a live match to just build a cute little structure (and then subsequently be defeated by an enemy player while you're distracted). 

Fortnite remixed “shooter” games by combining elements such as “building” and “destruction” together.

Building:

Can literally build structures in-game

Can build your character

Sometimes with more freedom, as seen with characters like Spectra Knight that have fully customizable armor and colors, but you can choose from different character skins, different wraps for your guns and vehicles, and multiple different accessory options 

Destruction

Destroying already-built structures, trees, and rocks to gain materials for building more structures

PvP

PvE

While the latter element is the one more commonly associated with these types of games, combining them together makes for a very engaging playing experience, and stands out as a stark contrast to previous games in its genre, moving away from this war-time aesthetic to something that's appealing to all audiences.

Once I finish these blog posts, I'll be playing Fortnite with my boyfriend because they've released a new season (and, honestly, it's been a while since we played the game and we missed it). That's another thing that I think had a big impact on pop culture– Fortnite is constantly updating to keep up with trends, as well as constantly updating its maps and storyline. While I am unsure if that was inspired by other games, vice versa, or some mixture of the two, that's definitely something that keeps drawing people back. For a while, they had “Fortnite OG” where they brought back some of the original maps and it brought a lot of people back (me included) on nostalgia value alone. Also, they're constantly adding new characters and soundtracks to the games based on what's going on in pop culture--they've recently added Sabrina Carpenter, and, just a little while before that, added Hatsune Miku (who I did spend $20 on).  I personally enjoy being able to customize my character to being more feminine in a way that I want to be. In previous games I played within the same genre, if I was able to play as a female character, it always felt like some assets had unrealistic proportions and sometimes felt overly-sexualized. I like being able to play as Hatsune Miku whenever I want. It still gives me that sense of escapism that I look for in video games while also letting me enjoy playing a traditionally masculine genre as a girl.

To conclude, I think Fortnite has had a pretty big impact on pop culture, especially within its genre of games. While it definitely has its issues (and there are multiple scholarly articles discussing its impact on children), I think it's still something interesting to interact with every now and then, so I definitely recommend that you play it if you get the chance!

Connection to class reading:

The reading for this lecture definitely made the concept of cultural remixes easier to understand. For this topic, we were assigned a reading that looked at To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995) and the messaging it sends as a cultural remix. Remixes usually put together two elements that are completely unlike each other, and To Wong Foo exhibits several, but the focus of the reading was on this idea of drag queens as angelic figures throughout the movie-- which I think definitely helped give a positive image of drag queens and queer culture at the time. This reading helped me understand how remixes work because, simply, it made sense to me. The elements of "drag queen" and "angel" weren't commonly associated with one another prior to the movie, and there was a lot of hate and stigmatization associated. This movie is remixes this idea by putting these 2 elements together and sending a strong, positive message about drag queens as a result. So, after a lot of thinking, this led me to Fortnite as an example of a cultural remix. It juxtaposes 2 elements, building & destruction, to create a "shooter" game that is open and appealing to all audiences.

Sources:

Hammond, J. D. (1996). Drag Queen as Angel: Transformation and Transcendence in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. Journal of Popular Film and Television, 24 (3).

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Response Post 1

Hi all! For this week’s response post, I wanted to talk about @rachelclumpkin's post on her experience with Pokémon Go. To Rachel:

I’m excited to see that someone wanted to talk about this game! I can relate to playing games I wouldn’t normally play because I want to understand why my boyfriend enjoys it so much– I had NO desire to play Destiny 2, but it’s one of his favorite games of all time and so many other people enjoy it, so I wanted to see what the hype was all about. He was right– it is a fun game… and I have spent way too much money on cosmetics and DLCs (downloadable content) for it. I got him back, though, because I was able to get him into this game called Genshin Impact and now he’s spent a lot of money irresponsibly as well. So, we’re even now (and now we spend money irresponsibly together.)

I learned a lot from your post! I am a video game girlie, and I love the Pokémon franchise, but Pokémon Go just wasn’t a game I ever got into. Plus, at the time the game came out, there were all these stories in the news about people getting into risky situations because they were Pokémon hunting and my mom firmly told me “NO” on downloading the game… Of course, once I became an adult, I tried it again, but, like you, I just couldn’t figure the game out and left it in the dredges of my memory. So, I was excited to learn more about the game from someone else!

I didn’t know that the game was offering so many Pokémon to catch– I had assumed that, because it’s already using a lot of power to utilize location services and the augmented-ish reality portions of the game, it couldn’t offer as many Pokémon. 1,000 Pokémon is a lot! I also think that you described the Pokédex perfectly. Also, I love that your favorite Pokémon is Wooloo– Wooloo is one of the newer Pokémon released, so I haven’t seen a whole lot of love for Wooloo. I’m so glad you like them!

Anyway, aside from my nerding out over Pokémon, it was really interesting to see you describe Pokémon Go as not just a video game, but also as a space for connection and communication with people all around the world due to how the trading system functions and how the game encourages trainers to work together in raids and battles. I hadn’t realized that Pokémon Go had Pokémon unique to real-life regions– I think that’s a wonderful way of not only making the game feel more realistic, but also encouraging international communication among its players. While trading is possible in regular Pokémon games as well, you have to be close by in order to trade, or be connected to a bigger network with a guaranteed WI-FI connection. You don’t really have to talk to anyone to accomplish that. Plus, the only reason you’d be trading Pokémon in one of the console games is either because you A) want to transfer your Pokémon to a different game or B) you want to evolve your Pokémon and this specific Pokémon only evolves through trading. If it’s an issue of finding Pokémon, you can just go out into the in-game world and find it yourself. So, I think it’s very cool that Pokémon Go makes it so you can’t just find Kangaskhan in your local McDonalds– you have to actively reach out to people. It’s more accurate to what would happen in the Pokémon universe, and it encourages human connection.

That’s all from me for now! I enjoyed reading your post, and I’m excited to see what you talk about next!

Link to post: https://www.tumblr.com/rachelclumpkin/786839775445434368/pok%C3%A9mon-go?source=share

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In class this week, we learned about autoethnographies, and we were asked to read a few examples. One autoethnography that particularly stood out to me was this reading titled “Taking Out the Trash: Using Critical Autoethnography to Challenge Representations of White Working-Class People in Popular Culture” by Tasha R. Rennels. To summarize, this essay talks about the author’s experience growing up in a trailer park. She struggled to find her place socially due to the stigma around trailer parks, which was further perpetuated by the popularization of the “white trash” stereotype in TV shows such as Trailer Park Boys. In this essay, she talks about how “white working-class people are made to appear in popular culture as if they are unable to abide by middle and upper class standards associated with their race.”  (Rennels 351). Meaning, if you don’t have what’s considered a “respectable” job or living situation, you’re tarnishing this idea of “whiteness,” and therefore must be “trash.” She goes on to talk about the portrayal of white working-class people in the media is harmful because it doesn’t accurately portray the complexities of that life. Rennels describes her own experience as “[existing] in a liminal space between the “white trash” and “educated elite.’’ ” (Rennels 351). 

I’ve lived a fairly privileged life all things considered, so I can’t relate to all of the ideas and feelings expressed in this autoethnography. I can, however, relate to this idea of “performative whiteness.” I’m white enough that I don’t have to worry about discrimination on a daily basis (other than the type associated with being a woman), but my hair and eyebrows are just close enough to being black and my shade of “white” is just dark enough that I have to be aware of how I present myself in public (I’ve had white men say “hola” to me one too many times despite not speaking Spanish or having grown up with it at all to not be!). Similarly to Rennels, my “ideal version of whiteness” was a blonde, white girl with the newest, trendiest clothes. She’s well liked, has a stable family and home life, lives in a nice neighborhood, is smart enough but not too smart, and she does normal things like watching reality TV and going to the movies with her friends. I often felt like I had to fit into that idea (or at least get close to it, because blonde looks terrible on me), and that meant no talking about Pokemon or anime at school, at least outside of my small friend group. Though, I gave up on the whole “not nerding out in public” thing once I hit high school because life’s too short to pretend Pokemon isn’t cool, and somehow I’d already been labeled as a part of the “geek/nerd” niche by my classmates without meaning to, so what was even the point anymore??

Despite that realization though, I’m still extremely conscious of who I’m talking to or what I’m talking about or how I present myself when talking to this person. A lot of this was perpetuated by a desire to not be isolated or made fun of, but part of it, similar to Rennels, was influenced by the shows I’d see on TV. Now, for me, that was shows like Jessie, Good Luck, Charlie!, Liv and Maddie, and, of course, High School Musical. Which, don’t get me wrong– I still love and enjoy these shows. But even when the young blonde teenager did something awkward or made a mistake, she was still pretty all the time, had an extremely nice house, and loving parents (though the latter I argue is still questionable for Jessie). Not to say that the punishment for mistakes should be the removal of all those things, but the issues didn’t feel as relatable because I knew I would never have her same circumstances, or have nearly as nice of clothes as she did. So, I kept feeling this pressure to perform closer and closer to how I saw these characters to eventually feel the same way about myself as she did.

All in all, yeah, I think this idea of “performative whiteness” is very real, and the media in popular culture often does a poor job of portraying every complexity of this experience. This is why I’m so grateful for shows like Gravity Falls and The Owl House, as well as video games like UNDERTALE, DELATRUNE, Sky: Children of the Light, Night in the Woods, and so on and so forth– all media where the characters are authentically themselves, even if that means being weird or nerdy or whatever. Also in these shows and video games, the home life and family situation is not perfect. Sometimes it’s dealing with broken families, broken people, or some combination of the two. It’s especially heartwarming that games like UNDERTALE and DELTARUNE have become so popular among the video gaming macro culture. It means people are identifying with the themes and messages presented in the stories. While it’s not always as apparent in UNDERTALE, in DELTARUNE, it’s very clear that Asgore and Toriel are divorced, and the effect it has on their children is strongly implied. While not the main focus of the game, it highlights the struggles of divorce and the conflicting emotions of wanting to move on and wanting everything to go back to normal. There’s also no stigma, in any of the media I mentioned, around being a certain way or living a certain way. There’s no “performative-anything".” It’s my hope that, as this kind of media becomes more popular, discussions around complex issues and living situations will become normalized, and there will be just a little less stigma to face in the world.

Rennels, Tasha. “Taking Out the Trash: Using Critical Autoethnography to Challenge Representations of White Working-Class People in Popular Culture.” The Popular Culture Journal, 2015, pp. 349-363.

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Hi all,

It’s been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad [week]. I’ve been offline for the majority of the week due to work responsibilities and financial struggles but!! I think I have enough material for two posts.

I’ll schedule the 2 posts so that they’re not back to back– I’d HOPED to finish half of my work yesterday and another half today, but SOMEONE froze my computer and I wasn’t able to restart it until this morning.

(the someone in question):

The thing I wanted to talk about this week is Juneteenth. While I was at work yesterday, there was a Juneteenth celebration happening in town. They had a small parade in the town square, and there were a bunch of vendor stalls close by. It caught me off guard, because I hadn’t seen any news about any Juneteenth celebrations (or events at all) happening on that day. I researched as many local calendars and news websites as I could find, but nothing popped up. It didn’t make any sense to me, because obviously the parade had to be sanctioned through the proper city channels for the police to be present to block the roads to stop traffic from interrupting the parade. Which, in that case, it should have been present on the city’s website and calendar– but it wasn’t. Maybe the event was planned last-minute, but radio silence from the city doesn’t make any sense to me. Even if it was just to post an advisory warning people about detours due to the parade, there should have been something. It just kind of bothered me that there wasn’t anything about it, even though it was a celebration.

It made me think about how Juneteenth is portrayed in the media I consume– which is, not at all. There’s Christmas episodes, Halloween episodes, Valentines Day episodes, and Fourth of July episodes (though I haven’t seen these as much since I started watching cartoons all the time)... but nothing over Juneteenth. I thought that maybe it was a media issue, so I started researching Juneteenth’s influence on pop culture and there’s actually a lot more out there than I thought! Shows like Black-ish and Atlanta have episodes dedicated to highlighting the holiday and exploring conversations surrounding it. There’s also plenty of literature, film, and songs that talk about Juneteenth, as well as the struggles that the black community has faced over the years and continues to deal with to this day. 

With all of this in mind, I think the main reason I don’t see a lot of Juneteenth representation in the media isn’t because it’s not there, but rather because I’ve been consuming media by white creators for primarily white audiences. While it doesn’t solve the overarching struggle for more representation of black culture in media, I can avoid falling into the trap of ignorance myself by expanding the variety of the media I consume.

Final thoughts: If you’re not seeing enough of a certain thing in the media that you feel should be bigger than it’s being given credit for, you need to start watching more media. I also think that we should start holding big brands more accountable for recognizing this holiday and continuing to recognize its significance and show support even after Juneteenth passes. In the same way that pride doesn’t (and shouldn’t) disappear after Pride Month ends, the struggles and achievements that the Black community has experienced doesn’t go away after Juneteenth ends. 

[arrimusings]

Hi all! The pop culture interaction I’ve had that I want to talk about this week is the new live action How to Train Your Dragon (2025). I just watched it yesterday, and, in my opinion, it’s the best live action adaptation of an animated film I’ve ever seen. I believe it fits the “pop culture” criteria because it was widely anticipated by our society and is influencing our society through getting hundreds of people to buy tickets to sit and watch this movie, through trends, reviews, and marketing (which, in turn, is influencing more social media influencers to make videos). Now, obviously, I can’t speak to the widespread effect this movie will end up having in a week or so, because it hasn’t even been out for that long at the time of this post. However, I think it will end up having a largely positive impact, so that’s what I’ll be attempting to discuss here.

Something that was discussed during our professor’s lecture this week was “cultural identity theory,” which discusses how we define our identities and understand ourselves within a cultural space. There are two main components to this: “Avowal,” which refers to the identities we avow ourselves, and “ascription” which refers to the identities other people ascribe to you. For example, I would avow myself a Toby Fox fan, because I follow all of his work very closely and have for many years. My boyfriend wouldn’t, but he would avow himself a Star Wars fan, because he loves all Star Wars media, movies, video games, or otherwise. My mom would probably ascribe the identity of… “sword lover,” or something, because she always notes how I prefer to use swords in games where guns are an option, and they’re one of my favorite things to buy and gift to people. It’s not an identity I would avow myself to (though I wouldn’t argue), but one that someone else ascribed to me. Also discussed was “identification” as a persuasive tactic– if the speaker identifies with the audience, the audience is more likely to identify with the speaker and be persuaded. Additionally, there’s the concept of “social construction–” I can’t remember if I wrote down my professor’s words word-for-word or if I summarized it in my lecture notes (but I’m giving them credit anyway because it was explained really well and sounded cool)-- which discusses how we socially construct ourselves and we are socially consumed. Meaning, we get feedback on how we’re performing our identities based on what we hear from other people and what we see in the media.

The reason I bring this up is because I first want to start by talking about why I think live action adaptations aren’t often received well. The example I’ll use here will be the first Percy Jackson live adaptation (NOT to be confused with the series on Disney+). Imagine you’ve grown up reading the Percy Jackson series. You’ve avowed yourself this identity of being a Percy Jackson fan. You’ve read all the books, bought merch, read all the fanfiction, and maybe you identify with Percy as being a child of a single mother who struggles to fit in and make lasting relationships. You love everything about the original series… which is why you aren’t entirely thrilled when Hades shows up as the main villain within the first 10 minutes of the film– something that doesn’t happen in the original novel, because Hades was never the villain. Plus, the movie doesn’t portray Percy like you remember, and it goes against the identity you’ve avowed yourself and what you’ve come to know. This is the case for a lot of live action adaptations– oftentimes, their deviation from the source material changes a lot of the values fans identified with in the first place. Then there’s the controversy over casting choices, especially when the actor chosen is a person of color (see: Twitter during The Little Mermaid (2023) ). While I’m firmly on the stance that diverse casting in media is necessary (and also of the opinion that casting does not matter if the spirit of the character is retained), understanding it through the lens of identification and cultural identity theory makes sense why some might not be as happy with it. Some, not all, because it’s still not an excuse for some people’s behavior, and it also isn’t the reason for every person’s qualms with casting.

Now that I’ve discussed the reasons why I personally believe live action adaptations aren’t received well (personally, because I don’t watch a lot of movies, I just observe a lot of online discourse, AND I could be using these terms wrong and I’ll have to reevaluate this for another week…), I want to talk about why I don’t think How to Train Your Dragon (2025) will have these issues. 

The script and scenes in the live action adaptation are essentially one-to-one with the original animated movie. While there are different casting choices for the vikings of Berk (both in the main cast and other characters in the world) and conversations that don’t happen in the original, it still retains the original plot and spirit of the movie. I would actually argue that the live action version enhances the original story! Relating back to some of the concepts I learned in class, I didn’t feel like this movie changed what I liked about the original. In the original movie, I really identified with Hiccup in feeling like I was trying hard to be something that I wasn’t (to be honest, I STILL relate to him sometimes). Plus, I really liked how they portrayed female characters in the movies– they were strong female characters, extending past physical strength and going into their character. I also liked that Astrid felt normal, like someone I might meet in the real world and not some powerful viking that could only exist in a fantasy world. The only concerns I had going into this movie was that they would change Astrid to being more headstrong– and ONLY headstrong, with no depth, or that they’d change Hiccup from being a lanky, awkward teenager to someone more confident (which, Hiccup gets his confidence eventually in the original, but that comes after a lot of development). But, the adaptation kept everything almost entirely the same. It didn’t change what I identified with in the first movie, and I think that people who avow themselves under the “How to Train Your Dragon fan” identity won’t be faced with something that contradicts that. Additionally, in the live action, there was a lot more diversity among the cast, which not only makes more sense in-universe, as Berk is a community of vikings from all over the world that have come together to hunt dragons (and so an all-white cast wouldn’t make sense), but it also positively affects “social construction” moving forward– especially for the youth that will be watching this movie. I hope that children of all racial and ethnic backgrounds will be able to see themselves represented in this movie, and that it will affect them positively. All in all, there will also be negative criticism-- not everyone will like this adaptation. However, I do think the widespread effect will be positive BECAUSE it doesn't challenge deeply-rooted identities, but instead portrays the original story respectfully, and offers more diverse representation in its casting for children and adults alike to view and identify with.

That concludes my rambling for now– I think I covered all of the main points I wanted to talk about. And if you’re thinking, “what about the part where you’re discussing YOUR relationship with pop culture media…” this is it. These were my initial thoughts after watching the movie, and I talked about them for probably an hour to my boyfriend and best friend on the car ride home from the movies. Happy Sunday!

[arrimusings]

Hi there! I go by Arrim or Tess on here (the internet), but anyone who's

1) followed me onto Tumblr from the dark ages (Amino)

2) wants to do a really deep dive on me for some reason

3) or came here from my class

can probably create a fairly accurate profile of me...

Anyways, our professor for our summer class over pop culture has tasked us with making a blog to record our pop culture consumption and analyze how we interact with and consume that media. So I'll be posting here at LEAST 2-3 times a week talking about just that (it will probably be a lot of yapping about video games and musicals. I apologize in advance).

I already have a Tumblr blog that I use semi-regularly, but I really only reblog posts on there, and haven't put much effort into it since my middle school days of writing fanfiction, rambling about my interests, and rambling in general. So, I'm excited to actually write posts instead of just scrolling and reblogging (which is also fun, but it's also nice to feel productive every now and then).

I'll probably make a post on my main blog to tell people about this one, so if you're here from that: Hi, welcome, I'll be doing more than just reblogs here 😭

To my classmates: Hi, welcome!! I'm excited to discuss pop culture with you all! I think this is a really interesting and engaging assignment that we get to work on, and I'm looking forward to explore some of my pop culture interests through a more rhetorical/analytical lens.

I'm unsure if this introductory post has to meet the minimum word count requirement of 500 words, or if that's only for the posts where I'm actively analyzing how I'm interacting with the media I'm consuming and connecting it to course material, but I'm sure I can get close! So, here's a Q&A of what I think might be the first questions people might have:

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Q: What's with "Arrim?"

A: I used to play a game called Toram Online and on my first account, I named my character "Mirra." I spent a lot of time on this account, but I accidentally sold a weapon I had spent a lot of time trying to craft, and it crushed me in such a way that I couldn't even continue playing that account-- I had to create an entirely new one. But, because I often lack any creativity at the most crucial of moments, I just mirrored my name from the previous character, creating "Arrim." Though I never intended for it to, this username ended up being used for the majority of my online interactions from that point onwards.

Q: Why Tumblr?

A: I already have a Tumblr account, and since Tumblr was verbally mentioned as a potential option, I felt it was only right to use the same platform to make ANOTHER blog. I've put considerably more effort into making this one look nice-- my other one is just an amalgamation of everything I'm interested in all at once. I'm hoping this one will be more organized.

Q: Woah, those are some cool cats in your banner. Who are those awesome and adorable cats??

A: No one's going to ask this. But their names are Gwen and Virus, respectively. I don't remember how Gwen got her name. Virus was born along two other siblings in 2020. He was accurately (albeit questionably) named Virus, while his sister and brother were named Corona and Memento Mori.

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...And that's all I can think of for the time being. Happy Monday!