MDST*1030 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Tumblr, Diy Ethic, Ipod Advertising
Week 3: Parody, Cultural Appropriation, Reappropriation and Counter-Bricolage
Stuart Hall: Encoding and Decoding
-Dominant Hegemonic reading; identifying with the dominant message in an unquestioning
manner.
ie. Cinderella—patient and pretty girl wins prince. Meek shall inherit the earth. idea of fate.
-Negotiated reading; to negotiate an interpretation from the image and its dominant meanings.
ie. Cinderella—evil, greedy, jealous people fail; people get what they deserve.
-Oppositional reading; disagreeing with the hegemonic ideology or rejecting it.
ie. Cinderella—appearance and shoe size is irrelevant, things are rarely ever fair. Fate is
irrational.
-Hall’s theory criticized for being overly narrow — reducing what viewers do into 3 positions,
when in fact it is more likely that viewing practice fall along a continiuum of negotiated
meanings.
-More importantly; how can a lone single oppositional reading counter the popularity of a
particular cultural product on the basis of its dominant shared meaning.
-Whose reading matters? > this creates power struggles/ tension between hegemonic and
counter-hegemonic readings.
-One way we oppose dominant messages is to appropriate and reappropriate language, image
and text to suit counter-hegemonic goals.
Parody
-Kellogg’s, in this spot by Leo Burnett, appropriates common concerns among average women
and delivers their dialogue from unexpected sources.
-Appropriation of language typically delivered by women allows viewers to see more clearly the
challenges that body image pose for women in society.
Cultural appropriation art
-Appropriation taking something for oneself without permission. Cultural appropriation is to
borrow from and change the meaning of cultural products/artifacts/ language etc. Often we
see cultural appropriation in art.
-American Gothic makes a strong statement about the normative whiteness of America,
-Ella Watson makes a larger statement about social exclusion and inequality.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Cultural Appropriation in Fashion
-Dreadlocks, traditional African prints, images of Hindu gods, Native American accessories,
henna, Arabic scripture, tikka headpieces.
-People don’t wear + use things in a vacuum and there are many social and historical implications
to treating marginalized cultures like costumes.
-It’s also not a matter of ignoring “real” issues in favor of criticizing the missteps of a few
hipsters, fashion magazines, or baseball teams.
-Cultural appropriation is itself a real issue because it demonstrates the imbalance of power that
still remain between cultures that have been colonized and the ex- colonizers.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Week 3: parody, cultural appropriation, reappropriation and counter-bricolage. Dominant hegemonic reading; identifying with the dominant message in an unquestioning manner. ie. cinderella patient and pretty girl wins prince. Meek shall inherit the earth. idea of fate. Negotiated reading; to negotiate an interpretation from the image and its dominant meanings. ie. cinderella evil, greedy, jealous people fail; people get what they deserve. Oppositional reading; disagreeing with the hegemonic ideology or rejecting it. ie. cinderella appearance and shoe size is irrelevant, things are rarely ever fair. Hall"s theory criticized for being overly narrow reducing what viewers do into 3 positions, when in fact it is more likely that viewing practice fall along a continiuum of negotiated meanings. More importantly; how can a lone single oppositional reading counter the popularity of a particular cultural product on the basis of its dominant shared meaning. > this creates power struggles/ tension between hegemonic and counter-hegemonic readings.
