Popular Culture : Fads, Fashion And Leisure Activities

As most of our popular culture, everything is always changing. What is in while we are teenagers will be ancient in 10 years. The same goes for the wardrobes of women. I think that the clothing options have had a positive progression because of the acceptance of female sexuality. In the early 1920s women were extremely modest by showing little to know skin in their daily lives. Women were expected to be made up all of the time and that is something that I couldn’t even imagine. Being a Marian girl, there is nothing I love more than throwing my hair up every morning with no makeup. As you move into the 60s and 70s women began wearing skirts, dresses, and girdles. YUCK. There is nothing wrong with a more modest look, the problem I have with clothing is that even when mothers were cleaning the house they were expected to be in dresses or other types of uncomfortable, but nice looking clothing. It has been cool to see how slowly skirts have gotten shorter and more skin is being shown, but the central issue is the mindset of seeing women as sexual object rather than a person. Although in our time no type of clothing is surprising, there is still a sense of judgement from men and even older women when you wear something that makes your look like a “slut”. It saddens me that people really can’t look past what you are wearing. I hope the future for women is going to be

Popular culture is culture found in a large, heterogeneous society, that shares certain habits despite differences in other personal characteristic. Popular culture can consist of: a popular song, performer,movie or tv show, comic trip, “super hero”, etc.

Pop culture, or popular culture, is knowns as a term appeared in mid 20 century. It is defined as the categories of entertainment, politics, sports, fashion, technology, and have a way to influence a person's opinion to a certain topic.

Throughout American history and the 1900’s, fads have been a hugely successful form of self expression. From fashion, to recreation, to dumb and sometimes dangerous things that youths do, fads are a way to distract from the troubles of the world and find something else fun to do.

In ours’, it’s everything from MTV hits, to Breaking Bad to Miley Cyrus. But historically, pop culture derived from the lower classes and the “low” culture, the exiled counterpart to “high” culture. High culture was considered to compose of art, literature, and classical music created by and for the most prestige. Over time “pop culture” slowly began to replace the phrase “ low culture,” pop culture or low culture was defined by what it wasn’t; elegant, refined, high culture, than rather by what it was. Mass culture. The masses looked for entertainment and distraction, soon enough it was assumed for pop culture to simply just amuse. However, pop culture can never be dismissed as being “just” entertainment or for “only” amusement.

One might even notice that this whole “clothing epidemic” is going on right in front of their own eyes. Girls these days especially are prone to being sucked in by the way they dress. They believe that how they dress affects their popularity status. I myself have gone through this being a young girl at one point! I wonder where they could have gotten this idea from? Oh, that is right, this idea has been going on since the ancient times!

Around the middle of the 20th Century man cultures started to grow beyond what they previously were thanks to different mediums (such as television and music) helping to push boundaries; with this came the birth of pop culture. Considering pop culture is a shortened version of popular culture it’s clear that many of the things in pop culture would be short lived. The short lived trends and happenings are labeled as “fads”. Strangely enough, some fads progress beyond their short lifespan and actually become a mainstay in the varying international cultures. One such example might be familiar as it is common in today’s society. This example is, indeed, video games.

A fad or trend is a form of developing a popular subject in which we humans tend to follow and throughout time it either develops/changes or dies down. Most often times trends and or fads are associated with being gang related; for example, most people affiliate tattoos with criminals. According to John Backderf, a famous comic strip writer, also referred to as derf believes that the message behind a fad is misinterpreted which leads to peer pressure. To begin a trend derf believes that it all begins with a small crowd, once it’s been a style for a while it escalates to a bigger crowd (the popular people), and finally it gets so big that its everywhere. In my opinion I revise derf’s theory because on his first two thoughts I agree with it, expect with his last idea.

Everyone follows the current fashion. People just want to fit in and be cool. In this generation, others make fun of the kind of shoes you have and what you wear. Therefore it makes us feel that we need to be like others and dress like others in order to be

Popular culture, on the other hand, is a form of 'low' culture and is based primarily on marketing, mass production and revenue. Low culture is what is sold to the masses, ergo, low culture equals mass culture. All these terms refer to popular culture, defined in the Oxford Dictionary of Sociology as: '…accessible to

As a teenager, I know the pressure put on females to look a certain way. I attended a public high school in a rather wealthy area. So, while other girls could afford the “in” clothes, I spent my shopping days at the sales rack. My Christmas lists were full of basic jeans and shoes, because it was the

The study of popular culture is useful in many ways. To be more specific, this course has reached its three intended main ideas: what it means to be American, how to be more consumption-conscious, and how to apply these studies in our own lives. Jim Cullen puts this in a less specific sense, arguing that the study of popular culture can “afford valuable clues – about collective fears, hopes, and debates” (Cullen, The Art of Democracy, 2). We use these clues to understand the world around us, as well as why we do what we do as Americans and as humans. I will be touching on themes that relate to this quotation by Cullen, escapism, exploitation, and globalization, as well as how these themes relate to the course goals.

Although celebrity culture is typically associated with actors and actress, consumers may also rely on the trustfulness and credibility of politicians and first wives when deciding fashion trends. In the 1960s, fashion icon Jackie Kennedy took over the fashion industry (Joel 1). She appealed to many stay-at-home women because she was commonly known to have a “sophisticated simplicity” (Joel 1) approach to fashion. Her successor, First Lady Michelle Obama has instantly become a fashion icon herself as well. She is commonly seen wearing American designers therefore pushing “the American fashion industry into the international spotlight” (Givhan 1). People are often so draw to her style because it gives a glance into her personal life. As Givhan states, “Obama’s clothes have connected with the public in contemporary terms, in the language of Hollywood’s glamour, Seventh Avenue’s bold entrepreneurship and the democracy of the mass market” (Givhan 1). In March 2009, Michelle Obama appeared on the cover of US Vogue which showcased her “dress, style, and poise” (Gibson 40). Brett Schenck, president of Hart Schaffner Marx states, “It’s usually the frenzy behind the first lady” (Jones), but in the some instances, President Obama has also made an impact on the fashion industry. In the summer of 2009, designer Donatella Versace created a runway show that was designed and dedicated to him. The clothes she created where inspired by President Obama because it showcased “a relaxed man

The term “subculture” refers to a group of people who have similarities between them, and these similarities distinguish them significantly from other social groups. The similarities do not mean religious or political affiliation. These groups have different beliefs than the main culture and are youth oriented. These subcultures have their own styles of music, ideology,

Popular culture is a term that holds various meanings depending on where it 's being defined and the context of its use. It is usually recognized as the language or people’s culture that prevails in a society at a point in time. As social researcher Brummett explains in his book “Rhetorical Dimensions of Popular Culture”, pop culture reflects the characteristics of social life, where the publicly are most actively involved. Popular culture is known as the ‘culture of the people’. This culture is determined by the interactions between people within their daily activities, for instance, dressing styles, use of language, greeting rituals and the ways that people behave in public, etc. are all examples of popular culture. Popular culture is also diverted by the mass media (Abbott and Sapsford, 1987).