Taking Popular Culture Seriously: The BGSU Effect

I did my undergraduate studies at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) in Bowling Green, Ohio.  One of the many things this school is known for* is that it has one of the only departments of popular culture in the country. An entire floor of the Jerome Library is devoted to the school's pop culture collection. And the ethos that popular culture is important and worthy of study, reflection, and evaluation permeates the entire institution.  Every literature, politics, and history class I took presented me with artifacts from various time periods and encouraged me to discuss their importance in the wider historical and cultural contexts.

Consider a history class in which we watched the Disney film Pocahontas, examined drawings and etchings from various time periods in which she was represented, read some material about her life, and then tried to figure out what the "truth" was. It was impossible, of course, but forced all of us to think really hard about what the purpose of each representation really was. Disney was not there to tell an accurate story, but to create a mythology around a Disney princess. The drawings from the time she was alive were there to sell the idea of a "taming of the savage" and their narratives were not to be trusted.  

I bring this up because I was recently looking up information about the song "The Pill" by the great and good Loretta Lynn. In this research, I learned that many rural doctors claimed that the song had more success in getting information out to women about contraception than they had in the previous decade. As a popular culture phenomenon, the song was a middling hit, but it created a ruckus and lots of awareness about birth control. It changed the narrative and the course of women's lives. It's an important piece of the story of women's liberation. It's not "just a song." It's an integral part of history and politics.

This is the background I bring with me to evaluations of books, podcast, and other media. I don't just consume culture without thinking about and its place in society. I don't read for mere entertainment, or, at the very least, I can't shut off the part of my brain that was trained for so long and so hard to look at culture as leading the way (or hindering the way) for social progress. I can't just read a romance novel and pretend that this billion dollar industry doesn't have an influence over how its readers think and feel.

The Bowne Popular Culture Library is home to a massive fiction archive and serves as a repository for professional organizations, including the Romance Writers of America. Citation.

Then, as if this were not enough, I went to grad school in a social science discipline.

 (For those of you who are curious as to how I read so much, the truth is that I learned in grad school. We were regularly given hundreds of pages to read each week for each seminar. I have always been a quick reader, but at the level of grad school, I had to step up my game or never be able to finish the reading for a week. It's a skill like any other and the key thing is that because I'm such a reader, I've never stopped practicing and so it's a skill that hasn't atrophied in my life.)

This furthered my instant critical reaction to everything. Our job was to critique and critique some more. And that brings me to my current state. 

So why don't I just join in and say I love all the popular things? Because I've lived my life in such a way as to prevent me from just not thinking and just mindlessly enjoying. I can't watch the Olympics without thinking about the political mess that is China and the IOC, I can't watch the Super Bowl without all the failings of the NFL ringing in my ears, and I can't read a romance novel without thinking it represents how far (or not) women have come in the last two hundred years. I can't just watch thousands of people stand up for a national anthem at a baseball game and not have flashbacks to Nazi Germany. There are a few things I can shut my critical brain off for - Taskmaster comes to mind - but this is how I am and what I do. 

So, for those of you who wonder why I am the way I am, here's your answer. I'm very much trained to do this. I can't shut it off and I feel like this blog is a great space for me to get out all of my thoughts without forcing them on my husband all the time. It turns out he doesn't care what I think of Jasmine Guillory or Robin Hobb, but maybe you do. 

But, if you don't. No worries. There's bound to be Zelda the Cat and Hannah the Dog content soon enough.

*Education programs, SICSIC, Scott Hamilton, Freida and Freddie Falcon also come to mind.  They are also strong in many other academic programs, including I/O psych and nursing.