Kate Giglio 1

As I was working on the reading for yesterday’s class, I kept in mind the question of “Why should we study popular culture?” We touched on it some in class and people had so many great reasons for studying pop culture! Some people said we should study popular culture because it is interesting and also because it is becoming more and more common in today’s worlds. One reason that I believe we should study popular culture is because it is a very sneaky form of persuasion. The reading and class discussion made me wonder… When you are at the store picking out clothes, are you picking out those clothes because you actually like them and want to wear them, or are you picking out that shirt because it looks similar to the one that Kim Kardashian wore on the new episode of “Keeping Up With The Kardashians?”

Also, in class yesterday we talked about how on television shows and movies, if a character is gay then that is the defining characteristic of that character. I was thinking about this and applying it to some shows and movies and most of them were right. Shows like “The New Normal” and “Will and Grace” portray gay characters who are defined by their sexuality. One character that I could think of that was gay but that was not defined by his sexuality was Dumbledore from Harry Potter. In the books, Dumbledore’s sexuality is never defined but J.K. Rowling has said that yes, Dumbledore is indeed gay.