Dude, where’s my populism?
It’s a sad state of affairs when populism equates to ignorance and intolerance
Sometimes, during my university education in popular culture, when we’d be discussing race and identity in the Spice Girls or something, I would feel a strong urge to lean over and whisper to the person sitting next to me: “Dude, can you believe we get to study this stuff ?! In, like, SCHOOL?!”
It was hard to believe because we’d all been trained to believe that the mass media and mass-produced things we enjoyed in our leisure time were beneath higher education. One of the most interesting and memorable essays I read in my Intro to Pop Culture course was “Watching Dallas” by Ien Ang, which discussed the ways in which people consistently made an association between “bad” and “popular.” In other words: if it’s popular, it must be bad. This dynamic reinforces the idea that most of us aren’t good enough for the really important things in life; the lowbrows don’t have enough money to buy tickets to high culture events, nor enough education to appreciate what’s going on.
This is why people tend to admit they watch something like The Bachelor only if it’s framed as an ironic act in which the viewer laughs at the subject, and therefore asserts superiority over such “bad” entertainment. Our enjoyment of our popular choices is often mitigated by a slight embarrassment that we’re not doing less accessible, more valuable things, like listening to La Bohème or reading Infinite Jest.
But what if pop culture or “bad popular” texts were just as worthy of serious consideration? Just as significant to an understanding of humanity? What if they were even more significant? Aha, THEN the power comes back to us, and we validate ourselves — our desires, our choices. This theory of cultural populism attributed legitimacy and respect to popular culture. I thought this was one of the coolest things ever, so just like that, I switched from studies in English literature to studies in popular culture.
(Side note: there’s a contradiction here. University is seen as fairly highbrow, so doesn’t it betray the notion of popular power to suggest that only by taking university classes in popular culture can we understand popular culture? Well, kind of. But it also lifts the popular up, because pop culture is so complex, so significant, that it needs the kind of study and consideration of university classes. However, free online courses and the University of YouTube might accomplish a similar end: pop triumphs again!)
What’s become of my beloved cultural populism now? The word “populist” connotes ignorance and intolerance. The irony is that populism in the pop culture sense was all about knowledge and inclusion: whether it was Marvel Comics or The Oprah Winfrey Show or Riot Grrrl zines, it was worth thoughtful consideration, and an acknowledgement that, for better and worse, pop culture reflects and shapes our ideas and behaviours. That idea of populism made me want to turn toward the things that we, as a populace, created and gave our attention to. It made me want to dive in and think about what our choices in cultural texts had to say about us.
Now, I find that I want to turn away. Populist leaders have made a sham of the notion that “for the people” really means empowering and respecting the people. They lie to the public, they insult the public, and they promote the singular importance of business and the almighty dollar above everything else. Racism, homophobia, misogyny … they follow populist leaders like a bad smell. How could a word that suggests “the people” exclude so many of us? “Populist” has come to signify a kind of mob mentality — a desire to shut “others” out. And so once again, the popular is tinged with shame and ignorance. If it’s popular, it must be bad.
We’ve lost a key part of our vocabulary as people, the populous and the populace. For me, this entire family of words has been corrupted — robbed of its pride and its power. Because when we take a word that is supposed to mean the general public, and turn it into something that creates rifts and divisions, we are divided. We are conquered.
Latham Hunter is a writer and professor of communications and cultural studies; her work has been published in journals, anthologies, magazines and print news for 25 years. She blogs at The Kids’ Book Curator.