Extra Credit

You have to love relatives. I couldn’t even enjoy my Thanksgiving dinner without my lovely Aunt Mildred asking me about school. The one thing I really wanted to think about on my break!!! When we finally got on the topic of my Popular Culture class, she might as well have been laughing in my face. Aunt Mildred just didn’t understand how popular culture could be considered a legitimate academic course of study. That was my chance to put that old bat in her place.
I explained to her, that similarly to a book being judged by its cover, you can’t judge course content by the title of the class. I told her that what I had learned in this course so far was nothing to be scoffed at. Popular culture is everywhere. It incorporates television, movies, mass media, video games, books, clothing, music and so much more. I told her that a course in popular culture has academic benefit because studying this; it allows people to become introspective in thought. By looking at what is around you, you are forced to examine your value structure, belief system, and society in general. Popular culture has an influence on peoples’ choices, beliefs, and actions.
Further into our conversation, I told Aunt Mildred about the blog assignment I have been working on all semester. She didn’t quite understand that the X-Men movies could be adapted into academic study. I let her know that the reason I chose this topic was because of my enjoyment of the cartoons when I was young. I briefly skimmed over the plot of the movies and suggested that there was much more to the story than she thought. We talked about how the main concepts of the movies could be generalized to many of society’s problems. The conflict between human vs. mutant could be compared with good vs. evil, black vs. white, gay vs. straight. I showed her my video clip analysis and explained that it is important for young adults to learn that just because someone is different, does not mean there is anything wrong with them. It is a valued lesson, that of tolerance and acceptance. Today people are sometimes blinded to the fact that intolerance is still a major issue. There are many lessons to be learned through the study of popular culture.
All in all, my aunt felt a little embarrassed by the time she left. Being a respected scholar of romantic poetry, she should have realized how important popular culture is. I felt the need to inform her that romantic poetry, for instance, is a form of popular culture. Take Shakespeare’s writing for example, he was so popular in his time and after and had such an influence on different play writes and poets. I think she finally understood how popular culture is a valid academic subject.