Claire London CAPS #5

Pop culture is defined as cultural products that most people share and know about (Martin and Nakayama 2013).  This could include television, magazines, music and etc.  Popular culture often exposes a variety of different cultures to its audiences.  However, not all people see these different cultures in the same way.  A lot of stereotypes are often made based off of pop culture and sometimes this is because pop culture eggs it on. 

A pop culture that I consume weekly is CBS Survivor.  Survivor is a game show featuring a group of castaways on a remote island competing in the form of physical and mental games in order to be the soul Survivor.  I don't know if any of you watch this show but this is one of my favorite seasons!  What makes this season so different is the competitors themselves.  Each season, they are split into tribes who compete against each other.  This season the tribes consist of brawns, brains, and beauty (three qualities that are detrimental to survival in the game).  These are all positive qualities and could be harmless names if you take it lightly. But obviously there is some stereotyping going on.  Three themes that assist in portraying these labels are repetition, recurrence, and forcefulness.  These themes also play a big part in the stereotyping that is going on by blatantly naming these teams brawns, brains, and beauty.  By repeating these tribe names it just places emphasis on all of the characters individually.  The recurrence of these names places a label on these people even more because the names are used so forcefully.  It is interesting because some of the beauty team members could also be on the brawn team.  Some of the brain team members could also be on the brawn team as well and visa-versa. 

This is where people can start resisting this season. They could be offended by these stereotypes and choose not to support the show.  I see how these themes are making certain assumptions about each of these contestants according to which tribe they are on. This also creates a little dialectical tension between the players, also.  For example, one of the girls on the beauty tribe is a little on the dumber side and one of her tribe members gets frustrated with her.  This type of thing is repeated through other players as well. However, some people may not see a problem with any of these labels.  I personally think it is a good way to high light the qualities that are vital to succeed in the game of survivor. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iflx6x5QJ38

Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2013). Intercultural communication in contexts (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.