Getting Beyond Gender: Diversifying Our Cultural Analysis Examples

As I noted in class, the accepted truths surrounding gender roles and expectations in American society are just one of many possible subjects of a cultural analysis. Unfortunately, most of the examples we used in class only looked at American culture through a feminist lens.

I thought I would use this blog space to point to a few other examples which use race as the focal point.

Two discussions of representations of African Americans in video games, which appeared last year, are worth looking at: "This Is How We Get More Black People In Video Games" and "Race in Video Games: Why it Matters... And Why Things Won't Change Anytime Soon"

I really like these examples because they employ a different style that you might be used to seeing in formal essays -- but it is a style that works especially well in the blog format. They use a conversational tone (or structure) but are still serious and rigorous in their argument. They are not afraid to connect their analysis to personal experience -- or use personal experience as a starting point -- but their analysis is not simply a personal response; the writing is peppered with plenty of objective evidence to prove their points. 

In the end, they are smart but not stuffy.

Speaking of unconventional ways to communicate, the events in Ferguson, MO, have shined the light on how social media is changing the conversation about race. An article from Jezebel.com talks about the power of #Ferguson to alter traditional media coverage. Another article from the USAToday.com discusses social media's "Ferguson Effect."

Maybe the best -- or at least funniest -- cultural analysis of media coverage of the events in Ferguson came from Jon Stewart on The Daily Show:

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook