6.1 Chapter Learning Objectives and Overview
Learning Objectives
- Outline how the social sciences and humanities approach the study of culture.
- Compare and contrast ethnocentrism and cultural relativism.
- Identify the different elements of a culture.
- Explain material versus nonmaterial culture, declarative versus nondeclarative culture.
- Explain the significance of symbols and language to a culture.
- Differentiate values and norms.
- Compare subculture to dominant culture.
- Discuss the roles of both high culture and pop culture within society.
- Explain how cultural capital, boundary drawing, othering, and taste patterns can create inequalities.
Overview
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a movement within punk rock, called riot grrrl, emerged from Olympia, Washington, and Washington, D.C. (figure 6.1). The “riot” part of the name emphasizes the challenge to a society that continually devalues women. The “grrrl” part of the name makes a connection to childhood (girl) and sounds like an angry growl (Schilt 2003). Drawing inspiration from feminism, the movement addressed issues related to abuse, sexuality, patriarchy, rape, and racism. They did so through music, but also magazines (zines) and additional forms of media. One of the most well-known groups to emerge from the movement was Bikini Kill, fronted by Kathleen Hanna. Their song “Rebel Girl” struck at some of the core themes of the movement.
In the riot grrrl manifesto authored by Hanna (2011) for the Bikini Kill zine, she outlined some of the values of the movement:
BECAUSE we are interested in creating non-hierarchical ways of being AND making music, friends, and scenes based on communication + understanding, instead of competition + good/bad categorizations.
BECAUSE doing/reading/seeing/hearing cool things that validate and challenge us can help us gain the strength and sense of community that we need in order to figure out how bullshit like racism, able-bodieism, ageism, speciesism, classism, thinism, sexism, anti-semitism and heterosexism figures in our own lives.
BECAUSE we see fostering and supporting girl scenes and girl artists of all kinds as integral to this process.
BECAUSE we are angry at a society that tells us Girl = Dumb, Girl = Bad, Girl = Weak”
Yet most people in the United States probably remain unfamiliar with the movement. The mainstream media of the day did cover the movement, but a lot of the coverage was negative, claiming the movement was immature and ridiculous (Schilt 2003). Reflecting on her experiences, Hanna noted, (Burbank 2015) “[Bikini Kill was] very vilified during the ’90s by so many people, and hated by so many people, and I think that that’s been kind of written out of the history,” she says. “People were throwing chains at our heads—people hated us—and it was really, really hard to be in that band.”
How can we use our sociological imagination to help us understand riot grrrl? What does the movement and public reaction to it say about American culture? Reflecting on equity and diversity, whose voices were included and excluded in the movement? What role does culture play in those processes of inclusion and exclusion? In what follows, we will explore how sociologists understand culture, while developing some of the conceptual tools to answer these questions.
Licenses and Attributions for Chapter Learning Objectives and Overview
Open Content, Original
“Overview” by Matthew Gougherty is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Open Content, Shared Previously
Figure 6.1. “Pintada: “Revolution Grrrl Style Now” en Brighton (Inglaterra)” by Feral 78 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
to evaluate and judge another culture based on one’s own cultural norms. Ethnocentrism is believing your group is the correct measuring standard, and if other cultures do not measure up to it, they are wrong.
the practice of assessing a culture by its own standards and not in comparison to another culture.
deeply internalized and unconscious culture.
shared beliefs about what a group considers worthwhile or desirable.
the social expectations of how to behave in a situation.
a group within society that is differentiated by its distinctive values, norms, and lifestyle.
the values, norms, meanings, and practices of the group within society that is the most powerful.
patterns of behavior that are representative of a person’s social status.
forms of cultural expression associated with elite groups.
a group of people who live in a defined geographic area, interact with one another, and share a common culture.
the resources and power derived from being familiar with high (or legitimated) culture.
the process by which a powerful group defines into existence a group they construct as an “other." The powerful group does this by attributing negative characteristics to the “other” and deems the less powerful group to be inferior.
a perspective based on the idea that women and men should have equal legal and political rights. Feminism views the systematic oppression of people based on gender as problematic and something that should be changed. Also discussed as a feminist movement or a series of political campaigns for reform on a variety of issues that affect women’s quality of life
the sexual feelings, thoughts, attractions and behaviors individuals have toward other people.
an environment where characteristics associated with men and masculinity have more power and authority.
a type of prejudice and discrimination used to justify inequalities against individuals by maintaining that one racial category is somehow superior or inferior to others; it is a set of practices used by a racial dominant group to maximize advantages for itself by disadvantaging racial minority groups.
the belief that some individuals or groups are superior to others based on sex or gender.
discrimination or prejudice against gay people on the assumption that heterosexuality is the normal sexual orientation. (Oxford dictionary)
an awareness of the relationship between a person’s behavior and experience and the wider culture that shaped the person’s choices and perceptions.
the presence of differences, including psychological, physical, and social differences that occur among individuals.