Culture study and Media criticism

Your Name Subject and Section Professor’s Name December 12, 2024 Analyzing Cultural Appropriation in Mass Media through the Lens of Bell Hooks' "Eating the Other." Introduction Cultural studies aim to identify the relationship between culture, power, and society, examining how media texts are connected to the power relations of culture. At the heart of these studies is how media and popular culture negotiate race, identity, and power. Bell Hooks' seminal essay, "Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance," presents a critical analysis of how the domain of race/ethnicity is incorporated into the domain of the culture industry where race/ethnicity becomes an object of consumption in the name of progressive liberal- left politics. Hooks complains that while Otherness may be seemingly embraced, it is often commodified, depoliticized, and commodified for consumption by the dominant, thus perpetuating the power relations of Otherness. This paper uses Hooks' framework to analyze Beyoncé's "Formation" (2016). This media text engages deeply with race, identity, and cultural representation to explore how it navigates the fine line between resistance and complicity in commodification. Theory and Core Tenets In addition, bell hooks bring forward the aspect of Otherness, where we look at how Otherness is produced and consumed in mass culture. Her essay, "Eating the Other," posits that dominant groups commodify racial differences as a means of fulfilling their desires for novelty, exoticism, and transformation. Hooks deplores this as a form of commodification and erasure all at the same time regarding people of color's lives experience. She writes, "Within commodity culture, ethnicity becomes spice, seasoning that can liven up the dull dish that is mainstream white culture. This metaphor encapsulates her broader argument, which shows how most instances of cultural appropriation are conservative rather than radical Conservatism in fashion.[Bell Hooks, Black Looks: Race and Representation (Boston: South End Press, 1992), 21.] Central and Key Tenets 1 Commodification of Otherness High and Yokum thus bring the racial and ethnic Other into a mass culture where it becomes a body at the service of the white male subject that lacks any appreciable history or social significance. Beneath cultural imageries of traditions, styles, and practices, what is left is only a cultural capital that can be used to fuel the desires of the dominant group. 2 Desire as a Site of Domination and Resistance Hooks analyses how the desire for the Other can interfere with cultural barriers but is constructed within specific frames that reinforce other forms of oppression. Desire, when power relations are in play, is in service of the continued maintenance of power structures rather than challenging them. 3 Historical Amnesia and Decontextualization The encoding of the Other in this manner voids any past injustices and oppression suffered by minorities. In this way, the dominant cultural group displaces practices from the culture in which they exist and turns practices into objects of purchase. Most critical cultural studies were developed based on Hooks' theories. For example, Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model complements Hooks' analysis by highlighting how audiences interpret media texts differ...