Activism is a tricky task in many ways. What do you want to change? What are tangible ways to go about making that change? How do you make your voice heard? Once your voice is heard, how do you ensure that your message is palatable, clear, and impactful? These questions are asked and examined from every angle imaginable within every field at all concerned with activism. The Salvage Expeditions podcasts attempt to take a look at them, and acknowledge the advantages of utilizing pop culture in one’s mission. Pop culture is primarily made up of art of some sort, and is incredibly influential to the dominant culture. These things make it a point of great interest to the arts activist, even if their instinct is to discard it with disgust.
The ways in which pop culture can be manipulated to the purpose of the activist are many, and several relevant modes of use were alluded to in the podcast. The most profoundly advantageous quality of pop culture in this respect appears to be that it allows ideas the freedom of palatability. The mini-sode on 50 Shades of Grey emphasizes this by demonstrating that the film takes something broadly considered to be deviant behavior (BDSM) and slides it into a highly normalized framework. While the characters are practicing BDSM, they are within a film that is not frightening but mainstream and reinforces other cultural values. The result of this is a sense of comfort among the audience. They are given the opportunity to explore the unfamiliar through the familiar, increasing the chances that a demonized practice may become normalized. While I disagree with using 50 Shades of Grey as an example of this, as the BDSM practiced within it is more akin to an abusive relationship within a patriarchal and capitalistic schema than anything else, the core point in this podcast is valuable.
Meeting in the middle is a valuable thing for obvious reasons, and another way of doing so is discussed in the Billboard 100 podcast. While I do not believe that mainstream pop music is currently activism oriented, I do see the value in what the speakers bring up. The valuable quality of pop music is that it takes something familiar to the audience and adds a certain polish to it. This is what activists must do in their communications. No one is going to pick up a radical ecopsychology textbook and immediately run off to exist in a shamanistic culture. Palatable is the key word in much of what is discussed.
Lastly, social media and popular video games lend one the power of invisibility and anonymity. Both of these have power, anonymity especially so. The only thing I will say of invisibility is that it gives one the potential to observe what others might not, which always has power in it. When one is anonymous, they are treated as an equal until proven otherwise. Anonymity allows conversation and interaction that transcends the initial judgements of color, gender, and class. This strikes me as a potent vein of untapped potential, as could pop culture in general.
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