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Legally Blonde: a Challenge on Blonde Stereotype By: Diah Nur Aini C 0301022

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Legally Blonde: a Challenge on Blonde Stereotype By: Diah Nur Aini C 0301022 Legally Blonde: A Challenge on Blonde Stereotype By: Diah Nur Aini C 0301022 CHAPTER II LITERARY REVIEW A. Popular Culture Popular culture is about ‘satisfaction’ all right, said Nachbar and Lause. It is ensuring people to get what they want no matter them need it or not. Popular culture refers to the products of human work and thought which are accepted and approved by a large member of community or population. (Nachbar and Lause, 1992:14). There are two elements on the definition above, which is ‘the acceptance’ and ‘a large member of community’. That two elements cannot be ignored because if one of it is eliminated, than it would not be a popular culture anymore. Other definition of popular culture which is similar to Nacbar and Lause is stated by John Storey. According to Storey, “Popular culture is simply culture which is widely favored or well liked by many people. (Storey, 2001: 6). However, popular necessarily implies an important element of choice as well. (Nachbar and Lause, 1992:10). It means that the more people like the product or event, the more popular it would be. “Popular culture forms the vast majority of the artifacts and events which compose our daily lives, but it does not consist of our entire culture. It surrounds us 10 but does not close other opportunities for existence apart from it.” (Nachbar and Lause, 1992:15).It is because all of us participate in at least two other kinds of culture. The cultures are folk culture and elite culture. Folk culture refers to the products of human work and thought (culture) that have developed within a limited community and that are communicated directly from generation to generation. 11 The means of communication is usually oral and the author is unknown. It is typically simple both thematically and technologically. Folk culture is not merely the culture of the poor and uneducated. We are all part of a “folk” as well as a member of the “masses”. Elite culture refers to the products of human work and thought produced by and for a limited number of people who have specialized interests, training and knowledge. The elite artists are known by the audience in order to understanding more about their work. The artist’s works are used to express the interpretation of the world or “for the ages” and not for a tiny folk community or for the entertainment and diversion of the masses. (Nachbar and Lause, 1992:15-16). Just as the folk that is not dealing with poverty and stupidity, elite culture is also not tied to wealth and intelligence. The relationship among folk, popular, and elite culture is important to understand the study of popular culture and the approach in culture. The relationship has been illustrated by Ray Browne in a simple diagram that represents several significant aspects of the way the cultures interact each other. Culture Folk Popular Elite 12 1. The relationship among the three is non evaluative. It means that the three cultures placed in the same level. 2. The shape of the representatives “egg” indicates that popular culture is the major portion of a society’s total way of life. It surrounds us and forms the fabric of our everyday lives in a way that folk and elite culture do not. 3. The relationship among the three is fluid. It means that there are no hard and fast lines separating the cultures from each other, but rather, each culture seem to ‘flow’ always indefinably into its neighbor. This fluid relationship in turn has two important elements: a. Each member of a society experiences all three types of culture. There are no lines to prevent an individual from moving freely from one culture or type to another. b. A given cultural artifact or event can change culture categories over time of because of changes in its mode of presentation or audience. (Brown in Nachbar and Lause, 1992: 16-17) The study of popular culture will revolve into several important characteristics of the subject that are: 1. It consists of artifacts, such as objects and people, and events (activities surrounding the objects and people). 2. It reflects beliefs and values of audiences. 3. It shapes beliefs and values. 4. It must be commercial; it is produced to get money. 13 5. It is often imitative, means that it will repeat if it works. 6. It surrounds us. (Nachbar and Lause, 1992:10) Popular culture is not about true or false. It is more about satisfaction as what have been said by Nachbar and Lause. It is also about choice as well because no one can choose to do otherwise. In analyzing popular culture, people need to understand and appreciate it and then reveal the beliefs and values of it. In order to understand deeper about the study of popular culture, we can see “the house of popular culture” illustrated by Nachbar and Lause. However, we need to keep the following points before we start the tour in the house: 1. All of the rooms are related to each other in important ways. Each room draws from other rooms and, in turn, provides meaning to elements of other rooms in the house. The arrows between rooms and levels reflect this vital interdependence and complex relationship. 2. The visible aspects of our culture (artifacts and events) are expressions of the invisible parts (our cultural mindset). We do not study in one room alone, in other word, but constantly return to the beliefs and values hidden from view in the basement to determine the meaning and significance of the contents of the rooms above ground. (Nacbar and Lause, 1992: 22) From those two points, we can understand that popular culture always search for meaning and significance as we use our tools to pry open the door leading down to the dark recesses of the culture mindset which defines us. (Nachbar and Lause, 1992: 22). 14 The House of Popular Culture The House of Popular Culture is divided into three floors. The first floor called the Basement. This floor is the floor of cultural mindset. It has two subdivided that is the floor of Bedrock Beliefs and Values and the floor of Beliefs and Values. The Basement holds the beliefs and values forming the cultural mindset. Beliefs and values are in the Basement because they are ideas that cannot be “seen” and of themselves. They exist in the cultural mind and in the minds of the individual members of mass society. (Nacbar and Lause, 1992:22-23). Beliefs and Values are the one that close to the surface because they are the most 15 transitory, shallow, and faddish. Meanwhile, the bedrock beliefs and values (myth) lies below the beliefs and values because they are the most stable, longstanding, and significant ones characteristic of broad components of the total population. (Nachbar and Lause, 1992: 23) The second floor is the artifact floor contains popular artifacts (objects and people) which are accepted by a large member of society. There are two types of the popular artifacts: popular objects termed icons and popular people are termed heroes. Both are divided into ‘real’ and ‘imaginary’ depends on their existence in the real world or only fictional creation. The examples of the real icons are jeans and a fast food restaurant, while the examples of imaginary icons are Rolex watches and gun in the western. The examples of real heroes are Martin Luther King and George Washington, while the examples of imaginary heroes are Superman and Batman. Celebrities cut across the “real” and “imaginary” because although they actually exist in three-dimensional form, their “star” persona is fabricated and often so distant from the real person and more appropriate to be considered as a type of fiction. As celebrities, the stereotypes also cut across the two rooms. However, it has different reason of that in celebrities. The reason why the stereotypes cut across the two rooms is because they can be found in all areas of popular expression, both “real” and “imaginary”. (Nacbar and Lause, 1992 : 26). In a community, people need to interact with each other. They need to understand other individual’s characteristics to avoid conflicts among them. That is not an easier thing to do because each individual has their own characteristic 16 that makes them different from one another. To make it easier, a limited human or cultural mind need to be “simplified” from the wide variety of those characteristics into only a number of them, this is what is called stereotyping. Nachbar and Lause stated stereotyping is a natural function of the human/ cultural mind. According to Nachbar and Lause, “stereotype is a standardized conception or image of a specific group of people or objects.” (Nacbar and Lause, 1992: 236). People uses stereotype to label someone/ something into such kind characteristics which are accepted as a full description of all member. Nachbar and Lause give a great example of stereotype in their book: “People may be stereotyped around the characteristics of age (“All teenagers love rock and roll and have no respect for their elders”), sex (“Men want just one thing from a women”), race (“All Japanese look and think alike”), religion (“All Catholics love the Pope more that their country”), vocation (“All lawyers are greedy weasels”), and nationality (“All Germans are Nazi warmongers”). Objects can be stereotyped around the characteristics of places (“All cities are corrupt and sinful.” “Small towns are safe and clean.” “In England it rains all the time.”) and things (“All American cars are cheaply and ineptly made.” “A good house has a large lawn, big garage, and at least two bathrooms.”) (Nacbar and Lause, 1992: 236-237).
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