There is an episode of Boy Meets World, when the gang is in college, where they are sitting around campus and figuring out what their soap opera names are. The moniker comes from the combination of your middle name and the street you grew up on. Angela, the only visible person of colour on the show, says hers is Shanaynay Martin Luther King Boulevard.
But just because something is deemed problematic, that does not mean we should discount all the reasons it was so significant to us in the first place—does it? What about media that is linked to something or someone offensive? Can we feel okay about enjoying a Harvey Weinstein movie, for example, when we are aware of the filmmaker’s predatory and abusive behaviour? And if we do, does that mean we condone it? What about representations of the prejudices of a certain...
Pop culture exists as a special shared language for those who grew up in a certain time. And consuming it in the past was arguably a more tangible experience than it is now. Many of us will remember, for example, having to sit by the radio with a finger on the “Record” button and wait for a song to come on so we could add it to a mixtape. There was something comforting in that, adds Mortimer.“I think you had more of a moment with the material,” she says.
Magazines like YM and Seventeen were filled with conflicting messages. On one page, they would champion the value of staying true to yourself, but on the next there would be weight-loss product advertisements.
“Part of it is learning to forgive yourself and when you are able to forgive yourself, you’re able to forgive others,” he continues. “I remember watching Scary Movie and loving it. And now I see that entire movie is about making fun of several different kinds of minorities. But because it was done in the hands of minorities [the movie was developed and written by Shawn and Marlon Wayans and directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans], we kind of allowed it.