Pop Culture and Identity

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"Popular culture is the new Babylon, into which so much art and intellect now flow. It is our imperial sex theater, supreme temple of the western eye. We live in the age of idols. The pagan past, never dead, flames again in our mystic hierarchies of stardom." Camille Paglia This quotation has some really positive comments and also some that could be construed as negative. I like her reference to pop culture as the new Babylon. This is because pop culture is an expressive language to me. I think that each generation has its own peculiar and idiosyncratic language. Pop culture very much exemplifies the language of my generation. As this is the language of my generation, communication that is couched in this obviously would have more meaning to me and impact on me. According to Eriksonian principles, teenagers need to explore and experiment with the world around them in order to understand the self in relation to that world. Successful identity formation depends on an individual’s ability to resolve issues involving relationships, popular culture, religion, political views, education, sexuality, substance abuse, rebellion, and career choices. The quotation by Paglia - in contrast to the work by Erikson as quoted above - suggests that popular culture produces a certain type of individual who develops a pseudo-identity reinforced by pop culture rather than a unique identity. This certainly would apply to the so-called ‘Emo Culture’ that has grown in the realm of pop culture. I am more in the mind of Erikson, who proposes that the influence of popular culture is but one of the issues that a teenager needs to resolve for himself in order to establish his unique identity. I can certainly see in my development that popular culture has had a huge influence on my identity, as it has a pervasive presence in the world today. Popular culture, which includes
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