Is Pop Culture Teaching Us What We Want?

In last week’s blog, I wrote about pop culture as something we absorb almost without noticing, like the frog in warm water. That idea stayed with me as I worked through this week’s Marxism readings. Marxist theory does not just explain that pop culture influences us, it helps explain how those messages are tied to economic systems that feel normal and inevitable.

From a Marxist perspective, pop culture is not neutral entertainment. It is deeply connected to capitalism and often reinforces dominant ideas about success, happiness, and worth. As Sellnow explains, popular texts frequently promote economic ideologies that encourage us to value wealth, productivity, and consumption without questioning who benefits most from those values.

Marx’s idea of the fetishism of commodities helps explain why pop culture places so much meaning on things. Objects are not shown as just useful or practical, they are shown as symbols of success and personal value. In movies and television, having the right house, clothes, or lifestyle often signals that someone has made it. These messages slowly teach us to connect worth with what we own, instead of questioning the systems that make those things easier for some people to access than others.

Hegemony becomes even clearer when looking at television. The Cosby Show is often remembered as groundbreaking representation, and it was. At the same time, many scholars point out that the show presented Black success through white, middle class cultural values. Professionalism, respectability, and assimilation were emphasized, making Blackness more acceptable by fitting comfortably into a dominant cultural framework. This article discusses how the show’s focus on upper class respectability shaped its cultural impact.
https://newrepublic.com/article/159293/cosby-blackaf-tv-black-upper-class-racial-wealth-gap

What makes this example especially powerful is how positive and comforting it felt. The show did not appear to challenge inequality directly, yet it reinforced the idea that success meant fitting into a predominantly white economic and cultural system. Like many pop culture texts, its influence worked best because it felt familiar and warm.

 A similar idea shows up in The Truman Show. Truman lives inside a carefully constructed world that feels natural and safe, even though it is completely controlled by people with power and profit in mind. He believes his choices are his own, until small cracks begin to appear. From a Marxist perspective, the film highlights how ideology can shape our sense of reality, convincing us that what we see is simply the way things are. It reflects how pop culture and media can quietly limit what we imagine is possible until we start questioning the system itself.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truman_Show

Kendrick’s discussion of James Cameron’s films highlights the same pattern. In Titanic, class differences are obvious, but they are softened by romance and spectacle. The film recognizes inequality, but it never pushes far enough to truly question the system behind it.

Taken together, these examples show how pop culture can recognize inequality while still keeping dominant economic ideas intact. Marxist criticism helps us slow down and notice these patterns. It does not take the enjoyment out of pop culture, but it helps us see what values are being normalized while we are watching.

Question- If pop culture persuades us most effectively when it feels comforting and familiar, how can we recognize when “positive” representation or entertainment is still reinforcing dominant economic and cultural values?