Growing up, there were a couple of movies that genuinely changed my life. One was the 1993 cinematic masterpiece The Sandlot. My buddies and I lived and breathed this movie. Most summers were spent on our own “sandlot” baseball field from sunup to sundown. We played until it was too hot, then went to the local pool (no Squints-style stories, unfortunately), and came back for night games under the fireworks on the Fourth of July. We even bought our own pairs of P.F. Flyers for the same reason Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez did—because they were guaranteed to make a kid run faster and jump higher.
Popular culture is important to study for many reasons. One of those reasons is how deeply our everyday exposure shapes us as individuals. Deanna Sellnow defines pop culture as “Everyday objects that influence people.” Watching The Sandlot as a kid is a perfect representation of this definition. This movie didn’t just influence what we watched—it influenced what we played, how we acted, and even what we wore. It shaped our friendships, our imagination, and the way we spent our time, all without us ever realizing it. I remember thinking how “cool” it was to be kind when I watched Benny take a chance on Smalls, the new kid in town who simply wanted to fit in. Benny took him under his wing, taught him out to throw, catch, and hit (which later came back to “bite” him in the butt!) I wanted to be like Benny and the rest of the sandlot crew.
Understanding pop culture helps us become better critical consumers of information. If movies, music, and trends can ultimately shape the way we live our lives, where do we draw the line between “accepting” and “resisting” that influence? The Sandlot gave me positive memories, friendships, and a love for baseball—but not every piece of pop culture leaves such a lasting impact. I see this as I watch my older sister, who is also a big Sandlot fan, take my five-year-old nephew on a “popcorn run” when the chewing tobacco scene comes on. How do we decide what parts of pop culture we allow to shape us, and which parts we choose to push back against?
No comments:
Post a Comment