10/22 pre class

Hebdige discusses the term culture and how its definitions are often contradictory and very different. The definition refers to a process as well as a product. In this article he analyzes different theorists and discusses their interpretations of what they believe culture is seen, described, and viewed as.  To me I believed that culture was something that we learned from viewing the world around us. Culture consumes us, and what we are around, what we are taught, and what we see, becomes what we know. This then makes our culture. Barthes talks about our culture being made up of signs, and I think this goes along with what I believe because without these signs then we wouldn’t have anything to help shape our thoughts. “The struggle between different discourses, different definitions and meanings within ideology is therefore always, at the same time, a struggle for possession of the sign, which extends to even the most mundane areas of everyday life.” This quote goes along with what I thought, and helped me connect some of the previous thoughts. I also liked the discussion of what types of people society is portrayed as. There is discussion of punks, freaks, animals, and more. I think the idea of the “norm” is very interesting because it’s a term we use all the time but there really is no normal. It’s a term we created in our society, but because everyone is different and made up and influenced so differently there will never actually be a normal. The image I found shows a bunch of teenagers of all different shapes, sizes, and races. All of them are different, but no one is the “norm.”