Category: Popular Culture and Consumption

The High School: An Analysis of Yearbooks

On By econnellIn Karen Sternheimer, Popular Culture and Consumption, Race and Ethnicity, Sex and Gender, Social Institutions: Work, Education, and Medicine, Social Problems, Politics, and Social ChangeLeave a comment

By Karen Sternheimer

Michael Messner’s new book, The High School: Sports, Spirit & Citizens, 1903-2024 is a great example of how artifacts of everyday life can become data for sociological analysis. As a scholar of gender and sports, Messner realized that yearbooks serve as a window to view past constructions of both sports and gender.

His own high school, Salinas High School, seemed like a natural fit, as he had about 30 years of books—not just his own, because his father served as a coach for nearly 30 years and other family members attended, he had decades of books. The book blends the author’s memories (and occasionally his niece’s reflections, who attended more recently) with content analysis of the number of pages spent on boys’ sports compared with girls’ sports.

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How Adolescence Misses the Mark on Incel Culture

On By econnellIn Alyssa Lyons, Popular Culture and Consumption, Sex and Gender1 Comment

By Alyssa Lyons

The praise for the recent U.K. show Adolescence is effusive. Popular publications like Slate called Adolescence the best show of the year while the Guardian said it was “such powerful TV that it could save lives.” In just three weeks, Adolescence became the 9th most watched Netflix series of all time. With all the hype, I was curious. So, I settled down to watch the show that captured the “miserable realism” of modern incel culture.

The term “incel” emerged during 1990s internet discourse. Initially, it was used as a self-identifier among men who were involuntarily celibate. As time went on, the term took on a newer meaning: it described men who felt entitled to have sex with women but weren’t able to.

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Minimalism after Losing “Everything”

On By econnellIn Behind the Headlines, Karen Sternheimer, Popular Culture and Consumption3 Comments

By Karen Sternheimer

Over the years, I’ve written about minimalism a lot on this site. After losing my home and most of my possessions in the Los Angeles fire storm in January 2025, I am now officially a minimalist.

Before having this experience, when I’d see emotional reports of people returning to a burnt home, sifting through wreckage of their former stuff, I couldn’t bear to imagine that happening to me. A quick news search of the terms “lost everything in a fire” yields countless hits. What does it mean to lose “everything,” from an insider’s perspective, and why might we define our possessions as “everything” from a sociological perspective?

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On Being a Temporary Local: Sociological Lessons from Displacement

On By econnellIn Cities and Urbanization, Karen Sternheimer, Popular Culture and Consumption3 Comments

By Karen Sternheimer

As I recently wrote, I lost my home in the Los Angeles firestorm of January 2025. We are staying in a neighborhood about 25 miles away; while still within the city limits, the neighborhood is far different from our own. This is giving me the chance to learn to become a temporary local, something I regularly do when traveling to another country.

Being a temporary local involves learning new local customs, norms, and practices. While I didn’t need to learn a new language or worry about currency conversion, coming to a new neighborhood has brought some of the same opportunities that traveling abroad does.

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A Complete Unknown: Art and Activism in Uncertain Times

On By econnellIn Popular Culture and Consumption, Rob Eschmann, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change3 Comments

By Rob Eschmann

A Complete Unknown, a 2024 film nominated for 8 Oscars, explores the life and music of Bob Dylan (played by Timotheé Chalamet), as he makes the personal and professional choices that would go on to define him. With a star-studded cast, stories of Chalamet learning to play the guitar and sing for five years in preparation for his role, and a marketing plan that made even this hip hop head/purist start streaming Bob Dylan songs, the expectations for this film couldn’t have been higher. And it delivered, as expected.

What I did not expect, was this film, set in the early 1960s, to speak so poignantly to the issues facing the United States in 2025, as we confront what can feel like an unprecedented attack on democracy and American freedoms.

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Baby Bumps and Big Reveals: Exploring the Gender Reveal

On By econnellIn Monica Radu, Popular Culture and Consumption, Sex and GenderLeave a comment

By Monica Radu

Gaining popularity during the baby boom, baby showers have been a hallmark of family celebrations for decades. These rituals are often filled with pastel decorations, gift-giving, and games that revolve around the joy of welcoming a new baby. Traditionally, these events were almost exclusively hosted by women and attended by female family members and friends, reinforcing long-standing gender norms around motherhood. The focus was on preparing the expectant mother for her new role and ensuring that she was equipped with the essentials for raising her newborn.

According to a January 2023 survey of 1,000 U.S. adults, baby showers rank as the sixth most popular social event, with 65% of Americans reporting that they have attended a baby shower at some point in their lives. In the past year, 22% of respondents reported going to a baby shower. The survey also highlighted a significant gender difference, with 80% of women having attended a baby shower compared to just 50% of men.

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Plastic Waste: The Scary Aftermath of Halloween

On By econnellIn Lisa Smith, Popular Culture and Consumption1 Comment

Picture - Lisa Smith

By Lisa Smith

I’ve often heard students lament that while they love sociology, it often ruins things they used to enjoy. It’s true that once you start to peel back the layers of the society you live in and understand what’s truly going on, you can’t look at things the same way.

Halloween is fast approaching as I write this post. I have done my fair share of pumpkin carving, planning costumes, spookifying my windows, and of course handing out candy to trick or treaters. I grew up in a cultural context where these activities were normal and encouraged.

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Abbott Elementary and the Rise of School-aganda

On By econnellIn Alyssa Lyons, Class and Stratification, Popular Culture and Consumption, Race and Ethnicity, Social Institutions: Work, Education, and Medicine9 Comments

Alyssa Lyons author photoBy Alyssa Lyons

I was sitting on the couch with my partner trying to decompress after an unusually long day. To unwind, we decided to watch Abbott Elementary. As a sociologist of education, I knew it was on brand, but I couldn’t help being drawn into the world of Abbott. I’ve spent a lot of time researching educational inequalities within schooling, and the show’s premise was both intriguing and novel.

Abbott Elementary is a feel-good mockumentary created by actress Quinta Brunson who also plays second grade teacher Janine Teagues in the show. Inspired by her mother’s career as a public-school teacher in Philadelphia, Brunson wanted to reflect the experiences of teachers in the city public school system. The mockumentary style show focuses on the experiences of predominantly BIPOC teachers, staff, administrators, and students in a fictional public elementary school in Philadelphia.

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Food Beyond Borders

On By econnellIn Karen Sternheimer, Popular Culture and ConsumptionLeave a comment

Karen sternheimer 72523By Karen Sternheimer

Trying new foods is one of my favorite aspects of travel. I’m not exactly an adventurous eater, but I enjoy learning about what the locals eat and sampling food that’s not too far out of my comfort zone. Food is not just sociological, as I wrote about many years ago, but it also reflects the politics of shifting borders and the push and pull factors that contribute to immigration.

Living in southern California, many of the meals that I prepare at home reflect the influence of Mexican dishes. Veggie burritos with lots of black beans, jalapeños, salsa, and guacamole might not be on the menu exactly as I make them in an authentic Mexican restaurant, but the Americanized version shapes my cooking. Immigration from southeast Asia has contributed to the popularity of sriracha, a hot sauce I put on nearly everything, Like countless others, I stock up with news of a sriracha shortage, because it has become such a staple in our household.

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Sociology on the Autobahn

On By econnellIn Cities and Urbanization, Karen Sternheimer, Popular Culture and Consumption1 Comment

Karen sternheimer 72523By Karen Sternheimer

The German autobahn is the subject of much lore in the United States. Images of an open road with no speed limits, allowing high-end performance sports cars to drive as fast as their engineering can take them permeate popular imagination.

The reality is rather different from the fantasy, as I found out while on a few short road trips in Germany recently. While just mention of the word autobahn suggests something exciting, possibly scary, and exotic to a foreigner, it literally translates to “highway.” Here are some realities of driving on the autobahn for my fellow American visitors (with some sociology thrown in, of course).

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