Seeing pop culture-infused signs at the Women’s March in January 2017 got Megan Genovese thinking. A doctoral candidate at the Annenberg School for Communication, Genovese embarked on a project to understand the intersection of American politics and pop culture.
Actual religious affiliations aside, conservatives in America are generally seen to have ownership over moral and religious justifications for political ideology, while liberals are seen as caring about numbers and policy. But Genovese’s personal experience led her to believe that those on the left are just as morally invested in their decision making as those on the right.
Drawing on her background in media studies and fan studies, she theorized that pop culture references were a way for leftists to connect to one another and build solidarity around political and social issues, in lieu of using religious arguments.
“When people are trying to communicate complicated ideas that hinge on morality,” Genovese says, “what do they do when they don’t have a Christian theological framework to hang it on? I think they turn to pop culture as a point of commonality for communicating with people who don’t necessarily share their experiences.”
Read more at Annenberg School for Communication.
