Rod Dreher

Geert Wilders, Thoughtcriminal

Media, SSM, & Cultural Change

By Rod Dreher • May 14, 2012, 12:14 PM

From the mailbag, this from a college student in Minnesota:

I just read your article on the BBC’s website about the inevitability of same-sex marriage and feel compelled to tell you that it’s the most insightful piece of information I’ve ever encountered on the subject. I don’t understand conservatives. I’m not saying that in an exasperated or belittling way–I literally am unable to process how they think, and it has puzzled me since I was in my early teens. I feel as if you’ve just turned on a lightbulb and now I can see not only how conservatives come by their strong beliefs, but also how my own convictions as a young liberal have been so deeply influenced by the changing shape of American culture and media that I am unable to find logic in anything else because I simply have no context for anything else. I’m not usually inclined toward cynicism, but I think far fewer of us are truly independent thinkers than we’d like to believe. Thanks for the great article.

If I’ve helped her understand how conservatives think, she’s helped me understand how conservatives have failed as culture-makers. Similarly, reader PeterK sends along this report from NPR:

In one of the most talked-about moments from the hit TV show Glee, Blaine declared his love for Kurt and then — they kissed.

Glee is just one of many popular shows on television right now that feature gay characters. Those characters aren’t just entertaining us, they’re changing Americans’ attitudes toward homosexuality.

In five separate studies, professor Edward Schiappa and his colleagues at the University of Minnesota have found that the presence of gay characters on television programs decreases prejudices among viewers.

Culture precedes politics. Contemporary conservatives have never understood this. We think that electing more Republicans is the answer. Now we get to the point where the Republicans are backing away from cultural conservatism.

Something else conservatives don’t really get about media and culture: the media rarely tells us what to think; the way media bias — or, more neutrally, influence — works is by setting the parameters for thought and debate. When is the last time you’ve seen or heard a character on TV, or a person on the news, making an articulate or otherwise respectable case for traditional marriage, or anything culturally conservative?

11 Responses to Media, SSM, & Cultural Change

ninja says:

May 14, 2012 at 12:26 pm

I was doing a random twitter search one time and came to this random quote…

“My two dads screened potential surrogates based on beauty and IQ”

And after I googled it I found out it came from from the pilot episode of GLEE…

“You may laugh because every time I sign my name I put a
gold star after, but those gold stars are a metaphor- a metaphor for me
being a star. And metaphors are important. And I want to clear up that
hateful rumor that I was the one who turned that closet case Sandy
Ryerson in. I have two gay dads, you see I was born out of love, my two
dads screened potential surrogates based on beauty and IQ then they
mixed their sperm together and used a turkey baster. To this day, we
still don’t know who my real dad is which I find is pretty amazing.” —
Rachel BerryHere are a couple of blog posts I read a while back.http://revoltagainst.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/glee-the-pinnacle-of-cultural-marxism-part-1/http://revoltagainst.wordpress.com/2012/02/23/glee-the-pinnacle-of-cultural-marxism-part-two/
Michael Perrone says:

May 14, 2012 at 12:30 pm

“When is the last time you’ve seen or heard a character on TV, or a person on the news, making an articulate or otherwise respectable case for traditional marriage, or anything culturally conservative?”
You are exactly right here. The media sets up the parameters and most “conservative” minds displayed in entertainment and the news have never made a compelling case for anything.
Edward L Hamilton says:

May 14, 2012 at 1:22 pm

Most recently? Mrs. Hughes on Downton Abbey, who definitely comes across as a stern but compassionate advocate of the traditional prohibition on extra-marital sexual activity. Granted, this is a show depicting the pre-birth control era, so that position resonates on a purely pragmatic level.
Christopher Larsen says:

May 14, 2012 at 4:16 pm

“When is the last time you’ve seen or heard a character on TV, or a person on the news, making an articulate or otherwise respectable case for traditional marriage, or anything culturally conservative?”

And who exactly on the right is capable of making an articulate or respectable case for cultural conservatism or anything for that matter? The right wing is led by talk radio and men such as Rush Limbaugh. Much cultural conservatism, such as opposition to SSM, can’t be justified on the basis of logic so it will take someone of extraordinary intellectual facility to function as an advocate for cultural conservatism. Who could the media interview?? The anti-intellectualism of the right has left it bereft of a spokesperson since the death of William F. Buckley. Ross Douthat?? Hardly..
Mike says:

May 14, 2012 at 5:39 pm

You are right, it doesn’t happen very often. The last taboo is abortion. Very few women in popular culture get abortions, even if they make pro-life statements. It’s very rare for a television character, for instance, to actually follow-through with getting an abortion.

Oddly, the show “Big Love” about polygamous Mormons was a show that often made culturally conservative points in the story. ”Friday Night Lights,”–which was called Texas for the Blue States–also sometimes made them, although ultimately it was a very liberal show. ”Modern Family” often makes serious statements about traditional families–including this past week’s discussion of divorce–although it also includes blended families and same-sex families.

Television families tend to be very traditional. Mom and dad and kids. Mom stays home, dad is the breadwinner.
Erin Manning says:

May 14, 2012 at 5:43 pm

I think that it’s true that conservatives have ignored the culture battle, but sometimes I wonder about the “chicken/egg” question: do conservatives ignore the culture because cultural voices tend to portray conservatives as tw0-dimensional villains who are relentlessly stupid, unreflective, brutal and vile with no hearts and no redeeming qualities, or does the culture portray conservatives this way because conservatives are more likely to opt out of this sort of pop culture stuff, which we tend to see as vapid, preachy, shallow, one-dimensional, self-serving wish-fulfillment on the part of its creators? I have a feeling it’s a little of both.

Then again, sometimes dominating the pop-culture paradigm has its own perils. Take “Glee,” which ninja mentioned: it has dropped more than 20 percent in the ratings in its most recent season (at least one TV critic expressed surprise it was even renewed, given how much its popularity is evaporating). Television is, alas, a medium which can turn even the most thoughtful or interesting show into an exercise in weekly banality, but when a show is an “advocacy” show from the get-go (as Glee was and is) its eventual slide into ho-hum boredom can sometimes be a reflection of a society’s growing weariness of the issue in general. (It should go without saying that the same can be true of movies: remember “The Day After Tomorrow?” The only thing more deadly to a pop-culture issue advocacy vehicle than ennui is derision.) When a culture takes its groundings more from emotions than from reason, as ours does, the evanescence of feelings can factor in to the push for social change. When I read secular news sites and blogs and their comments, I’m not seeing a lot of politically moderate people caring much about the push to legalize gay marriage; they also don’t care about stopping that push. What they care about is that people they know are out of work and seniors they know and may have to care for have seen their savings vanish and their home equity disappear practically overnight–and that’s not good news for advocacy-based pop culture, even if it’s also not good for the defenders of traditional marriage or the would-be attackers of it.
pak152 says:

May 14, 2012 at 9:14 pm

“’m not saying that in an exasperated or belittling way–I literally am
unable to process how they think, and it has puzzled me since I was in
my early teens.”

why am I not surprised by this statement considering the indoctrination that takes place via our schools and entertainment media
GRC81 says:

May 14, 2012 at 8:00 pm

That “Passion of the Christ” movie seemed pretty popular a few years ago
Maybe more traditional (I hate to use the word “conservative”) young Christians would be willing to go into journalism and other forms of media if they didn’t have to fear their pastors and Bible study leaders bashing them every week. I speak as an evangelical who worked for secular newspapers for seven years and has a master’s degree in journalism – and for me, church can be very lonely sometimes.
Sammacdon says:

May 15, 2012 at 4:50 am

“When is the last time you’ve seen or heard a character on TV, or a person on the news, making an articulate or otherwise respectable case for traditional marriage, or anything culturally conservative?”

But what would this look like? How would you write the script? I often see a lot of “conservative” notions about marriage, even on “liberal” shows. But how would it count as an endorsement of traditional marriage unless they were to go way out of their way to take shots at SSM? Let’s say Ross and Rachel are getting married and talking about how great it will be once they settle down, stop acting like jerks and raise a family. Then, as an aside right befor credits roll, Ross says… “And our lives would be much better if this institution was not open to same sex couples.” Laugh track!

Even in your own life, you say that you don’t openly discriminate. You have gay friends and gay couples in your home. So it’s not like the script would have access to the sitcom dad refusing to talk to the gay couple.

I am seriously curious. How would a television writer go about constructing a scene that counted as support for traditional marriage?
Sean Nelson says:

May 15, 2012 at 5:22 am

Something else conservatives don’t really get about media and culture: the media rarely tells us what to think; the way media bias — or, more neutrally, influence — works is by setting the parameters for thought and debate.

The irony is that on economic issues, especially taxes, conservatives appear to have understood this for a long time. The debate on tax rates has shifted so far to the right over the last 40 or so years, the centrist Republicans from the 60′s who voted to set top marginal rates above 70% would be considered to the left of Bernie Sanders for taking that position today. Obama never even bothered trying for single-payer health care, instead he copied the GOP plan from the 90′s and was labeled a communist for it.
Sean Nelson says:

May 16, 2012 at 3:37 am

“How would a television writer go about constructing a scene that counted as support for traditional marriage?”

I’ve been thinking about this for a few minutes and I’m seriously curious now, too.