Chapter 12: Conclusion - The Politics of Cultural Studies

Concepts that didn’t make it into the book

• Microaggression, habitus, stigma, tabo, global vs local, globalization, migration, many more

• But this was a solid foundation

• Elephant in the room: the politics of Cultural Studies

Political agenda

• Cultural Studies is one class that has the potential to change a students’ lives

• Students being deeply affected by this class

• Understanding oneself and the world differently - and better

• Deliberately pushing a political agenda (?)

Impossibility to be really conservative

• He is rather conservative,

• “If you take seriously the insight that meaning, truth, gender, sexuality, race, taste, memory, and many other things that we often regard as given or even natural are culturally constructed, it is impossible not to notice ongoing structural discrimination and exploitation and not be an advocate of radical equality in all areas of life and for all people – from race relations to trans identities.”

• Cultural Studies always sides with the oppressed

Cultural Studies is not neutral

• It is closely aligned with leftwing politics and progressive political agendas, rather than conservative ones

• This is in line with most students in the humanities, therefore no problem with the political implication of the lecture

• Contrary; the lecture often serves the function of confirming what they believe intuitively before the class

• It is impossible to be really conservative and take Cultural Studies seriously

Backlash against cultural Studies

• Rise of rightwing populism and authoritarianism in western democracies has led to backlash against the theories at the heart of the field

• Gender, for example, being constructed - is one of them

• Cultural Studies is therefore seen - by these conservatives - as a sinister tool to challenge and transform an allegedly natural order of things for the worse

• Critical race theory → perceived as a strategy to oppress white people (by these far right people)

Cultural Marxism

• Criticism of theories of cultural studies often sound like conspiracy theories because they assume the form of one

• In its most extreme version, popular in Hungary and Poland as much as in the United States, it is all blamed on a devious plot by a group called “Cultural Marxists.”

• Resistance to the insights of Cultural Studies can have very practical and palpable consequences → book bans, laws against teaching about sexuality, abortion bans, etc

The validity of the constructionist approach

• Bleach irony of such oppressive laws or other forms of regulation implicitly acknowledge the validity of the constructionist approach (while outwardly rejecting it)

• Not teaching about non-heteronormative gender identities and sexualities only makes sense if one assumes that such identities are shaped by the cultural environment

• Such measures just attempt to turn back the wheel of time and undo developments such as the growing acceptance of queer identities

• But still they are dangerous, and need to be closely watched and resisted

Identity politics

• Cultural Studies should also preserve some degree of critical distance towards certain forms of identity politics

• “Identity politics means, of course,” as Simon During explains, “a politics engaged on behalf of those with particular identities (usually historically disempowered ones) rather than a politics organised on the basis of particular social policies or philosophies”

• identity politics often downplays constructivism and essentializes the identities it seeks to promote → thus, identity politics often works by exclusion

• In more extremes forms it is a divide, instead of unite

• “Moreover, it often focuses on identities based on gender, sexuality, and race, which has the effect of downplaying the aspect of class and the materialistic base of exploitation, oppression, and discrimination. Cultural Studies can and should serve as a corrective in such cases.”