Abstract
The study of popular culture has always been closely related to the study of class, gender, race, and sexuality. An increasing number of authors have called for an intersectional approach. However, the contradictory, fluid meanings articulated in popular culture render such an approach difficult, and many ignore the call for intersectional analysis. We will not. We will try to engage with an intersectional analysis of popular culture, using Shakira and Jennifer Lopez’s performance at the 2020 Super Bowl Halftime Show as a case to study the intersections of identity markers. We aim to bridge the different meanings attributed to their performance and to understand them as different elements in the intersectional configuration. A discourse analysis of the performance, and of reviews thereof, was performed to unravel five elements highlighted in the discourse: the quality of the show, Shakira and Lopez’s empowered performances, the incorporation of Latinidad elements, the performers’ sexiness, and perceived political messages. Our aim to understand how the contradictory discourses about these elements arose urges the reader to use listening to grapple with the complexity of intersectional analysis. Truly listening includes putting effort into opening up academic cultures, finding other voices. It is important to recognize global gender inequity, but we need to start investing far more to understand the politics of media representations as a transnational affair that causes multiple conceptions of gender (and other related) concepts to clash, mesh, and integrate.
Highlights
The study of popular culture, everyday life culture, has always been closely related to the study of class, gender, race, and sexuality
To fully understand the political meaning of popular culture in relation to gen‐ der, age, class, sexuality,ability, and so on, we need to understand that all these factors, including the mark‐ ers not listed here, mutually inform each other
Adopting an intersectional approach is often called for but seldom carried out, and the adage is often honoured in the breach, perhaps because of the con‐ tradictory, fluid meanings articulated in popular culture
Summary
The study of popular culture, everyday life culture, has always been closely related to the study of class, gender, race, and sexuality. Popular culture is political and forms the arena in which the meanings of the aforementioned identity markers are established, negotiated, contested, and refuted. An increasing number of authors have argued that we can understand gender, class, race, age, (dis)ability, and sexuality only in relation to popular culture within a full intersectional configuration To fully understand the political meaning of popular culture in relation to gen‐ der, age, class, sexuality, (dis)ability, and so on, we need to understand that all these factors, including the mark‐ ers not listed here, mutually inform each other. As Hermes and Kopitz (2021) recently argued, as pop‐ ular culture scholars, we aim to be open to new ideas
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