Authenticity and Cultural Resistance

Author:

• Andrew Baker (Colby-Sawyer College)

Abstract:

Authenticity is a complicated notion in modern society which has been redefined through particular modes of cultural expression. Our dominant consumption culture structures itself in a way that expresses a sense of its validity. By using pop culture to edify certain social agendas the dominant culture prepares itself to counter the subversive tendencies of subcultural ideologies, such as individuality and rebellion. The process by which dominant culture reacts to subcultures undermines the authentic integrity of those ideologies. Therefore, how is subversive culture supposed to formulate authentic social resistance when it is inherent in the structure of dominant culture to account for it? This paper takes this question as its starting point and explores relationships among authentic expression, popular culture, and consumerism.