Earlier this year, conservatives on social media claimed an unlikely new icon. It wasn't a podcaster with questionable views or a libertarian businessman peddling a course or a particular ideology. It was actress Sydney Sweeney. euphoria A star and the main character of recent romantic comedies anyone but you.
follow her saturday night live When he hosted the gig in March, two conservative media outlets ran columns calling Sweeney a return to traditional beauty standards of the '90s and early 2000s, or Bridget Fetacey for the Spectator. In his own words, he praised her as “a laughing blonde with an amazing rack.'' Both works posit that by wearing a low-cut dress and emphasizing her sexuality, Sweeney invited men to look at her, and thus “roused the culture” by holding up her middle finger and sparking the Me Too movement. There is.
Sweeney has not publicly expressed any form of right-wing alignment. (Her family's politics are controversial in 2022, however, and that may have something to do with the right's enthusiastic embrace of her.) Rather, as a throwback-like hyper-feminine sex symbol Her ascension has given conservatives rare recognition. To whom mainstream Gen Z figures project their values. For those paying close attention, the past year has been full of starting points for conservative messages.
In hindsight after Trump's reelection, it appears that the 2024 zeitgeist was a precursor to Trump's reelection, and prognosticators may have been thinking a little more seriously. “Bro Country” singers rivaled female pop singers on the charts, and in many cases surpassed them, becoming top artists. The most talked about new reality show was about a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader and a Mormon TikToker. Conservative films from smaller distributors, such as biopics reagan and the Daily Wire documentary Am I racist?earned millions of dollars at the box office. From Joe Rogan to the Nerk Boys, nominally apolitical podcasters and streamers have taken on an increasingly political tone, welcoming presidential candidates.
It's a sharp change from the liberal, coded pop culture of the Obama era and the sort of trend that started in response to Trump's first presidential term: comic book movies with a progressive edge, such as be. wonder woman and black panther, social commentary films like Get out and promising young womannot to mention the explosion of drug culture.
Joel Penny, an associate professor at Montclair State University, says that the current conservative tone of pop culture as a whole is in many ways linked to the Me Too movement and its detractors' notion that “masculinity is in crisis.” He says it was a reaction. At the same time that Sweeney is being praised for representing “traditional” femininity, the straight American “bro” is once again in the cultural spotlight.
“There have been many attempts to revive strong male role models in pop culture, not just Tom Cruise in the movies. top gun Remakes or 'fellow' podcasters and country singers,'' Penny says.
2024 was all about straight white brothers.
This happens most noticeably in mainstream music. It's not just that country music, a Southern genre with a conservative political past and present, has risen to the mainstream over the past two years, albeit with much controversy. This class of musicians – Morgan Wallen, Zach Bryan, Jelly Roll, Luke Combs, Shabouzy, and the newly naive Post Malone – are decidedly male. Shabouzi's unprecedented accomplishment in a predominantly white genre adds a refreshing element to this conversation. Beyoncé also released a successful country album this year featuring Shabouzi and a number of black female country artists. cowboy carter's lead single, “Texas Hold'em,” spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, but that time was shorter than this year's No. 1 songs by Morgan Wallen, Post Malone, and Shabuzy. She was not recognized by national authorities and was completely excluded from the Country Music Association awards. Overall, it seems that country fans, and the average young person who is increasingly listening to country music these days, still want to hear guys shouting about beer.
Beyond the charts, these country singers also became mainstream personalities and the subject of celebrity gossip. In about a year, Brian went from being a little-known alt-country crooner who posts YouTube videos to a celebrity whose personal relationships are dissected by TikTok users and described on the pages of People. Jelly Roll and his wife, influencer and popular podcast host Bunny XO, have become an undisputed celebrity couple, but Wallen's dating life and public antics have become the subject of Page Six. Ta.
Elsewhere in pop culture, figures that appear to have been created for a more masculine, conservative audience have become mainstream. First, a video of a Tennessee woman being asked about oral sex (a very fraternal Girls Gone Wild -inspired genre on TikTok) outside a bar and delivering a memorable onomatopoeia goes viral. Ta. There's also AJ and Big Justice, a popular Florida-based father-son duo who do food reviews at Costco. With the exception of Big Justice's sister and mother, who is literally referred to as “Big Justice's mother” in the video, this expanded world of “Costco Guys” is made up of white men and boys from Florida and New Jersey, and the comic Rating food to the wind. macho way.
Although they do not explicitly express MAGA as a value, they have become less visible in recent years, including rural and suburban enclaves featuring white, straight, male, and even out “bro” talent. Human trafficking is carried out in a space that is Trends in recent history.
While we can assume that the MAGA-encoded constructs of current mainstream culture are correlated with a generation of young people identifying as more conservative than their parents, Penny says the relationship between pop culture and politics is a two-way street. says. Media can reflect current opinion and interest, but it can also be used to shape it.
“Pop culture doesn't just appear out of nowhere,” says Penny, who wrote the book. pop culture, politics, news. “We are seeing more and more attempts to shape culture out of the conservative media ecosystem.”
Conservatives carved out a space for themselves in movie theaters
In March, Ben Shapiro's media company The Daily Wire released its first theatrical film, a “satire” documentary. Am I racist? It earned $4.5 million in its opening weekend. The film is currently the highest-grossing documentary of the year, along with several other conservative nonfiction films, including a Catholic documentary. Jesus Thirst: The Story of the Eucharistdirected by Dinesh D'Souza prove trump rightand creationist movies ark and darkness All are in the top 10 list.
In 2024, other films by conservative studios and right-wing producers made significant financial gains. Despite overwhelmingly negative reviews, the Ronald Reagan biopic reaganThe film, starring Dennis Quaid, was in the top five at the box office upon its premiere in August, performing particularly well among older, white, and Southern audiences. Over the summer, Christian media company Angel Studios also released a pro-adoption film. Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Troutdistributed by Daily Wire+. Although the revenue decreased significantly compared to the previous work in 2023, sound of freedom, There was a vocal fan base of QAnon supporters., Its worldwide box office gross of nearly $12 million is still a significant accomplishment for a small Christian film without a movie star.
Although the performances of these films did not raise any pressing concerns, such as sound of freedomThat provides a potential incentive for major studios to start courting movie-going audiences who feel alienated from mainstream Hollywood.
Warner Bros. hasn't produced any original films yet. sound of freedombut we've seen hints that Hollywood is interested in films that at least appeal to white, Southern, conservative audiences. American nostalgic fodder emerges in summer blockbuster twisters. Set in Oklahoma, the star-studded movie, with a rustic soundtrack, did well, especially in southern cities and at theater chains in central America, exceeding initial expectations. The film is probably best described as decidedly apolitical, with some patriotic elements, but Glen Powell's white, blonde savior is the film's other male protagonist. It depicts him eviscerating a Latin storm chaser, Javi (Anthony Ramos). Powell happened to create a different kind of Americana, blue angelsa documentary about the U.S. Navy's Flight Demonstration Squadron, is the fourth highest-grossing documentary of 2024. He also co-starred with Sweeney in the film. anyone but youThe movie, released in late 2023, topped the $200 million mark in early 2024.
Penny said companies will try new strategies to cater to different audiences based on what they think will be economically beneficial, as with Marvel and Disney's recent diversity push. They don't think about the political implications at all.
“That was the reality of capitalism,” Penny says. “[Disney] was trying a new strategy not because it was truly convinced that more diversity could save the world, but because it felt that was what its audience wanted. It was a reaction to Me Too and Black Lives Matter and things that actually resonated to some extent with our culture. ”
This swing of the pendulum from the diversity-focused art that dominated pop culture during the Obama administration to what we see today is not unprecedented. In music in particular, the popularity of country as a genre has historically coincided with the advancement of right-wing politics, from post-9/11 jingoist anthems to the Nixon administration's “Okey from Muskogee.” In popular culture, we also see movies with conservative and/or religious themes. american sniper and the passion of christtopping the box office. If this moment tells us anything, it is that we are caught in an ouroboros of shifting political values and corporate interests.
Suffice it to say, it doesn't matter if you've been here before, it matters if you pay attention to what these signals mean. If we take an honest look at our media environment, were the election results really that surprising?
