Introduction
Pop culture represents a community in artifacts, symbols, and rituals of day-to-day life through the media. Pop culture helps view gender, race, sexuality, and social class from a broader perspective and understand the diversity in society. In most media, women in media are ideally understood through the male contemplation; the portrayal of gender, sexuality, race and social class in pop culture represents the society’s depiction of the four categories of identity. Great dialogue has been sparked on how the four categories of identity are viewed under pop culture, with great questions arising with concerns and criticism. The essays focus on understanding how pop culture reflects gender, race, sexuality, and social class.
Orange Is the New Black initial release was July 2013. The show was released on the streaming platform Netflix and followed Piper Chapman’s life as she gets comfortable with her new life in jail and the knowledge of other ladies whom Piper Chapman gets acquitted with and socializes with her behind bars. Netflix’s worldwide extension allows the show OITNB to gain international recognition from global viewers. This essay has further stipulated scrutiny of the four categories under OITNB.
Gender
The proof of identity of gender is a person’s inner intelligence of being manly or womanly or a distinctiveness externally or amongst the groups. In the series, gender documentation is depicted differently. Females are less popular due to gender labels, with consumers being key to males than females in the media business. Gender appearance is an exhibition of identity by the person through architects or a figure, such as what they wear, their attitude, jewels, and behaviours. Majority of the characters do not clarify about their inward sense of sex or how they theorize their gender identity in the series. Some of the characters in the series, like Piper Chapman, even though she does not directly identify her gender, portray behaviours that reveal her sex identity (Desbarats). She can spend time in the hair parlour for her hair to be fixed in the series, purchasing makeup and nail polish. Through these activities, it is clear that the gender expression of Piper Chapman is feminine (Schlösser, and Pereira). The series portrays how identifying oneself as a woman gains favour with the correctional workers. The portrayal of Piper Chapman’s character as one who needs helps and weak seeking security from the male gender portrays women as soft and in need of protection from men in the society. The series depicts others characters who are freely open to the idea of expressing themselves as feminine, despite having features of the male gender (Chavez). The revelation of transgender is revealed with one of the characters in the series. The character does not hide her identity because of being afraid of how society will view her; these portray how she receives a judgment from society for identifying herself as a transwoman. The series shows how the genitals of a person determine their placement in prison; this illustrates how society views the transgender communities.
Race
Although the community embraces egalitarian norms, being stereotyped about race and ethnicity remains a problem, where a black person is viewed by society as a threat, rude, and thief. In contrast, a white person is considered morally upright and not a threat. There have been reflections of condemnation of black people in the media against speaking out in public on matters affecting the black community. Race is communally built; the series presents race as a genetic development heavily dependent on a person’s skin color. The series identifies some of the characters as white while others as black (Chavez). The privilege extended to Piper Chapman is not highly appreciated by other symbols of a different race. The series portrays how different races in the society take care of their race; one of the inmates tells Piper Chapman, “We take care of our own,” after handing her a toothbrush. The series shows the separation between the black and white people that is greatly viewed in society. Racial discrimination is a determining factor in pop culture and society in real life (Schlösser, and Pereira). Despite the racial segregation in the series, not all characters agree with the line of racial discrimination; this contributes to groups in prison.
Furthermore, the series further points out the variances in the race. The race of different characters justifies there are in prison, the surface stays, the lavatories to use, and the place to take their meals; the series also spotlights both joy and cruelty within the race (Desbarats). The show portrays how female prisoners in each ethnic classwork eat and sleep in surroundings and situations that executives and wardens have approved of the prison. The wardens openly victimize the prisoners by their skin color, and it frequently seems that the convicts isolate based on race. The show’s convicts can randomly choose to settle for their meals, but they generally decide based on their races (Chavez). Discrimination in the series appears to be an unexpressed law that can generate battles between races.
Sexuality
The portrayal of LGBT communities in the media has greatly been met with critics from different parts of the world. Some cultures criticize the LGBT portrayal in the media, with some individuals being mocked and hated by some people in society based on their sexual orientation. There have been critics of the press and feminist critics of portraying sexuality and sex as objects in the media (Mueller et al.). Sex has been well-defined founded on two groups, the attraction towards a person and the gender of the person demonstrating those affections. Sex can also be classified according to the characteristics of an individual towards other people. The series OITNB presents sex in the setting of inmates’ lives (Grossman). The three theories that explain sexuality in prisons are; the theory of inmates being deprived of heterosexual activities leading to convicts’ same-sex engagement and the deprivation theory (Schlösser, and Pereira). Convicts import communal norms from community to prisons, the importation model, and the collaborative constructionist approach (Desbarats). All the models are portrayed in the show at different levels; Piper Chapman states that “I have a fiancée,” confirming her to be heterosexual (Chavez). The import theory is demonstrated by the bisexual and lesbian ladies in the prison that come with that identity. The social constructionist is portrayed again with Piper Chapman due to her sexual orientation changing depending on time and place.
Social Class
The discrimination towards the minority groups is not as it used to be in the past but is still under the shadows greatly. The minority experience inequalities and discrimination, which causes great segregation between the rich and the poor. In the show, Orange Is the New Black, the social class ties greatly into the race (Chavez). The first case of social class is portrayed when Mr. Healy, an inmate counselor, tells Piper Chapman how some of the convicts will lean on her judging from her background with the thoughts of her being from a wealthy family. The show portrays the minority inmates in prison living in the ghetto and the whites living in the suburbs showing a difference in social class; the ghetto mostly consists of the black people. The other group of inmates, the Latinos, live in the ‘Spanish Harlem”. The show portrays the social classes as depicted in the series compared to real-life, where the minority and people of color experience inequalities in society (Schlösser, and Pereira). Additionally, there are specific bathrooms for all classes of inmates, sitting positions during mealtimes, and showers (Desbarats). The show demonstrates how the rich devote themselves to the life of crimes and take advantage of the people beneath them.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the purpose of the thesis was to demonstrate how race, gender, social class, and sexuality represent Orange Is the New Black. Readers can learn a great deal from how the world’s portrayal of race, gender, sexuality, and social class in pop culture. The analysis’s main focus was on the four identity groups—representing the four categories in pop culture and their views. OITNB depicts gender, sex, social class, and race based on different characters in the show and reflects the society we live in today. The idea of race in the front is portrayed through the whites, where being white is a privilege, where women of color are preserved, and their stories are told through Piper Chapman, who is white. Sexuality in the show is complex and complicated. Gender in the performance is portrayed in feminism as the show focuses more on feminist characters, with the physical appearance of some characters giving them masculine representation. The social class portrayal exists of the higher and middle class of people, with the one in the high status being the white and the middle living the blacks and Latinos. Inequalities among the different classes can be viewed and witnessed in the show. OITNB reflects how the society, the disparity that exists among the minority group of people. The series reflects the rich in the world of crime and how they easily get away with crimes using the minority group of people to conduct their crime dens.
Works Cited
Chavez, Michael. Representing Us All? Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Orange Is the New Black. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2015.
Tainá Cordova Schlösser, and Patricia Barbosa Pereira. “Media representations of the body, gender, and sexuality – an analysis of the TV Show Orange Is The New Black.” ACTIO: Docência em Ciências, vol. 3, no. 3, Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná, 2018, pp. 271–91, https://doi.org/10.3895/actio.v3n3.7710.
Mueller, Jennifer C. et al. “Racism And Popular Culture: Representation, Resistance, And White Racial Fantasies.” Handbooks Of Sociology And Social Research, 2018, pp. 69-89. Springer International Publishing, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76757-4_5. Accessed 30 Apr 2022.
Desbarats, Carole. “Orange Is the New Black.” Esprit, Novmbr, no. 11, 2016, p. 53., https://doi.org/10.3917/espri.1611.0053.
Grossman, Diane. “Sexuality And Popular Culture”. Companion To Sexuality Studies, 2020, pp. 279-298. Wiley, https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119315049.ch15. Accessed 30 Apr 2022.
2022, https://magazine.umbc.edu/the-impact-of-orange-is-the-new-black/. Accessed 30 Apr 2022.
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