Earlier this year, conservatives on social media claimed an unlikely new icon. This wasn’t a podcaster with questionable views or a liberal businessman selling a course or a particular ideology. She was actress Sidney Sweeney, Excitement star and recent lead in rom-coms Anyone but you.
His hosting gig is on Saturday Night Live March, two conservative outlets published column Heralding Sweeney as a return to the conventional beauty standards of the ’90s and early 2000s — or, as Bridget Fetacy for The Spectator put it, “a smiling blonde with an amazing rack.” Both pieces Assume that, by wearing low-cut dresses and flaunting her sexuality, Sweeney was inviting men to fawn over her, thus giving a middle finger to the “cultural awakening” and Me Too movement.
Sweeney has not publicly aligned himself with the right in any way. (Her Family politics(Although, in 2022 there was controversy, that may have had something to do with her eager embrace of the right.) Rather, her ascension as a throwback-y, hyper-feminine sex symbol has given conservatives a rare mainstream Gen Z figure on whom to project their values. For those paying close attention, the past year has been rife with springboards for the conservative message.
After Trump’s re-election, it seems the 2024 zeitgeist was predicting his return to office, and some prognosticators might have taken it a little too seriously. “Bro country” singers became artists, going head-to-head with, and in many cases surpassing, female pop singers on the charts. The most notable new reality shows were Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders and Mormon TikTokers. Conservative films from smaller distributors like biopics Reagan and the Daily Wire documentary Am I racist?It earned crores at the box office. Nominally apolitical podcasters and streamers, from Joe Rogan to the Nail Boys, have hosted presidential candidates and taken on an increasingly political valence.
A sharp turn from it The liberal-coded pop culture of the Obama years And the kind of trend that started in response to Trump’s first presidency — comic-book movies with a progressive edge Wonder Woman And black panther, Like social commentary films get out And Promising young womannot mentioned Tana culture explosion.
Joel Penny, an associate professor at Montclair State University, says the overall conservative sentiment in pop culture right now is, in many ways, a reaction to the Me Too movement and its opponents’ idea that “masculinity is in crisis.” At the same time that we’re seeing Sweeney gain praise for representing “traditional” femininity, the all-American straight white “bro” is getting renewed cultural attention.
“There’s been a lot of effort to reclaim these strong male role models in pop culture, whether it’s Tom Cruise top gun Remake or this ‘bro’ podcaster and country singer,” Penny said.
2024 was about straight white brothers
We can see this happening most visibly in mainstream music. It’s not just country music — a Southern genre with a past and present of conservative politics — that has emerged into the mainstream in the past two years. with a lot The controversy is that the musicians in this category – Morgan Wallen, Jack Bryan, Jelly Roll, Luke Combs, Shabuji and the new rustic Post Malone – are clearly male. Shabuji’s phenomenal success in the overwhelming white genre adds a refreshing element to this conversation. Beyoncé also released a successful country album this year featuring an array of shabuzzi and black female country artists Cowboy CarterIts lead single, “Texas Hold ‘Em,” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks, shorter than the No. 1 songs this year by Morgan Wallen, Post Malone and Shabuzzi. Nor was the country fully recognized CMAs are closed. Overall, it seems like the country fan and the average young person, who Listen to more country music These days, more are interested in hearing friends rant about beer.
Off the charts, these country singers have also become mainstream personalities and the subject of celebrity gossip. About a year later, Brian A Little-known alternative country crooner has been posting videos on YouTube To a celebrity who is having a personal relationship analyzed by tiktok Users and explained on its pages people. Jelly Roll and his wife, influential and popular podcast host Bunny XO, have become a recognizable celebrity couple, while Morgan Wallen’s dating life And Public antics done Page Six Fodder.
Elsewhere in pop culture, ostensibly designated figures for a more male, conservative audience have gone mainstream. First, there was the viral video of a Tennessee woman being asked about oral sex outside a bar — a very bro-y Girls Gone Wild-inspired genre that’s emerged on TikTok — and offering a memorable onomatopoeia. Viral also features Florida-based father-son duo AJ and Big Justice, who review food at Costco. With the exception of Big Justice’s sister and mother — who is literally referred to in the videos as “Mother of Big Justice” — the Expanded Universe “The Costco Guys” Food is rated in a cartoonishly macho manner with white men and boys from Florida and New Jersey.
They’re not explicitly expressing MAGA as a standard, but they’re trafficking in spaces that have become less visible in recent years: rural and suburban enclaves, with white, heterosexual, male, and even “bro-e” talent that has been out in recent history. conventional
One can assume that the current MAGA-coded fabric of mainstream culture is related to a generation of young people More conservative than their parentsAlthough Penny says the relationship between pop culture and politics is a two-way street. While the media can reflect the growing opinions and interests of the moment, it can also be used to shape it.
“Pop culture doesn’t come out of nowhere,” says Penny, who wrote the book Pop culture, politics, and news. “We’re seeing attempts to shape the culture coming increasingly from the conservative media ecosystem.”
Conservatives carved a niche for themselves in cinema
In March, Ben Shapiro’s media company The Daily Wire released its first theatrical movie “satire” documentary. Am I racist? which Earned $4.5 million on its opening weekend. Currently, it is the highest-grossing documentary of the year, along with several other conservative nonfiction films, including Catholic documentaries Jesus Thirst: The Story of the EucharistDirected by Dinesh D’Souza Support Trumpand creationist films Ark and Darkness all ready Top 10 list.
2024 Other movies from conservative studios and right-wing producers have made significant financial gains. Despite overwhelmingly negative reviews, the Ronald Reagan biopic, ReaganStarring Dennis Quaid, It made it to the top 5 at the box office When it premiered in August, it did particularly well Older, white and southern audiences. This summer, Christian media company Angel Studios also released the pro-option movie Voices of Hope: The Story of the Possum TroutMarketed by Daily Wire+. Although it made significantly less money than that 2023 predecessor The sound of freedom, One of which was Vocal fanbase of QAnon supporters, Its nearly $12 million worldwide gross is still a huge accomplishment for a small Christian film with no movie stars attached.
Although nothing like the performance of these movies raised the same immediate concerns The sound of freedomThis provides a potential incentive for major studios to cater to a movie-going crowd that feels alienated by mainstream Hollywood.
Warner Bros. has yet to make its own The sound of freedomBut we’ve seen indications that Hollywood is interested in movies that at least appeal to white, southern and conservative audiences. American nostalgia bait came to the fore in summer blockbusters Twister. The Oklahoma-set film featured a star-studded, country-themed soundtrack Especially good in southern cities and theater chains In Central America, initial estimates exceeded. While it’s probably most accurate to describe the film as strictly apolitical with some patriotic markers, it finds the white, blonde savior (played by Glenn Powell) eliminating the movie’s other male lead, Latino storm Chaser Javi (Anthony Ramos). Powell produced another piece of Americana, blue angelA look at the US Navy’s Flight Demo Squadron and the fourth highest-grossing documentary of 2024. He also co-starred in it Anyone but you With Sweeney, a film that crosses over to release at the end of 2023 $200 million Mark as early as 2024.
Penny said corporations will try new strategies and pander to different audiences, as they have done with Marvel and Disney in recent years, based on what they think will benefit them financially. They are not really thinking about the political implications.
“This was the reality of capitalism at work,” Penny says. “[Disney] were trying new tricks, because they weren’t really sure they were going to save the world by expanding diversity, but they had a sense that that’s what the audience wanted. It was a response to Me Too and Black Lives Matter and things that actually resonated with our culture to some extent.”
This pendulum swing from the diversity-focused industry that dominated pop culture during the Obama years to what we’re seeing now is hardly unprecedented. Particularly in music, the popularity of country as a genre has historically coincided with a The push for right-wing politics, From post-9/11 jingoist anthems to Nixon-era “Okie from Muskogee.” Movies with conservative and/or religious themes from pop culture have also been viewed American Sniper And Passion of ChristBox office smash. If this current moment tells us anything, it’s that we’re stuck in an ourboros of shifting political values and corporate interests.
Suffice it to say, it’s not a question of whether we’ve been here before but whether we’re paying attention to what these signals mean. With an honest look at our media landscape, were the election results really surprising?
