So, as we discussed in class this week, deconstruction is all about identifying, understanding and evaluating cultural truth claims and their effects – how they create that cycle of (un)happiness.
Deconstructing is a skill that takes practice so that’s what we’ll be doing - one of our goals in this class is for you to become “cultural truth claim detectors.” You’ll start to be amazed because they are literally everywhere, in our surroundings and inside of us – but it’s like a big secret. We are in the habit of either not seeing these cultural truths at all (they operate as hidden assumptions) or seeing them as “just the way things are.” So the more you practice deconstruction the more you get into a very different habit of recognizing and questioning those truth claims in your everyday life.
This class connects popular culture and counseling because we have noticed that while truth claims are everywhere and they aren’t always a problem, there are SOME truth claims that we see over and over again BOTH in popular culture and in the therapy room, as clients describe their problems. We think there’s a connection.
For instance – remember the role-play we did in class, about the father who is trying to figure out how NOT to be like his own father, who didn’t have close relationships with his kids, but still “be a man” and not “lose his balls.” Where does he get this idea that you have to be a certain way to be a “real man?”
Look at the messages here: Real men don’t just wear pants, they wear “the pants.” As with all advertisements, they are talking about Dockers, but they are also talking about something else – something they know you’ll understand because of the cultural truth claims we have all internalized. So real men wear the pants - they “take charge.” Real men, apparently, don’t have misbehaving children or eat salad. Each of the statements in this ad is dependent on you having certain ideas about what these words and phrases mean, images in your head of what is supposed to be. What do you think it means to wear “the pants.” What does that actually look like, what behaviors would you expect? What does it look like to take charge? To be a hero? What comes to mind when you think disco, lattes, and salad bars? Who comes to mind? And what happens when they are then connected to “sitting idly by” and complacency as the world falls apart?
We ask the same deconstructing questions, whether we are looking at an example of popular culture or we are listening to a friend or a client (or our own mind) talk about their problems. Because they are connected – the way we make sense of popular culture and people’s problems is by understanding the common truth claims underlying both. That’s why the ability to deconstruct is such a valuable skill…not just in being culturally literate, but in creating your own happiness and helping others create theirs.
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