Sign Power

 

According to Brummett, a “sign is something that induces you to think about something other than itself” (2014, p. 45).  In pop culture, we constantly see signs and our mind immediately jumps to another thought, whether that next thought is intentional or not. Individuals prevalent in media and pop culture are subject to near constant scrutiny and any words, action, or event associated with that person could be inextricably linked to them as a sign or symbol forever. Once we have assigned a meaning to that sign, and that meaning is recognized widely, the sign can become an artifact (Brummett, 2014).

Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz was awarded Defensive Player of the Year two consecutive years in 2018 and 2019. Don’t get me wrong; I love Rudy Gobert. But every time I hear his name or see a photo of him, my mind immediately jumps to the video of his outburst during a game when he knocked a cup full of water from the scorer’s table.

Forty-second president of the United States William Jefferson Clinton had a long list of accomplishments while serving in the White House, but whenever I see President Clinton, my mind automatically pops up with his press conference statement: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman…” (Clinton, 1998).

And until Donald Trump was elected president of the United States in 2016, every time I saw him or thought of him, my thoughts went directly to the board room and I could hear him saying “you’re fired”.

Every time I hear a song by “The Chicks”, fka “The Dixie Chicks”, all I can hear is lead singer Natalie Maines telling a British audience in 2003 “just so you know, we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas”.

Unlike iconic and indexical meanings, symbols can change easily, especially as they are influenced by pop culture. Where the Dixie Chicks may have initially enjoyed symbolical meanings of “country” or “America”, after the statement made in response to the Iraq war, the Dixie Chicks’ symbolic meaning transformed into “traitors” and “treasonous”. Donald Trump was successful but was also a direct and unforgiving boss in his television show “The Apprentice” until he was elected to the highest office in the United States and he symbolized the success of an elected official. And President Clinton was admired by many people in the nation until his statements were proven false and he symbolized dishonesty and disrespect. Rudy Gobert symbolized unsportsmanlike behavior with his momentary tantrum after he’d been praised and honored as one of the NBA’s top players. Even though symbols have the potential to change, sometimes they stick and aren’t easily altered. 

 

Is it fair that we assign symbolic meanings to people who are perpetually in the public eye, oftentimes when they are at their worst? Do the meanings we assign have more to do with us as observers of popular culture than they do with the person/symbol we are assigning the meaning to?

 

 References:

Brummett, B. (2015). Rhetoric in popular culture. Los Angeles: Sage.