Commentary: Superheroes as American Propaganda

[entertainmentunivers]

When Superman was created in the late 1930's, it was during a time when America was hurting during it's great depression and there was uncertainty of war for America. Everyone wanted a hero to look up to and Siegal and Shuster provided that with their comic book hero. In 1941 during the war, Simon and Kirby created Captain America. Both characters were propaganda tools during that time, but not today.

[edward2962]

I would really really be interested in hearing/reading your paper on Captain America. Any thought to either making it into a You Tube vid or else just uploading it somewhere?

[BlazeTheMovieFan]

Hmm, that's a very interesting video, and you said a lot of interesting things.

[CapesandCloaks]

Uhmmm Captain America won W.W.II and America conquered Japan and we Americanized them so your argument is flawed.

[uberhikari]

@CapesandCloaks I don't know where you read your history, but we didn't "Americanize" Japan. Japan is a very conservative society, and they are not like Americans at all. Their customs, traditions, etc. are not American either. They have certainly been influenced by us, but not Americanized.

[CapesandCloaks]

There is no such thing as American Propaganda thats a myth......lol

[uberhikari]

@CapesandCloaks Sure there is; like the myth that we support democracy. At best, that myth is a very complicated lie.

[CapesandCloaks]

USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA

[CapesandCloaks]

USA USA USA! !!!!!!!

[SkywarpMach7]

Superheros stand for Morals and the gretaer good no mattere what background they come from.

[sXeblues]

-the majority of super-hero fiction, this day in age, is American... But then there are heroes in anime and manga from Japan, ancient heroes in Norse and Greek mythology. Each are a product of their time/environs. Yes, the current incarnation of this basic idea is wholly American. I think though, it's fascinating that in spite of that, they are able to still speak to folks the world abroad.

[sXeblues]

-So on that topic, it's pretty cut and dry... As for Heroes being propaganda for the American consciousness, that seems pretty simple too. We cannot really judge a character by himself in that argument though, as he is the product of an artist or writer and thus, that person's environment dictates to a degree their creations, whether that's an embrace of it or disdain for it. Cont.

[sXeblues]

-Captain America, as you say, wouldn't BE Capt. America, if even a hero at all... Stories like Superman: Red Son implies certain qualities will remain the same even in a far different environ, and on a genetic level, and ancestral memory-wise, maybe that's true. But the there's Shinzon from Star Trek Nemesis, who clearly is not Picard, though they are genetically identical. Cont.

[sXeblues]

Human beings and by extension, super-human beings or even human-like aliens, are a product of their environment. Whether that's growing up a Kansas farmboy, a Vulcan, a product of communist Russia, ad infinitum. Their surroundings dictate the overall template of who they'll become. Once they reach a certain level of awareness, they then decide what to do with that, how to reconcile that with who and what they want to be. Cont.

[fwwaller]

a masters degree on american studies? kind of like sociology a little bit, but just a bit narrowed down?

[PopCultureDiva42]

@fwwaller It's cultural studies. We do a lot of literature, film studies, philosophy. Stuff like that. It's way more boring than it sounds though. :)

[uberhikari]

@PopCultureDiva42 What kind of philosophy do you study?

[PopCultureDiva42]

@uberhikari Political philosophy mostly. Hobbes, Locke, Kant, Mill. We don't really go into heavy stuff like Kierkagard, Heideger or even Nitezsche. It's more about the philosophical foundations of American politics.

[uberhikari]

@PopCultureDiva42 You're right, that mostly sucks. They probably wouldn't teach Nietzsche, Kierkagard, or Heideger in an American studies course anyway, because they don't constitute the philosophical foundations of American politics. And they combined this with cultural studies? I don't think a person could have designed a worse class, lol.

[PopCultureDiva42]

@uberhikari You are SO right. Don't even get me started on the literature we do. None of it has any relevance to what is going on in the US today. We did a course last year called "Cultural diversity" or something to that effect. And all we analysed was jewish-american literature! Now I got nothing against jewish people. but if you're gonna call a class Cultural Diversity, I would imagine that you'd like to focus on more than ONE minority.

[uberhikari]

@PopCultureDiva42 This is so fascinating to me, but also very awkward. If you want something a little bit more diverse I can recommend a book: The World Turned Inside Out by James Livingston. Probably the best exploration of American culture in the 20th century. He also recently wrote a book on the current economic crisis called, Against Thrift.

[PopCultureDiva42]

@uberhikari Thanks for the recommendation. I'll definitely look it up!

[Zipblockgory]

This was a great video, very good Diana.

[SavageVandar]

Hmm, interesting subject...especially at the end. To me(and I think a fair amount of Americans who are individualistic) the idea that one 'owes' their ancestors is kind of strange. It's less about owing them(by being a good citizen or whatever) and more about owing current society that you find yourself in. After all, how can you owe anything to people who don't exist any more? Debt is pretty much solely the domain of the living. The dead can't owe or be owed, IMO. They're out of the game.

[PopCultureDiva42]

@SavageVandar That was just an example of a fundamental difference between US and older cultures in Europe and Asia. When you have a civilisation that's been around for thousands of years, stability is very important. And one way to insure stability is to emphasize how much like your ancestors you really are and how much you owe to the past. Nobody ever started a revolution because of shit that happened 200 years ago. :)

[uberhikari]

@PopCultureDiva42 What do you mean by stability?

[PopCultureDiva42]

@uberhikari In the context where I brought it up, I meant some cultures are more resistant to change than others. It's like people really. The older you get, the less inclined you are to accept new things. US is a young civilisation compared to most countries in Europe, including my own.

[uberhikari]

I don't even know how to respond to this video. This is a topic for a seminar not a youtube video. This video was so good, but is insufficient on so many levels, because this mode of intellectual transaction--videos and comment boxes--is too restrictive for this kind of discussion. I wish I could do more than like the video and bemoan its inadequacy.

[Deadpoolzilla]

nice vid diva, I'm going to do this as well