WEEK 9 - "Cinema and Television: Taylor Swift ‘You belong with me’ and the cultural literacy”

I have got my sisters screaming while watching the video clip of the famous talented singer/songwriter, Taylor Swift. The famous “You belong with me” song charted the billboards many times, and had many young girls went all gooey listening to it over and over.



What is the significance that this video clip carries?



Everyone within the age of 12 to early 20’s even, will find themselves being able to relate themselves to the story that is being told in the video clip.

It portrays how our Protagonist, a typical high-school girl who always considered herself as the ‘Wallflower’ – the nobody – fell for our Hero, a typical high school jock who in turn, (typically) fell for the school’s famous Mean-Girl-type villain.

Even before the video clips reached its end, both of my sisters were already starting to jump to conclusions: “Oh, I know~~ the girl is a nerd…fell for that jock…but the dude’s with that Meanie Girl…but in the end he’ll fell for the Nerd! Aww, so sweet~”. They somehow were able to solve the plot quicker than

The ability to draw this conclusion is a significant proof of cultural literacy present in the audiences.

According to Schirato&Yell (2000), cultural literacy can be defined as “both a knowledge of meaning systems and an ability to negotiate those systems within different cultural contexts” (p. 1)

Schirato&Yell also notes that, the contexts that produce the cultural practices that are closely linked to the notion of cultural literacy that can be understood as:
“1) a familiarity with the rules and conventions of a culture; and
2) a feel for negotiating those rules and conventions”
(2000, p. 1)

In this particular video clip, most teenage i.e. 12 – 18 years of age, are accustomed to the story that the video clip narrates because they have that certain culture that binds them. This culture is the youth culture. Teenagers’ experiences of school life, especially in the West, usually constitute a life of social hierarchy that is made up off:
1) Always there is a renowned (usually good-looking) and much-adored-by-girls male who is extremely good in sports
2) An equivalent female who, instead of participating in sports, usually is the head-cheerleader, and almost always the two are going out together.
3) And the rest who are not the “In” crowd, who is usually labeled as the “geeks” or “nerds”, “emos”, or other social-stereotype label.
These are practically almost an ideology that most teenage chic flick portrays. That is why, most teenagers are able to recognize and familiarize themselves to the story. When the first two features above are not equated, teenage audiences are able to negotiate the rules and conventions that they are exposed to.

In this particular story, audiences are able to negotiate the fact that even a famous guy would fall for a considerably “nerd” girl.

This You Belong With Me video clip represents youth’s love dilemma and the discourse of every love story has a happily-ever-after ending.
However, the politic of this discourse is that: there is not always a happily-ever-after ending that follows in every love situation.

Reference
Schirato, T. & Yell, S. (2000). Communication and Culture: An Introduction. London: Sage Publications