Popular culture

Unit 1:
I. Culture
- “Culture is one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language” – Raymond
Williams (1921-1988)
- Williams suggests 3 broad definitions:
1. A general process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic development, .i.e., referring only to
intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic factors – about great philosophers, great artists and great
poets.
2. A particular way of life, whether of a people, a period, or a group
 This definition allows us to speak of such practices as the seaside holiday, the
celebration of Christmas and youth sub-cultures.
 These are usually referred to as “lived cultures” or practices.
3. The works and practices of intellectual and especially artistic activity, i.e. it means the texts
and practices whose principal function is to signify, to produce or to be the occasion for the
production of meaning.
 Here, culture is synonymous with what structuralists and post-structuralists call
“signifying practices”.
 Soap opera, pop music, and comics are examples of culture… these are usually
referred to as ‘texts’.
 To him, the best way to articulate popular culture is to put together the second
meaning (a particular way of life) and the third meaning (signifying practices) of the
word culture.
 In other words, one would combine lived cultures/ cultural practices along with
cultural texts.
II. Popular
- ‘Liked, enjoyed, or supported by many people.’ – Cambridge Dictionary
- ‘For, or involving, ordinary people, other than experts or very educated people.’ – Cambridge
Dictionary
- Raymond Williams:
1. Popular – well-liked by many people
 How many copies sold.
 How many people attend an event.
 How many people watch a TV show/program.
 Etc.
 Hot/ best-seller; top trending.
2. Popular – inferior kinds of work => substandard culture
 Evaluative:
o Popular culture vs elite culture = high vs low
o Popular culture: the culture that is ‘left over’ after deciding what high culture is
=> ‘residual’ category
 3. Popular = work deliberately setting out to win favour with the people => mass/ mass-
produced culture
 Culture industry: key industry of 21st century
 The media, advertisement, PR, consumerism
 Culture = product
- Elite culture (high)
 ‘The ivory tower of art for art’s sake
 ‘Mandarin aversion to raucous public entertainments’ (Arthur Mitzman [1931-])
 ‘It contains the works id art, literature, scholarship and philosophy that establish a
shared frame of reference among educated people (Roger Scruton [1944-])
 Popular culture vs Elite culture
o The distinction is not always clear-cut
o Examples: William Shakespeare’s plays, The Simpsons
- Work vs Product
“Fine art is the art of genius” - Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804)
Originality
Authenticity
Uniqueness
=> Prestige of art
4. Popular = the culture that originates from ‘the people’ rather than imposed upon them by the
cultural elite => culture actually made by the people for themselves.
- Dominant/ mainstream culture vs marginal/ sub – culture
- Culture of the minority => mass produced
Unit 2: The formation and development of popular culture
Stages of development
- 1890s – 1940s: Nascent stage
- 1950s – 1980s: developing stage (mainly in the US)
- 1980s – present: flourishing stage (from the US to other parts of the world, especially Asia)
NASCENT STAGE (1890s – 1940s) (thời kỳ Manh Nha)
 The 3Ms of popular culture: Mass – Money – Mechanics
 The rise of large-scale & mechanized industrial production; the growth of massive &
densely populated cities
 The growth of scientific knowledge, the spread of mechanized, monotonous and
alienating factory work (Strinati, 2004)
 The industrial revolution (19th century)
 Hannibal Goodwin (1822 – 1910): inventor of camera (nitrocellulose film)
 Thomas Edison (1847 – 1931) (Motion pictures – film)
 The Roaring twenties:
o For the first time, more Americans lived in cities than on farms.
o The nation’s total wealth more than doubles between 1920 and 1929.
 o By the end of the 1920s, there were radios in more than 12 million households.
o By the end of the decades, three-quarters of the American population visited a
movie theatre every week.
o The 1920s & 1930s are significant turning points in the study & evaluation of
popular culture.
o The coming of cinema & radio, the mass production & consumption of culture,
the rise of fascism & the maturing of liberal democracies in certain western
societies. (Strinati, 2004)
DEVELOPING STAGE (1950s – 1980s)
 Trauma of World War 2
 The Cold War
 The Vietnam War
 Social upheavals:
o Kennedy’s assassination (1963)
o Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination (1968)
o Civil Rights Movement
o Women’s Liberation Movement
 The Baby Boom:
o 1960s: 70,000,000 teenagers
o Jack Kerouac (1948): The Beat Generation (Beat = weary)
o Beat/ Beatific (the expression of beatitude the religious sometimes adopt)/
beatniks (tiền thân của Hippi
1. Pop Music
 Elvis Presley – Rock’ n’ roll
 The Beatles & the counter – culture movement
2. Pop art
 Break down the barrier between the Popular culture and the Fine art
 Incorporate the evidence of popular culture and evidence of life
FLOURISHING STAGE (1980s – now)
 End of the Cold War
 The Yuppies (Young Urban Profession)
 Advancements in technology & the media (the internet)
 20th century: American century
 21st century: Asia century
 Asian tigers: Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, India
1. Japan pop culture (Doraemon/ Hello Kitty)
2. Canto pop / Hongkong pop culture (Người con gái dễ bị tổn thương – Vương Phi)
Film themes: politic, martial art, kiếm hiệp (Kim Dung), law and justice
3. Taiwanese pop culture (Mando culture)
Unit 3:
Characteristics of Popular culture
According to Judith N. Martin and Thomas K. Nakayama in Intercultural Communication in Contexts:
1. It is produced by culture industries
- Popular culture is nearly always produced within a capitalist system that sees the products of
popular culture as commodities that can be economically profitable.
- Example: The Disney Corporation, the Korean Wave
Antonio Gramsci (1891 – 1937)
- Hegemony:
 A cultural and ideological means whereby the dominant groups in society, including
fundamentally but not exclusively the ruling class, maintain their dominance by
securing the ‘ spontaneous consent’ of subordinate groups, including the working
class.
 Operates through the institutions of civil society which characterise mature liberal-
democratic, capitalist societies. These institutions include education, the family, the
church, the mass media, popular culture, etc
 Produced by intellectuals.
2. It differs from folk culture
This chart highlights some of the distinctions between high culture, folk culture, and popular
culture
Type Definition Who know it? What does it look
like?
High culture Elite aristocratic Rich members of the Opera, classic
expressions of culture political scupture, symphony
establishment performances
Folk culture Traditional and Most cultural groups, Folk music
nonmainstream but especially middle
cultural activities that – class groups
are not financially
driven
Popular culture Ever-present cultural Almost everyone in a Mainstream music,
products designed for social group movies, television,
profitable romance novels
consumption

Folk art grew from below. It was a spontaneous autochthonous expression of the people, shaped
by themeselves, pretty much without the benefit of High Culture, to suit their own need. Mass
Culture is imposed from above. It is fabricated by technicians hired by businessmen; its
audiences are passive consumers, their participation limited to the choice between buying and
not buying… folk art was the people’s own institution, their private little gardent walled off
from the great formal park of their master’s High Culture. But Mass Culture breaks down the
 wall, integrating the masses into a debased form of High Culture and thus becoming an
instrument of political domination.
MacDonald, D.(1957)
3. It is everywhere/ uniquitous
- Popular culture surrounds us like water surrounding a fish (John J. Nachbar & Kevin Lause,
1992)
4. It fills a social function
How many times have you been asked by friends and family for your reaction to a recent
movie or TV program?
Academicians Horace Newcomb and Paul Hirsch (1987) suggest that television serves as a cultural
forum for discussing and working out our ideas on a variety of topics, including those that emerge
from the programs themselves. Television, then, has a powerful social function- to serve as a forum
for dealing with social issues.
Types of popular culture
- Popular literature: web-based/internet literature
- Popular arts:
 Pop music
 Pop movies
 Applied/ industrial arts (interior design, graphic design, fashion design)
- Popular media
- Sports & entertainment, including tourism.
Structure of popular culture
 The Basement
Cultural [ Belief and Values
Mindset Bedrock Beliefs (Myths) or
Values
The 1st floor
Real Celeb
Imagined
Icons Icons
heroes Stereotypes
heroes

Celebrities: Real vs Imaginary

Real Icons – cars, fast food restaurants, jeans, credit cards
Imaginary Icons – Guns in Western films, Michael Jackson’s Black Suit, Harry Potter’s wizard wand
Real Heroes – Martin Luther King, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln
Imaginary Heroes – Tarzan, Superman, Spiderman, Batman
F Formula:
O Pattern of regconization of each
R genre / sub-genre;
Arts M Rituals
U A step-by-step process giving
L order & identity to arts/ rituals
A
Example: popular magazines, movies, television, recordings, comic books

Popular fiction

Romance Science Fiction Mystery Westerns Fantasy Etc

Private Classical Police

Thrillers Spies ETS
Detective Drawing Room Procefurals

Hard-Boiled Soft-Boiled Eccentric

Rituals
 Rituals are highly patterned symbolic events in which we all participate as a way of marking
important passages.
 These passages may be in our individual lives or in a society as a whole, in which we celebrate our
common beliefs and values.together, in order to produce a socially acceptable, safe manner.
 Examples: family reunions, sporting events (Soccer game, Badminton tournament, Race Car event),
wedding, funerals, holidays (Halloween trick or treat and Christmas exchanging gifts), etc
Functions of Popular Culture
1. Entertainment: leisure culture
 Leisure, the Basis of Culture (Josef Pieper)
 Game shows
 Reality TV
 Narrow the gap between “work/study/play
2. Information & Communication
 Most of the information we obtain is through popular media
 Youtube channels
 Vlogs
3. Social function
 Academicians Horace Newcomb and Paul Hirsch (1987) suggested that television serves as a
cultural forum for discussing and working out our ideas on a variety of topics, including those that
emerge from the programs themselves.
 Television, then, has a powerful social function – to serve as a forum for dealing with social
issues.
 Reflect & shapes the way the public think & live
 Ideology: the most important conceptual category in cultural studies (Graeme Turner)
 In Cultural Theory and Popular Culture (2009) , John Storey suggests these meanings:
a. Ideology can refer to a systematic body of ideas (organized group of idea) articulated by a
particular group of people.
Example: professional ideology, ideology of the Vietnamese Communist Party, etc
b. The second definition suggests a certain masking, distortion of concealment. It refer to how
certain texts and practices present distorted images of reality. They produce what is
sometimes called “false consciousness”. Such distortions work in the internet of the powerful
against the interests of the powerless.
Example: patriarchal ideology, feminism, ideology of racism.
The ideology conceals the reality of domination; the dominant classes do not see themselves
as exploiters or oppressors. The ideology conceals the reality of subodination from those
who are powerless. The subordinate classes do not see themselves as oppressed or exploited.
c. The third definition of ideology is related to the 2 nd one. Here the term refers to “idelogical
forms” or texts like television, fiction, pop songs, novels, feature films, etc.
o As per the third definition, texts always portray a particular image of the world; all texts
are ultimately political; society is seen as conflictual, structured around inequality,
exploitation and oppression.
 Every “text” has “an ideology” – overt vs covert message
o Example: advertisement.
Commodity fetishism
 Built on Marxist ideas of use value & exchange value
 False needs – deny & suppress true needs.
 The freedom in capitalist societies is just the freedom to choose more & different brands of the
same.
 Culture industry
- Serves to consolidate commodity fetishism
- Corrupting, manipulative, conformist & numbing.
o Term coined by Adorno & Horkheimer in 1944
o Designate the products & processess of mass culture
o Products of culture industry: homogeneity & predictability
o “Stadardization, stereotype, conservatism, mendacity, manipulated consumer goods”
o Maintain social authority, depoliticize the working class, stunts the political imagination
Adorno & On popular music
- Adorno is elitist and never substantiates his claims. He has no inside understanding of popular
music.
- Audiences of popular music are discriminating and critical. They actively interpret what they
consume as music and creatively give themselves nuances of identity by doing so.
- Standardized
o Once a musical/ lyrical pattern has proved successful, it is exploited to commercial exhaustion.
o Details from 1 pop song can be interchanged with another 1
- Promotes passive listening
o The “strain and boredom” of worj lead men and women to the “avoidance of effort” in their
leisure time.
Critique
- It is in the nature of popular music to be the same but different each time.
- Classical music focuses on the melody and harmony. Popular music on timbre and connotation.
- The standardization of core elements has been exploited by the sheer rate of change in popular
music – shifts of technology, fashion and genre.
Psycho – analysis
- Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939) – Austrian doctor / neurologist, father of psycho-analysis
- Psycho-analysis – the most influential school of thought in the 20th century.
Dream interpretation
- Dreams – the return of the repressed
- “The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to the unconscious”
- Dreams – “the guardians of sleep which get rid of disturbances of sleep”
- Compromise – structure – “a dream is a (disguised) fulfilment of a (suppressed/repressed) wish”
Oedipus complex
- For boys, at around the age of 3 -5:
o Desire to possess mother exclusively
o Jealous of father
o Fear of father’s power of castration
o Renounce mother
o Identity with father
o Desire father’s power (including a wife)
Electra complex
- For girl
o Desire to possess mother exclusively
o Notice lack of penis >< feels castrated (thiến)
o Penis envy => prefer father (~ jealous of mother)
o Desire a husband & a child
Psycho-analytic approach
- Author-centered – treating the text as the equivalent to an author’s dream
“An artist… is an introvert… oppressed by powerful instinctual needs. He desires to win honor,
power, weath, and the love of women, but he lacks the means for achieving these satisfactions.
Consequently, like any other unsatisfied man, he turns away from reality and transfers all his
interest, and his libido too, to the wishful constrictions of his life of fantasy.”
- Reader-centered – a text works like a subsitute dream, allowing readers to symbolically play out
desires and fantasies in the texts they read.
“In my opinion, all the aesthetic pleasure which a creative writer affords us has the character of a
fore-pleasure… our actual enjoyment of an imaginative work proceeds from a liberation of tensions
in our minds…”
Struturalism
- Ferdinand de Saussure, professor at University of Geneva, Switzerland, developed structural
linguitics between 1906 and 1911.
o All languages are composed of arbitrary groups of sounds called phonemes.
o Phonemes are the minimal units of sound which a group of speakers consider distinct and which
can create a difference in meaning.
o Phonemes themselves are meaningless
o It is only when they are combined into larger units (morphemes, words, phrases etc) according
to certain pattern (rules of syntax and grammar) that phonemes form meaningful units or speech.
o Claude Levi – Strauss introduces the binary approach to structuralism.
o For L-S, culture like language is essentially a collection of arbitrary symbols.
o He is not interested in the meanings of the symbols, any more than a linguist is interested in the
phonemes
o He is concerned with the patterning of the elements.
o The way the cultural elements relate to one another to form the overall system.
Opposites Present in Literature
- Fairy tales: Cinderella
o Cinderella is pretty, while step-sisters are ugly
o Cinderella is penniless, while step-sisters have money
o Cinderella is good, while step-sisters are evil
o Loses one slipper, but keeps the other
Structuring oppositions in the Western
- Hero - Villain
- Outside society - Inside society
- Good - Bad
- Weak - Strong
- Wilderness - Civillization
 Me/Us against the world

2023, Dec 14th

An introduction: Feminist Perspectives
What is feminism?
In Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics, bell hooks (2000) shares her “simple
definition” of feminism:
“Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression” (p.viii)
- Feminismm is a complex notion that has vast differences in meaning and connotation for people
spanning generations, ethnic identities, sexual orientations, social classes, nationality, and myriad
identities.
- Feminism is not a static notion; rather it evolves with us throughout our lives and is shaped by the
various lenses we use to view the world at large and, most importantly, ourselves.
Feminist theory is founded on three main principles (Ropers – Huilman, 2002)
1. Women have something valuable to contribute to every aspect of the world
2. As an oppressed group, women have been unable to achieve their potential, receive rewards, or
gain full participation on society.
3. Feminist research should fo more than critique, but should work toward social transformation.
Biological Sex vs Gender (Adams, M,Bell, I.A, & Gziffin, P., 1997; Hackman, 2010)
- Biological Sex refer to the physiological and anatomical charateristics of maleness and/or
femaleness with which a person is born.
- Gender Identity refers to one’s psychological sense of oneself as a male, female, gender
transgressive, etc
- Gender role refers to the socially constructed and culturally specific behaviour and expectations for
women. (i.e. femininity) or men (i.e. masculinity) and are based on heteronormativity.
- Gender Expression refers to the behaviour and/or physical appearance that a person utilizes in order
to express their own gender. This may or may not be consistent with socially constructed gender
roles.
Types of Oppression (Hardiman, Jackson & Griffin, 2010)
- Individual: attitudes and actions that reflect prejudice against a social group.
- Institutional: policies, laws, rules, norms, and customs enacted by orgainizations and social
institutions that disadvantage some social groups and advantage other social groups. These
institutions include religion, government, education, law, the media, and health care system.
- Societal/ cultural: social norms, roles, rituals, language, music, and art that reflect and reinforce the
belief that one social group is superior to another.
The three waves of Feminism
- The history of feminism is often described in three temporal waves.
- This concept originated with the Irish activist Frances Power Cobbe in 1884, who shared that
movements “resemble the tides of the ocean, where each wave obeys one more uniform imperus,
and carries the waters onward and upward along the shore” (as cited in Hewitt, 2010, p.2)
- When viewing feminism through the metaphor of a wave, it is important to understand that this idea
of uniform and monolithic waves is often reductive and ignores multiple and often simultaneous
movements within and across race, ethnicity, nationality, class, etc. as such, it disregards bravery of
women around the globe prior to the nineteeth century.
The first wave
- The First Wave occurred during the nineteeth and early twentieth centuries.
- It involved some of the foremothers of liberal feminism such as Elizabeth Candy Stanton and
Matilda Joslyn Gage who, in advocating for divorce laws to protect the rights of women, cited
Iroquois laws that ensured a man provided for his family on pain of banishment.
- There was a strong influence of native American women with whom white women shared land. The
pioneers of the women’s movement took cues from Native American ancestors such as the Iroquois
system of election, whereby women chose their governmental representative from among eligible
men.
The Second Wave
- The Second Wave occurred during the 1960’s and 1990’s.
- It unfolded in the context of the antiwar and civil rights movements and the growing self-
consciousness of a variety of marginalized groups around the world.
- The Second Wave differed from the First Wave in that it “drew in women of colour and developing
nations, seeking sisterhood and solidarity and claiming “women’s struggle as class struggle”
(Rampton, 2008, para 8)
- Some notable events during this period include the passage of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of
1964, the formation of the National Organization for Women, passage of Title IX in the Education
 Amendments of 1972, the Roe v. Wade decision, and the publication of the Feminine Mystique by
Betty Friedan.
The Third Wave
- The Third Wave is considered as the timeframe from 1990’s to present day.
- It is informed by postcolonial and postmodern thinking.
- Third Waves often mystifies earlier feminists as many have reclaimed lipstick, high heals, and
cleavage. In addition, tattoos may adorn current day feminists.
- This wave break constraining boundaries of gender, including what is deems essentialist boundaries
set by the earlier waves.
- Controversy and disagreement around identity politics between feminists in the third wave have
escalated.
2nd wave of feminism: đi cùng vs làn sóng nhân quyền. những vật dụng như giày cao gót, son môi, bra
là những vật dụng mang tính đàn áp phụ nữ. Những món đồ tôn dáng vóc người phụ nữ nhưng mục
đích chính là thỏa mãn cái nhìn nam giới nhưng người phụ nữ thì không thấy thoải mái.
3rd wave of feminism: thay vì coi là vật dụng đàn áp thì coi đó là đặc quyền của phụ nữ. Những rào cản
về giới bị phá bỏ khi bao gồm những người chuyển giới. Nên nhiều người cho rằng làn sóng này là làn
sóng hậu hiện đại/ hậu nữ quyền.
Conceptualizations of Feminism
- There are many different conceptualizations, or variations, of feminism.
- Though not all inclusive by far, this presentation provides a basic introduction to some of these
different perceptions of feminism.
- Some of these perspectives are congruent with each other, some build off of each other, and some
are in strict opposition to each other. We encourage you to read about these and additional feminist
perspectives beyond this presentation.
Liberal Feminism
- Liberal feminism is a traditional perspective that was established as a part of the first wave of
feminisim. It is often the root of comparison when deconstructing contemporary conceptualizations
of feminism.
- It is argue “society has a false belief that women are by nature less intellectually and physically
capable than men” (Tong, 2009, p.2)
- This perspective seeks to level the playing field that would allow women to seek the same
spportunities as men, especially the opportunity to excel in various field.
- Modern liberal feminists argue that patriarchal society fuses sex and gender together, making only
those jobs that are associated with the traditionally feminine appropriate for women to pursue.
Radical Feminism
- Radical feminism is the second most notable form of feminism.
- Radical feminists think liberal feminist perspectives are not drastic enough to address the centuries
of individual, institutional, and systemic oppression that have ensued.
- This can be further deconstructed into two types:
o Libertarian radical feminism focuses on personal freedom of expression but also turns to
androgymy as an option.
o Cultural radical feminism expressly argues that the root cause of the problem is not feminity but
the low value that patriarchy assigns to feminine qualities. If society placed higher value on
feminine qualities, then there would be less gender oppression. In this way, the volume should
be “turned up” on all forms of gender expression – androgyny, femininity, masculinity, and
multiple forms of gender expression that is – or is not – congruent with biological sex.
Marxist / Socialist Feminism
- This lens on feminism incorporates perspectives of social justice as well as socioeconomic
differences.
- For many centuries women were considered the property of men and a key cog in the capitalist
machine from a commodities perspective.
- Marxist feminists’ argue that the path to gender equality is led by the destruction of our capitalist
society. This perspective speaks out to issues such as unequal pay, obstacles to achieving tenure or
excelling in certain fields, and frequent lack family friendly policies at many of the institutions and
national organizations of higher education.
- Socialist feminist purport that women can only achieve true freedom when working to end both
economic and cultural oppression.
Black/ Womanist Feminism
- Wheeler (2002) defined a Black feminist as
A person, historically an African American woman academic, who believes that female descendants
of American slavery share a unique set of life experiences distinct from those of black men and
white women… the lives of African American are oppressed by combinations of racism, sexism,
classism, and heteroseixism. (p118)
- The term Womanist is often used to describe the experiences of a woman of colour, including the
intersections of race and gender.
- The Black Womanist feminism (or Black Feminist Thought) movement comes out of the feminist
movement of the 1970’s and is a direct interface with the civil rights movements, as it recognizes
that women of African descent in the U.S. faced a unique set of issues that were not being addressed
by the predominantly white feminist movement.
Existential Feminism
- Simone de Beauvoir (1952) developed another conceptualization of feminism – existentialist
feminism.
- This type of feminism puts forth the knowingly controversial idea that prostitution empowers
women both financially and within the general hierarchy of society. When compared to Marxist and
socialist feminism, the contrast with this type of entrepreneurial spirit is distinct.
- Central to this perspectives is the concept that one is not born a woman but becomes a woman. De
Beauvoir emphasizes that women must transcend their natural position and choose economic,
personal, and social freedom.
Eco Feminism
- Eco Feminism is the recognition of the common ground in both feminism and environmentalism.
- This is a natural pairing as eco feminists argue that there is a correlation between the destruction of
the planet and the exploitation of women worldwide by the patriarchy.
- This particular area of feminism intersects with issues of socioeconomic privilege, speciesism, and
racism.
- Eco feminists contend that both the destruction of the planet and its inhabitants are at stake, and the
only way to avert these disasters is through taking a feminist perspective of the world.
Postmodern Feminism
- This lens on feminism originated out of what some term the “third wave” of feminism.
Olson (1996) stated that postmodern feminist,
see female as having been cast into the role of the Other. They criticize the structure of society
and the dominant order, especially in its patriarchal aspects. Many Postmodern feminists, however,
reject the feminist label, because anything that ends with an “ism” reflects an essentialist conception.
Postmodern Feminism is the ultimate acceptor of diversity. Multiple truths, multiple roles, multiple
realities are part of its focus. There is a rejectance of an essential nature of women, of one-way to be a
woman. (p. 19)

Review
Katy Perry: Dark Horse/ This is How We Do

Exposure: To what extent has a person encountered cultural difference and diversity on a regular basis
(Who do you socialize with, what books do you read and shows do you watch, who is in your faith
community, etc.)?
Experience: To what extent has a person engaged with others who are different than them in ways that
are cross-culturally enriching? This differs from exposure, in that a person is willing to develop
meaningfully relationships, be vulnerable, and share personal stories.
Education: To what extent has a person gained any new knowledge and skills through instruction,
study, and experiences?
Empathy: To what extent does a person experience another person’s condition from their perspective?
Have you metaphorically placed yourself in the other person’s shoes and felt what they feel?

CULTURAL APPROPRIATION
The difference between inspiration and appropriation