Escape the Rabbit Hole

Pop culture is innovative, provocative, and so gorgeous. The brilliant moments, movements, and trends of pop culture have given us a vortex of images –gendered, bodily, sexual, political, religious, technological, fashion and so on – all set to enthral us. We are in a rabbit hole: a psychedelically engaging, overwhelming, numbing, yet always entertaining and superbly delightful. It is so ubiquitous that coming out of it is hardly possible, yet, to escape the rabbit hole is not always necessary. 

Put on your critical caps and identify how these fetishist whatsits of pop culture have created a rabbit hole in the here and now — what constitutes the real, the imagined, and the symbolic.

We love super long essays, small writeups, arty illustrations, cool videos, rib-tickling comics - all made by you. We love it all. Send in a brief description of what you would like to write, draw, or make at deconstructingrealities@gmail.com.   

Themes to Explore:

1. Is Pop Culture Always Insidious?

2. Pop Culture and Identity

3. Pop Culture and Gender, Feminism, Sexuality

4. Pop Culture and Ideology

5. Portrayal in Pop Culture – (e.g., Does Too Much Focus on Diversity in Media Seem Unnecessary and Forced?)

6. Portrayal of Pop Culture (e.g., Corresponding Effect of Pop Culture in Immersive Media Like Formats of Tiktok and the New Instagram Reel Format)

7. Pop Culture and (in) Politics

8. Undercurrents of Pop Culture

9. Indian Pop Culture and the Subaltern

10. Censorship

12. Distinction/Distanciation of and Through Pop Culture