*Content Warning* Spoilers

The science-fiction thriller movie Dune (2021) by the acclaimed director Denis Villeneuve is an artistic rendition of the series Dune (1965) by Frank Herbert. The books are based around a futuristic world which is governed by a an Empire that holds power over a plethora of groups of people organized into ‘Houses’, each house with their own control over some major aspect of the society financially (business) or military. The make-up of the universe creates many levels of hierarchy, and the politics mixed with mystery, futuristic technology and conflicting interests creates a very complex universe. However, the existence of such forces that determine power and identity is what makes the Dune universe comparable with the current world.

A son of a powerful house Atreides (Paul) finds himself on a new planet (Arrakis) that his House was sent to control and do business, but was a plot by the enemies of the House and the Empire to topple his House. With the largest of powers against him, he finds himself with a group of Arrakis native (the Fremen) who are banished and are actively hunted by the Empire, to protect his House. The Empire can be viewed as the government that has absolute control over the Houses, who also make up the council of the Empire. The Houses can be viewed as various social groups as the house is a significant factor determining identity and status, thus, analogous to racial, socioeconomic, and national groups. The Fremen here resemble the groups who have been oppressed and been stolen off their resources. The plot to topple house Atreides who had gained recent power among the other houses, was carried out by the Empire being scared of a coup and Atriedes’ nemesis Harkkonen, and represent the systematic injustices carried out in terms of various political scams designed to rid oppressed groups from their rights and expression. The other houses’ silence in this case can be related to the silent majority who are scared of the power even while they see the injustice mentioned by Dr. King Jr. in his Letter, while the treatment of Fremen can be related to the treatment of the colonizers of the native populations. The master slave dynamic is observed by control of commodities that the Other wants, thus, creating political, fiscal, and economic powerhouses, that is, houses that control trade of the ‘spice’ (found only on Arrakis), transportation (transportation guild), and the mystical powers (Bene Gessuiuts). The spread of power is directly related to how power is perceived in today’s world, with the country on an international level, a company on a national level, and people with privileged status in a domestic level control commodities, either tangible or intangible that the Others want has more power. The way all these factors converge creates various ways of injustice, be it political as seen by the imperial power of the Empire, or social as seen by the power of Houses over their citizens, and the sub-political powers of other groups such as the mystical Bene Gessuits all creates a dynamic universe that falls for the same shortcomings as the current world does.

The book being set in future also raises questions about the existence of such injustices even when society has progressed as much as inhabiting different galaxies and is space oriented. The absoluteness of the powers also act as criticism of misuse of the newfound powers with technology. Then, the book as a whole is a commentary about futuristic world with similar problems and injustices as today’s world.

P.S. The books were originally published in 1965, thus, were written during the heat of the Civil Rights Movement raising solid queries about the inspiration of the social construct and the conflict depicted in the book.

The hit television show, Shameless, is a classic example of both intersectionality and systemic barriers that contribute to people from the same area having drastically different life experiences. In the first season of Shameless, the dysfunctional Gallagher family is introduced. This family resides in the South side of Chicago. The eldest daughter, Fiona, is the main parental figure, as her father is an alcoholic and addict.

The first season mainly focuses on Fiona’s struggles trying to support her brothers and sisters as a high school dropout, working multiple jobs to make ends meet. Fiona is a cunning and hard working woman, and struggles to deem herself worthy as the show progresses. Being born into a poor family, Fiona was not given the opportunities others her age were, she was focusing on surviving and paying bills, not on setting herself up for future success. Due to their low socioeconomic status and systemic poverty, Fiona did not have a support system from a young age, and had others depending and leaning on her. 

Intersectionality is explored in multiple ways throughout the show through Fiona’s next door neighbor, Veronica. Veronica is a strong black woman who helps the Gallagher’s in a multitude of ways. Fiona and Veronica identify with one another as they are both struggling economically, but Veronica faces racism and has unique struggles herself being in an interracial relationship. 

The Gallaher’s youngest child, Liam, is African American, and he has unique experiences that his siblings did not undergo. Liam eventually attends a private school that offers him free tuition. The Gallagher’s later discovered Liam was offered free tuition in exchange for being on all of the school’s billboards and posters, a blatant act of tokenism. The family decides Liam will continue to attend the school, as the educational opportunities of private education are much greater than that of the Chicago public schools. Seeing as though none of the other family members have experience of being a black person in America, they could not personally relate to Liam in this aspect, and struggled helping him find his identity as a black male in society. Liam reaches out to other black people in the show and learns from their experiences and wisdom. This confusion regarding culture relates back to adoption and how this could be detrimental for the child involved. 

Overall, Shameless does an excellent job of letting their audience examine complex issues through a funny lens. The show also displays gruesome and real aspects of being poor. I believe the creators of the show were trying to showcase how detrimental poverty is to communities. I also believe the writers wanted us to question how lack of opportunity contributes to addiction and failure,  as many of the characters on this show are sharp witted and cunning, but end up with drug and alcohol problems.  Shameless leads us to question our own morality, and how far we would go if we were to be in a situation where we are simply trying to survive.

*Content warning* suicide and death

The show 13 Reasons Why is about a girl named Hannah Baker who had committed suicide and her reasoning behind it. The show moves through every detail that she had given in the tapes she left behind. In season three there is a new character introduced who is throw into the middle of what is happening at Liberty High School. Ani, the new character, brings a new identity into the mix since she is from Britain and a transfer student. She is accepted at Liberty High School yet is judged with who she hangs out with. This is because the school has been divided every since Hannah Baker’s death and the truth that came from her tapes. There are many different characters within the show, many of them believing to hold power over others. Throughout the whole show many of the characters struggle at finding who they truly are. This idea can allow may of the viewers to sympathize with the characters since the general audience of 13 Reasons Why is teenagers. Another idea that is depicted in the show is power. The high school was shown to be run by the jocks who also had power against Hannah. The jocks held many secrets against the whole school, including the administration, which gave them power. This power was used in the wrong ways against many of the students including Hannah Baker. The power that was held against Hannah Baker continued on even after court trials in season 2 since the person did not get the right punishment. Power is depicted in 13 Reasons Why by the secrets held by the students. The secrets they all hold carry power to ruin each others futures. The main reason why so many characters have these secrets is because there mostly likely is a secret about them that could ruin their future. So, for their own good and own future, they hold other peoples secrets and expects others to keep theirs. I believe that the creators of 13 Reasons Why wants viewers to understand that rumors and secrets can hurt others more than someone may think. The creators also wanted to start a conversation about how having power can ruin your future if you use it against other people. I think the 3rd season of 13 Reasons Why inspires a conversation around identity, power, and injustice because these ideas are shown many times throughout the show. Each episode has many points that contribute to all of these ideas that can spark a conversation. Overall I think there are many different parts of the show that can inspire a conversation about identity, power, or injustice to occur.

Orange is the New Black is a Netflix Original series containing seven seasons, with filming starting in 2013. The show depicts the life of Piper Chapman, based on a real person, Piper Kerman, and her experience serving time in a prison. The show explores compex themes of race, identity, sexuality, and the American prison system.

Each episode is structured in a way that tackles a different issue. Some episodes focus on the prison culture involving group identity with people of the same race, while others explore topics like mental health issues and power structures, all while following the characters’ journeys through their time institutionalized.

There is a strong presence of power structures and Othering within the show. Those at the top include the prison warden, then the correctional officers, then prisoners like Red (the prison chef) who have earned respect throughout their sentence. Below this is the general prison population, then new inmates, followed by those in “the shoe” (solitary confinement), and finally, those that are sent to “max,” or the maximum security section of the prison. There is a clear hierarchy with those in the levels above controlling the actions and decisions of the groups below them. Each layer down become less powerful until reaching those at the bottom two levels, solitary confinement and max, whose lack of power is reminiscent of Spivak’s “subaltern.” These people have no voice, no power, and are often removed from the narrative as soon as they are removed from the general population. They are often unjustly isolated for minor infractions or “for their own protection,” but these are usually a cover up for racism or transphobia.

Within the prisoners shown, you are able to see the high number of Black and Latina individuals. Their predominant numbers in the prison population represent the disproportionate incarceration of people of color. These people are targeted because since the beginning of America’s history, anybody who is not white is automatically seen as less-than. The issues of racism have persisted in all our systems: legislation, government, criminal justice, etc. Though the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, it included a clause that protected imprisonment and slavery if it is serving as the punishment for a crime. This has led to over a century of wrongful incarceration, targeting by law enforcement, and implicit bias. Within the show, several of the guards show favoritism to white inmates, giving them more privileges and punishing them less.

The use of the prison dynamic allows for careful dissection of some of America’s most pressing issues of discrimination. Told through women’s’ eyes, the narrative is that much more significant, as themes of female pleasure and empowerment are only beginning to become acceptable in media. It demands viewers question the ethics of the American criminal justice system as well as question their own thoughts about what it means to be imprisoned. Orange is the New Black humanizes those that our society puts at the bottom.

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Animal Farm is a fictional novel by George Orwell that was published in 1945. The story is about a group of farm animals trying to create an equal and just society in the farmland after rebelling against their human farmer for being a tyrant. The pigs of the farmland, as being the most intelligent kind of animal present, rise to power and become the leaders of the new farm. Throughout the story, the pigs become more and more tyrannical and manipulative, like taking more food to themselves and making the commandments they made not apply to themselves. By the end of the story, the pigs start behaving exactly like their old human farmer did and brought back their old farm with humans and pigs in charge.

The story revolved around the theme of authoritarian government injustice and how it can bring its citizens into poverty. The animals of the farmhouse had to suffer the consequences of allowing the pigs to get too much power over them. Of course, it was not the farmhouse animals’ faults, as they were manipulated by the intelligent pigs into thinking that if they don’t listen to them, then the humans will come and take the farm back from them. The pigs exploit the farm animals for their labor and gave them little in return. This is an example of how the differences of socioeconomic classes in a society can result in injustice for the inferior class.

Gayatri Spivak’s “Can the Subaltern Speak?” heavily relates to this story. Subalterns are described as fragmented groups of marginalized people that have no say or power of what’s going on. Subalterns are different from people who are oppressed, as not only are subalterns are oppressed, but they don’t have any access to the power system in the society. An example of this would be groups of people who are disenfranchised by their lack of education. This example exactly applies to Animal Farm because the pigs were the only animals on the farm that were educated, since they learned how to read and write all by themselves due to their heightened intelligence. The other animals were clueless and just did what they were told out of fear. The farmland animals, in this case, are the “subalterns” of the society since they have absolutely zero power due to their lack of education.

The movie Hairspray is a story set in the 1960’s about Tracy Turnblad and her friends. This is a time within the Civil Rights movement and the movie does a good job displaying what it was like for colored people and white people during that time. The whole movie is based around a popular TV dance show called the “Corny Collins Show” and how it was segregated. We see segregation everywhere in this film, the blacks not being able to dance on the show with their white peers, separate parts of town for each race and even segregation in the schools detention and classrooms. This is a good movie to analyze with the topics we learned about in class because it is specifically set within the Civil Rights Movement time period. We have learned about how the African American community has been a victim to “othering” and social injustices and we see those in the movie. There is even a scene where Tracy goes to protest in one of MLK’s walks for justice amongst the African American community. This is a big scene because we see Tracy sticking up for social equality and the police assault her and label her as a trader. We can relate this to our current time today with the Black Lives Matter movement. Now in todays age we see a lot more white people (and other races) walking with their black peers for equality than we did in the 60’s, but these white people still are faced with their white peers judgments. I think we have come a long ways since the films 1960’s equality movements but as we see there is still a lot of work to be done to this day. For the black community to be able to have the same equalities and freedoms white people have we need more people like Tracy Turnblad to stand up for these communities and share that we all deserve equal rights and opportunities.