Bono and K-Fed: Structuralism in the 21st-Century Culture

 

Who Are These People?

 

Looking at these two images, there is much to tell about them. Paul Hewson, or Bono, from the band U2, has been recognized for his musical career, acting performances, and humanitarian efforts. Kevin Fedlerline, more commonly known as K-Fed, was a popular music back-up dancer for Britney Spears, a popular music sensation, the ex-husband of Britney Spears, and had little or no recognition before his relationship between him and Spears. As I write this and the reader reads on, they most likely have been able to figure out who each of these are without me telling them directly which picture is who. This analysis and form comes from Stucturalism, which is the understanding of an image through the underscoring of various discoruse.

Looking at these two figures and interpretin who they are comes from a result of culture and interpretation. While you may know who they are, you also what they represent. It is easy to distinguish character and proffesionalism between Bono, a professional musician and humanitarian, and K-Fed, who was unrecognized in the popular culture world until his marriage with Britney Spears, catapolting his popularity. While you associate creativity with one based on what you see in actions, you also see character from presentability and maturity. Julie Rivkin, on Structuralism, writes, “it is both like a skeleton and like a genetic code in that it is the principle of stability and coherance in any cultural system…” While we learn who these characters are, we also associate their underlying character, learning about who they towards people as well as what they are in the study of culture.

Ferdinand de Saussure, contributing much to the world of structualsim, also writes about how linguistic signs are incorporatesd to the characters, leading towards mimetic representation and a study of character through symbols, like words in language that introduce linguistic science. There are words that are the signifier and words that are the signified. The word Bono is the signifier and words like musician, humanitarian, artist, and professional are the signified; likewise with K-Fed being the signifier and Britney Spears is the signified. With these words as the signified, it is easier to tell what each charcters represent leading the viewer to learn who they are.