Pink Houses and American Exceptionalism

John Cougar Mellencamp’s hit song, “Pink Houses”, was written with the intention of challenging and debunking American culture and dominant ideologies but the song has been misinterpreted and misused to the point where it is now an anthem for patriotism and the dominant ideologies of American culture. The first verse of the song is about the struggle of an African American man and his community against the federal government when they use eminent domain to take private properties from the community to build an interstate highway. In the song, the specific story is about I-65 in Indiana.

The line, “You know he thinks he’s got it so good,” shows that although he has “an interstate runnin’ through his front yard”, he is glad that he was able to keep his house and was not forced out like his neighbors whose houses had been replaced by the interstate.

The chorus “Oh but ain't that America, for you and me/ Ain't that America, we're something to see baby/ Ain't that America, home of the free, yeah/ Little pink houses for you and me, oh for you and me” mocks American patriotism, rather than supports it. On John Mellencamp’s website, there is a Rolling stone article that is John Mellencamp reflecting on fifteen of his most notable songs. In the article, Mellencamp reflects on the song “Pink Houses” saying, “This one [Pink Houses] has been misconstrued over the years because of the chorus - it sounds very rah-rah. But it's really an anti-American song. The American dream had pretty much proven itself as not working anymore”. Mellencamp did not intend for this song to be used to support the dominant ideologies of American culture and patriotism that it is often used to support. He has actively fought against the use of his songs, including “Pink Houses” for political causes that are at odds with his beliefs and with the true content of his songs, such as the presidential campaigns of Ronald Reagan, George Bush and John McCain. Although many people consider him one of the faces of a blue-collar, conservative heartland rock movement, he does not support many of the political views and much of the patriotism that is often associated with heartland rock. After 9-11, Mellencamp told the New York Daily News that he found the “U.S.A.-U.S.A.” chants that the crowd would often do at his concerts to be “frightening” and that he would rush between songs so that the audience would not have enough time to start chanting.

The third verse begins with the lines “Well there’s people, and more people. What do they know” this mocks conservative anti immigration ideologies; that illegal immigrants are coming into our country in large numbers through open borders and are causing problems. In the words of the 2016 Republican party’s nominee for president, “People are pouring across our borders unabated. Public reports routinely state great amounts of crime are being committed by illegal immigrants.” John Mellencamp disagrees with this rhetoric, he has played his music at a rally for Hillary Clinton in his home state of Indiana.

The middle two and last two lines of the third verse “Go to work in some high rise and vacation down at the Gulf of Mexico” and “‘Cause the simple man, baby Pays for thrills, the bills, [and] the pills that kill] mock people who fall into working 9 to 5 for corporate America and fall into the cookie cutter conformist patterns of the upper middle class American lifestyle rather than following their dreams and daring to be themselves. Mellencamp has personal experience in this field, he briefly worked installing telephones when he was in college before he moved to New York to pursue a career in music.

The second to last two lines of the third verse, “And there’s winners and there’s losers But they ain’t no big deal” reflects Mellencamp’s distaste for America’s system of corporate capitalism.

The Perfect "American Dad"

American Dad is a show aired late night, a cartoon for teenagers and adults. The show perpetuates the ideology of how a man is supposed to be, and what he is supposed to do. Stan, the main character and father, works for the CIA and is shown as incredibly muscular and big. He has a deep voice, proudly wears the American Flag, and is the sole provider for his family.



His son, Steve, is a sympathetic “cry-baby”, but Stan, being the perfect “American Dad”, has to make his son into a man by hammering the ideology of the perfect “American Man” into his head. The perfect man in America is usually big, muscular, handsome, rich, and brave, and all of these qualities describe Stan.

Mean School, Mean Girls, Mean Life

The film Mean Girls presents stereotypes of high schoolers, especially in terms of gender. The girls within the film seem to be fake and rude to each other based on what the girl’s outer beauty looks like. Males within the movie are held to the jock stereotype. The movie’s ideology is both promoting and resisting those stereotypes. Promoting with girls and women being prissy and only caring about gossip and looks. It’s resisting when Cady, the lead character, doesn’t really care when she wins the crown at the dance and actually offers the crown to the crowd. The men that are resisting are a moc (man of color) that is very bright and Damian who is the gay character.

The girlfriend group “The Plastics” reinforce superficial stereotypes, since they are the most popular and the most beautiful and the most important. It reinforces that women only care about their looks and that school and a healthy social life is irrelevant. The parents that are within the movie showed why the characters were like that. Regina, who is dominant mean girl, when we first meet her mother you see how loose her parental ways are. She offers the girls alcohol and you see that the mother lives vicariously through her daughter experiences. It shows that girls not only learn their ways from the media but also the important women that are in their lives.

“Mean Girls” also reinforces the ideals of what a real male is suppose to be like.
The handsome main character Aaron Samuel; the stereotypical high school popular jock that attracts the ladies, but without being a ladies man. His character seems to only reinforce how high school works but he still resists the womanizing ways. It reinforces the stereotype that gay males only hangout with women with the character Damien. He is only seen with Janis and Cady and has banter with Janis about his sexuality. Also in the main girlfriend group,there are the stereotypes of the dumb blond(Karen), the rich one(Gretchen),and the queen bee(Regina). These stereotypes tell us there are only three ways girls can be popular in high school. These stereotypes not only reinforce but they are also damaging. Telling girls, especially girls that are in high school that they only deserve attention if they are rich, white, pretty or dumb creates a precedent for girls who do fit the label and girls who don't.

“Mean Girls” has inspired new generations since it’s release in the early 2000s.
This generation has watched Mean Girls since they were little, thinking that high school would be like it is in the movie. As we grew up; the behavior within the movie seem to be over childish and something that people would more likely do in middle school. High School nowadays seems to be just stressful and anxiety filled, not filled with people going out there way to embarrasses you or make you small. Are there people like this in high school? Yes, but people normally shut them down or don't listen to them. Mean Girls has also taught this generation to be themselves and not to pretend so you can fit in a group of people who you don't even like.

Lastly, in most teenagers eyes the movie is seen as a satire, while some of the plots do have truths the way that high school works now has change drastically. The film has taught me that high school stories are only important when they are told in a suburban atmosphere and have barely any people of color and doesn’t include real issues and the importance of speaking about them. Mean Girls has both good qualities and bad qualities. The good qualities is the importance of having a strong female lead character, a gay character, and speaking on the issues of the younger generation that pretending to be something that you're not can ultimately change the person you are, good or bad. The bad qualities of the movie seem to be the lack of diversity, only showing the high school experience from a suburban point of view, and not having more great well rounded characters to balance out the characters that were mostly flat.