By Ceasar Carbajal
For those who love pop culture at East Los Angeles College, the Cultural Assembly for Social Entertainment is dedicated to it.
CASE was formed in mid-October of 2013 and is a club that discusses how contemporary pop culture influences Americans today. Whenever a celebrity does something during the weekend, it makes headlines and is the topic of discussion every Monday at school.
“Everyone is welcome, and everyone’s opinion is appreciated, even if we don’t all agree… Chances are that there are several aspects of the popular culture that [students] are familiar with, and we just want to explore those ideas and understand why we like and are entertained by certain things and what that says about us, on a personal level and as a society,” says club president Raul Meza
The club openly discusses Miley Cyrus’ “twerking” addiction along with other topics like Lady Gaga, Pretty Little Liars and Snooki.
Topics vary on a weekly basis depending on the current news going on. It may seem like just a celebrity gossip club, but CASE members not only hear news, they analyze how it influences college students the next day.
For example, if a celebrity tweets something controversial, students at ELAC will talk about it. If a new video game gets released, CASE will see what the game is like and discuss how it can relate to life events.
CASE identifies the impact that technology, social media, and entertainment makes on college students. They take modern shows and use the slang from it to discuss how it is relevant today.
CASE discusses how “selfies” have totally eliminated privacy. Jose Gonzalez, 20, says, “The only privacy someone has nowadays is the password on your phone”.
The Oxford Dictionary has named “Selfie” as the 2013 Word of The Year, with millions of people documenting their life onto Instagram. This word has finally stamped itself into the English vocabulary for years to come.
Gonzalez has been in CASE since the start. “It’s an equal opportunity club and everyone gets to voice their opinions. It’s awesome because freedom of speech isn’t really free in a lot of places you go but here it’s the opposite. We want your opinion,” he says.
Gonzalez says that CASE has helped him come out of his shell. “It’s also perfect for us to bring old movies to modern audiences and see how they react to them. As a member you’re encouraged to be yourself and talk about your favorite hobbies,” he said.
CASE doesn’t just focus on the media, they focus on psychological problems with society like eating disorders and self harm.
They compare and contrast how music can affect someone’s emotions and cause him or her to feel insecure.
“The Thigh Gap” was the topic of discussion in the last meeting. Americans today feel they should have a thigh gap to be attractive. They discuss the invalidity of this hypothesis and show how it’s possible to be attractive no matter what.
On November 21st, 2013, the club hosted the Rocky Horror screening as their first of many pop culture fund-raisers, which was a major success. They plan on having more fundraisers to keep the club going.
Everyone is welcome to attend meetings on Wednesdays at 3:30pm in F7-111.
