In an era of AI slop and mid TV, is it time for cultural snobbery to make a comeback?

"Via flashback, we witness Zev dismiss her emotional needs, demand she get rid of her dog and worst of all pour scorn on her cultural preferences: Vanderpump Rules, the Real Housewomen of North Carolina, Miley Cyrus songs. When Jess enthusiastically sings along to the ballad Angels Like You, Zev admonishes her: It's not real music, it's manufactured bullshit come on, you're too smart to fall for that. Jess briefly defends Cyrus, before retreating."

"Don't make me feel stupid for loving things! she implores tearily. Zev is a bad guy and a cultural snob. He's a bad guy partly because he's a cultural snob. He's also a relic. We live in a world where contempt for culture based on its level of sophistication or intellectual value is considered deeply passe, if not borderline evil."

"The derogatory labels guilty pleasure, idiotbox, dumbed-down entertainment, disposable pop, trash TV are no longer in circulation. Culture of every stripe is worthwhile: superhero movies prompt near academic levels of discourse; Taylor Swift is the subject of multiple university classes; and reality shows double as state of the nation treatises (The Traitors echoes British democracy's dysfunctions, wrote Ian Dunt in the i; the brutal competition of Love Island USA is an allegory for the mercilessness of American life, according to the New Yorker)."

In Lena Dunham's Netflix romcom Too Much, protagonist Jess faces a toxic ex, Zev, who dismisses her emotional needs and scorns her cultural tastes, including reality TV and Miley Cyrus. Contemporary culture treats contempt for popular taste as passé, with derogatory labels like guilty pleasure and trash TV falling out of use. Popular media across genres now attracts serious discourse, from superhero films to Taylor Swift and reality television. Critics who deride popular culture risk revealing more about themselves than the works they attack. Questions arise whether some cultural snobbery might be needed to maintain standards amid social-media advertainment and AI-generated content.

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