"Cultural Studies" Response

George and Trimbur state that "the cultural-based writing class distinguished itself from traditional classroom practice by resisting hierarchies that privileged certain kinds of texts (literary) over others (e.g., television sitcoms)." Yes, cultural studies does allow for more varied "readings" that do not completely submit to the literary hierarchies. But they do NOT, in any way, resist hierarchies in general. All that a student reads, especially that found in popular culture, is subject to the many ideological hierarchies that our classist society imposes upon the texts. Such hierarchies are inescapable, as any Marxist or feminist would argue. So implementing cultural studies in the composition classroom for the sole purpose of eliminating a hierarchy is pointless because the students will be subject to an infinite number of other hierarchies in the other readings.

Furthermore, I agree with Maxine Hairston. The cultural studies composition approach seems very much to focus on what students consume rather than what students produce. Within all of the discussions of cultural studies, the pedagogues speak only of varying the texts students take in and having the students discuss how those texts touch the students' lives. None of the practitioners touch on the subject of using the understanding of cultural influences to better their writing (and I do not really think it could benefit their writing). Cultural studies focus only on the fact that culture affects what we consume and what we produce. It seems more to be an awareness level and not necessarily something that can alter the writing students produce.