Popular Culture In The Wolf Of Wall Street

This paper will examine how the film: The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) contains ideas which are formed around popular culture. Popular culture is defined as the sum of cultural things such as music, fashion, cyber culture, television and media that society follows (Crossman, 2016). The first topic that will be explained is how status, power, money and drugs affected the main character, Jordan Belfort. The second topic will be regarding the sexual objectification of females and how females were used to captivate the audience. Finally, the last concept will be about the use of discourse and linguistics throughout the film. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as the main character in the film and goes by the name of Jordan Belfort. Belfort is a young …show more content…
He is beyond addicted and cannot even function without the ludes in his system. The lavish lifestyle of Belfort is shown through materials such as an expensive car, home, and later in the film where he buys his wife Naomi a yacht. In the film, DeCaprio states, Money is the oxygen of capitalism and I wanna breathe more than any man alive. (The Wolf of Wall Street, 2013). This quote signifies the strong desire of wealth that the character Belfort accumulated. He believed that money was the closest thing to capitalism and he wanted it more than anyone else. Another scene is shown where Belfort is giving a speech to his workers in the firm and he states, … Let me tell you something. There’s no nobility in poverty. I’ve been a poor man, and I’ve been a rich man. And I choose rich every fucking time. Being poor gives an individual no dignity, Belfort states. He has been through having no money and having money, yet he chooses having money each time. Even though he had so much money and was living a very luxurious life, it was apparent throughout the film that he was not actually happy. His relationship with his wife was not stable and having money was just never enough. There are two concepts in sociology that are connected to The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). The first is ideology. Ideology is explained as a group of common ideas, which are made normal by the leading …show more content…
Through ads, television, films, and all sorts of media, females are used to captivate the audience. In the film The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), sex addiction is an exposed topic. Jordan Belfort definitely has this and it is shown through his actions. Women are portrayed as objects in this film, and no value is shown towards them. The females in the film are one-dimensional, which are just used to satisfy the male characters. His second wife, Naomi Lapaglia, is shown as a typical gold digger who only stayed with Belfort for his money. This is clear towards the end of the film because his wife claims she wants a divorce and she does not want to be there for him when he is about to be arrested and lose all his money. The viewer may see this as Naomi being there only for the money Belfort had, and not who he was as a person. Majority of today’s society would blame her for leaving him. If looked at deeper it is clear that Belfort was the main problem, since he was constantly cheating on her, abusing their children, and addicted to drugs. Hollywood films have women portrayed plainly as objects and forces the audience to view films from a male perspective. Another part in the film gives humiliation to Naomi as she tries to punish Belfort. She states, … Mommy is just so sick and tired of wearing panties. Belfort feels weak for a moment, but later reminds her of the camera in the teddy bear’s eye. This leaves Naomi