By being able to access the art, these teens were able to access themselves, a seemingly simple thing that many people are never able to do. Institutionalized elitism plays a significant role in the devaluation of the human intuitive response to art and of art's ability to teach through catharsis and reflection. While many intellectuals and academics consciously and aggressively defend the elite status of art and argue for its high placement in the cultural hierarchy, others have adopted theory, a heavily encoded form of intellectual analysis, as a tool to look into art and analyze its implications, messages, and social significance. Academics use theory as a tool to communicate complex ideas about the abstract social, political, and cultural implications of art, literature, and film. Frequently, academic theory informs the creation of contemporary art and is seen as politically progressive and potentially revolutionary.
Theory merely puts into words the intuitive sense which most people already possess.
But most people do not have the luxury or the resources to develop their own language for the abstract realm of emotion, culture, experience, and history. Theory may help produce a common language for the privileged few, but it is not a common language for the common people. It is a language created and controlled by a very small cultural elite in a closed environment. Art has become simultaneously trapped by the theoretical dogma of intellectuals and stigmatized by the academic Left. Because it is encased by the constrictions imposed on it by the cultural and material elite who own it, it is frequently dismissed by the Left as the manifestation of the elite, as a frivolous pursuit that has no relevance for real-life dilemmas and struggles.