Hegemony is a concept stating that a culturally diverse society can be dominated and ruled by one superior social class. This ruling class can manipulate the societal beliefs, values, thoughts, and behaviors so that their views are imposed as the societal norm. This norm is perceived as a valid ideology that benefits everyone, when in fact it only benefits the said ruling class.
Hegemony & Celebrites
Our society obsesses over celebrities. Every minute of every day, we are dying to know who they are or are not dating, how hard they are partying, how many babies they are having, or how much money they are spending. In some cases, our society creates celebrities by giving them attention through reality TV, tabloid magazines, or entertainment news. It is through these mediums that we, as Americans, see these stars and thus, infinite hegemonic ideals are created. Celebrities hold American society standard to masculine hegemonic ideals, capitalistic hegemonic ideals, and feminine hegemonic ideals, among many. This blog and the short movie analyze this perspective on celebrities.
Hegemony & Reality TV: The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
This show, in every way shape and form, creates infinite hegemonic ideologies. It's almost overwhelming. It highlights masculine hegemony, capitalistic hegemony, feminine hegemony, and more. Additionally, the show represents wealth and fame as a lifestyle rather than a set of achievements.
Hegemony & Products
Articles like this one are often found in tabloid magazines like People, OK!, and US Weekly. They show us what these flawless celebrities as using to keep themselves well...flawless! This concept not only feeds into physical ideologies, but is also a form of advertisement for these products. Consumers often think, "If my favorite celebrity is using this, I definitely should too!".
Additionally, companies often use celebrities advertisements for certain products in order to reach a broader spectrum of people.
Hegemony & Masculinity: Disney
Disney movies and "famous" Disney characters emphasize masculine hegemony. Disney characters are considered celebrity not only in the United States but throughout the world. They portray men as aggressive, strong, driven, ambitious, emotionless, self-reliant, and heterosexual. In almost every Disney movie portrays men this way, teaching young children that this is the way men should look like and act. Perhaps the most obvious portrayal of masculine hegemony in Disney movies is through Gaston in The Beauty and the Beast.
Hegemony & Political Opinion
Celebrities can influence what we think and what we believe. In some cases, they can even influence personal decisions through cultural hegemony and political ideologies. In 2008, Oprah endorsed Obama in the presidential election. A USA Today poll showed that 8 percent of the adults who participated in the poll were more likely to vote for Obama because of Winfrey's backing. She will not join the 2012 campaign trail.
Furthermore, celebrities created a music video endorsing the Obama 2008 campaign entitled "Yes We Can". Celebrities had a huge influence over the outcome of the 2008 election.
Hegemony & Masculinity: Advertisements & Magazines
Men are faced with hegemonic ideologies of what it means to me masculine and sexy just as much as women are. With the use of celebrities in advertisements, like the following with David Beckham, American men are presented with masculine ideals. Furthermore, People has an annual issues of the "Sexiest Man Alive" - and guess what! All of these men are famous. This creates an unreachable standard for men, in that it suggests that you have to be famous to be sexy.
Hegemony & Celebrity Children
Celebrity children are truly something to be reckoned with. They, along with their parents, create this cultural ideology that children should be guided towards fame. We can see this hegemonic ideal of what it means to be famous and beautiful through children just as much as the "adult celebrities". We see this as national ideal through reality television shows such as Toddler's & Tiaras. The show is a perfect example of the hegemonic notions of what it means to be feminine and reflects fame as the ultimate goal for a child. Additionally, celebrity children notoriously have extremely unique names. This trend has made Apple, Blanket and Shiloh (all shown above) popular names because their parents are stars. Studies have concluded that celebrities have accelerated the trend toward unusual names, which includes creative spellings of popular names. Nowadays, "not only is it acceptable to have an individual name, but it's going to make you a star."
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| Alaska, age 8, from Todder's & Tiaras |
"Celebrity-worship and hero-worship should not be confused. Yet we confuse them every day, and by doing so we come dangerously close to depriving ourselves of all real models. We lose sight of the men and women who do not simply seem great because they are famous but are famous because they are great. We come closer and closer to degrading all fame into notoriety." -Daniel J. Boorstin
Hegemony & Body Weight
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| Size matters: PLUS Model Magazine has shot size 12 Katya Zharkova pose with a 'straight-size' model to demonstrate the difference between them. |
She's a plus size model??? Enough said.
Hegemony & Fictional Television: Sex & The City
“Sex and the City”, as one of fictional television's most famous programs, does not at all relate
to the hardships associated with being part of a minority or of a lower class. The show actually ostracizes these social groups. The fact that New
York City is the setting for this television series shows how “Sex in the City”
is based off of a capitalistic ideology. This relates back to Marx’s concept of
“superstructure”, where in the case of capitalism, the “ruling” social class
imposes their morals, beliefs, and opinions on the rest of the subordinate
population simply because of their prosperous economic and political position. Through
the development of privileged characters, the actors, writers, and directors of
“Sex and the City” are reflecting and imposing capitalistic hegemonic ideals
onto American society.
Hegemony & Kony 2012
Kony 2012 is a documentary/campaign that aims to spotlight and draw awareness to Africia's prominent militia leader, Joseph Kony. The campaign rounded up a group of 20 celebrities to advertise and become an integral part of this awareness campaign. If the celebrities endorse it, then of course everyone should! The whole thing then becomes a trend. Thus, we see the beliefs and concerns of celebrities playing a proclaimed controlling role over the thoughts and concerns of the American people.
Hegemony & Cosmetic Surgery
In November 2009, Heidi Montag, at just 23 years old, went under the knife to have a drastic 10 cosmetic procedures done in one day. In early 2010, People magazine honored this transformation with a spread in one of their issues. Heidi was and is "obsessed with being perfect", and made herself almost unrecognizable. Elective cosmetic surgery is a practice designed solely for the purpose of achieving the hegemony standards of beauty. The choices women make in regards to these surgeries are based off of hegemonic cultural norms. These surgeries facilitate the urge to be physically "normal". So, what does this incidence say to young American women who look at the "before" Heidi and see a body they perceive as better than normal? It simply emphasizes the hegemonic ideal for beauty as artificial. It pushes society to ask ourselves "if she needed 10 cosmetic alterations done, then how many do I need?" As celebrities continue to go through with these unnecessary procedures, the bar for beauty is set higher and higher. And unfortunately, we will only continue to hear of more cosmetic surgery tragedies in the future.
Hegemony & E! News
Our media is filled with forms of entertainment news, and television is one of the most prominent mediums. For example, E! News is a show dedicated to all the new breaking news and gossip about celebrities. This show glamorizes celebrity gossip and makes it something of concern. It doesn't only highlight the general "importance" of celebrities, but the importance of what they are up to. E! News will report on absolutely anything - from who got married to who drank Cristal at the Oscars after party. In the YouTube video, E! News delves into Anne Hathaway's weight loss as if it's the biggest news of the day. But in all reality, who should really care if Anne lost 16 pounds? The way the stories are presented makes them seem like vital things for Americans to be informed about. Yet, the majority of these stories focus on issues that are trivial to our society. The stories and the network in general create hegemonic ideals simply because they give celebrities control over the minds of every day Americans. Celebrities and shows like E! News guide our thinking of what is "cool" and "important".
Hegemony & Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is known by some as the most influential woman in the world. She is an American talk show host, actress, producer, philanthropist and general entrepreneur. In April 1996, she aired an episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on dangerous foods, and specifically covered the potential dangers of beef and the mad cow disease. At a point in the show, she vowed to never eat another hamburger. For this comment and for the topic of the show in general, she was brought to court. But why? She was brought to court by the Texas Beef Industry simply because the overwhelming influence of her opinion and her show. It was claimed that because of the shows airing, the beef industry suffered a significant decrease in sales, costing them about $11 million. Oprah's hegemonic influence over the American people is simply overwhelming.
Hegemony & Pregnancy
Celebrities often create a thing of beauty out of pregnancy. Posing nude on the cover of magazines has become a fad, starting with Demi Moore's infamous Vanity Fair cover. When celebrities pose nude in magazines and happily talk about their pregnancies, they show women how beautiful they could be while pregnant. However, creating an image of physical and emotional beauty out of this stage of life creates a hegemonic ideal for American women and for society. Although pregnancy in itself is a thing of miraculous beauty, it was at one time a very private experience for a woman and for a family. Being pregnant has become "fashionable" - being gracefully, beautifully, and happily pregnant is a hegemonic ideal.
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| In an effort to reenact the pregnant beauty portrayed by celebrities, women often find themselves posing for pictures such as this one. |
Hegemony & Celebrity Diet
I ran into an article on CNN about celebrity diet tricks. Note: Even CNN is obsessed with our hierarchal society! The article is online, so here is the link, but essentially it tells readers which celebrity diets to try, and which ones work. The article gives the "the skinny on exactly what the big names do to get red-carpet ready -- from the healthy strategies you'll want to steal to the just plain wacky ideas you'll want to avoid". The fact that these diets are even referred to as "celebrity diets" reflects hegemony. The diets celebrities take on automatically become famous and "the most effective". Most of the ideas listed in the article are all nutritional common sense, but it is simply glamorized by adding the word "celebrity" to it.
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