Hegemonic Influences

Throughout our lives, there are many influences that affect our lives either directly or subtly. One of the biggest factors for these influences that often gets overlooked is the advertising and its ability to shape and fortify the ideas that are known as the “codes of gender” which reinforce the systematic procedure that an individual should follow based on the gender identity they were prescribed at birth or how society sees them. And how what I once thought was just something that was such a minor inconvenience when watching my shows or listening to music how it has such a contribution towards our “sociological imagination” (Mills 1969) and how with the influence of advertisement contributes to the hegemonic views of our social norms.
While
watching the film The Codes of Gender: Identity and Performance in Popular Culture it became shocking clear that advertisement has had an influence on me despite my own efforts to perform me as me the best I can instead of performing that a hegemonic man in society should act. The advertisement has affected me in both subtle and more direct ways that now brought to my attention I can see parts of the influence that affect me as a person and how I perform myself in society.
Such as what I will wear to certain events or just when I go outside versus what I would wear around the house. Also, I see how it effects my decisions for things such as what I want to do as I’m older or what makes a family normal versus what I recognize as what a family is made up of. Often in an advertisement, the males are represented in these important commanding jobs that not only pay well but have everyone looking at them as a hero such as police officers, firefighters or doctors. Looking back at it know I can see how these advertisements had me on the track of these types of careers, asking man young boys what they want to be you will get a lot of these generic answers of being one of these “top 5 male jobs” that society has deemed to be at the top of masculine jobs. As stated in the reading with Ravelli and Webber they use “subtle yet insidious ideological control and manipulation” (pg 68) this subtleness not only creates tension against those who want to lead towards their personal goals it keeps us in these strata’s that if they try to move out of they are immediately judged for those actions. These gender codes in advertising also reach further than just
myself it reaches to the population and creates its own influence on how other people perceive and interact with me in both subtle and more direct ways. The way I dress and speak often throws strangers for a loop, I have seen how they approach me and initially talk to me versus as soon as I say something back their eyes often widen or other subtle body languages that I have grown accustomed too. Many times, in advertisement, although not in such a direct way that advertisement “Emphasised Femininity” there are still the subtle white/lighter is better mentality that often gets seen as normalized and slips through the moral compass of those who are not aware of these different types of oppression. It can again be seen in different ways such as if I am to walk behind someone on my way back to the car the person in front of me often have these two reactions bracing themselves as if I am about to attack or pick up an unnatural pace walking once they see me walking behind them. This is primarily due to how the media and advertisement push stories that will get the most attention and those often deal with either people lower on the socioeconomic scale doing something that is illegal or something that can make an engrossing headline. We see this a lot in today’s media how they focus on the story that would get the bigger reaction, even though with the growing media networks we are seeing and know about more of these white-collar crimes that occur and how they are swept under the rug and because of these people have predetermined reactions to not only the people around them but about ourselves as well. Throughout our days we can even see these influences that advertisement has left on not only myself but many others as well we judge people based on how they are dressed, and if that attire is “appropriate” for the environment they are in, or even they way they speak or walk we make these subtle immediate urges that we often can not control even if we are aware that we should not be doing it all because of how normalised it has become in media and advertisement. An example of this occurrence is during movies or T.V shows often we tell what the character’s role is and their personality or standing just from seconds of seeing them on screen, and these “skills” that we gather from this often get used in our daily lives in passive ways.
The sociological perspective has helped me not only understand these gender codes but also see how advertisement and media subtle leak these codes into our culture with as much as influence as it does.
As shown within the film Jhally revisited Goffman’s theory of Gender displays which is used to reinforce such notations that women are fragile or they are less than man. With the perspective that sociology has now given me, I can see how even today there is still mass advertisement oppression that is subtle enough those who are not aware would never realize they are being programmed to normalize this images or thoughts. Along with that, the sociological perspective has also allowed me to understand that these subtle oppressions reach further then just gender identity, it showed how there is another sub-division for class and race and how the power of illusion takes place in such ways that it is overlooked until it gets pointed out. An example of this are the ban commercials that did these subtle leaks but got caught and pressured into either removing the ad or facing some other disciplinary actions such as the international clip we were shown in class in which the black man was put into the washer with the new pod packet and came out “clean” as an attractive, fit, light skin man showing off the “white is best” older mentality that has been in some ways declining, but not yet
eradicated. In conclusion thanks to the sociological perspective it has allowed me to view how the media and advertisement has a greater influence on us as a population more subtle than I was aware of which affects not only myself but others around me, how it affects how those around me interact of viewing me, and shows me how advocating for change can affect how the media can influence us in a more positive way that promotes more unity versus the discourse it is presenting now.