I would like to begin this week’s blog by comparing the contradictory ideas within the White and Adorno and Horkheimer pieces; the contradiction being that White believes that ideology is unstable and always changing while Adorno and Horkheimer claim that it is always the same. While I believe both present strong arguments I personally prefer to believe White’s analysis. The thought that patterns are always repeating, just with different context, and are always the same is very depressing; while reading the Adorno and Horkheimer piece I was constantly asking “what can be done” without ever coming to a conclusion. On the other hand, White not only makes sense in her piece (I find it sensible to believe that everything goes through uneven development and that everything is made up of its past, present and future) but also gives hope for change. It is because of this hope that I will chose to lean more towards White’s position.
I would next like to focus specifically on White’s idea of tension in television with an example. I once saw a series of commercials for a car, I will not mention which car because, one, I do not want to provide free advertising and, two, I honestly do not remember. The commercials have a father and daughter waiting for the daughter to be picked up for a date of some sort, the father is depicted as traditional and generally disapproving and asks his daughter if she is in love, to which she responds yes. In each commercial of the series the date pulls up in the specific car and, without meeting the driver, the father approves and goes inside freeing his daughter to leave who then gets in and kisses the date who is either a biker, low life or a woman (there may have been more). Upon seeing the one with the woman I was initially thrilled to see some lesbian representation, so thrilled that if I had the money I probably would have supported that company by purchasing their car. However, while reading White’s article I thought back to the commercial and thought how it reinforces lesbianism (and the other versions) as deviant with the assumption that had they not have driven such a car it would have been considered inappropriate for the daughter to date them. This is the perfect example of such tension White discusses.
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I once had an English teacher in high school tell me something along the lines of, “Do you really think there are new stories?! – NO! All types of plots and ideas have already been used so anything that is being produced now is just a reincarnation of what has already been done in the past.” Little did I know that this statement would affect me four years later in a Women Studies class. Albeit ‘depressing’ that, “patterns are always repeating, just with different context,” I agree with this argument. Due to hegemony it was possible for me in high school to write very unoriginal essays relating everything back to well studied and used plot ideas (ie) this is just another tragedy as a result of man’s variable folly - Macbeth or following very similar to the plot of classic Romeo & Juliet, or even the seed sower’s story from (I know this is quite scandalous) *gasp* the Bible, which I think is the most hegemonic piece of literature in North America. However I disagree that their arguments contradict each other.
Although hegemony may go through uneven development (White) the same ideals are reinforced time and again (Adorno & Horkheimer). It is hard for me to articulate this point however I think homosexual marital union can be used as an example. The institution of marriage (an ideal from the past) is going through uneven development (White) however the same ideals such as, a union between TWO people and etc. will be used to newly reinforce homosexual union when it fully becomes part of the new hegemony (Adrono & Horkheimer).
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