Hegemony: The Real Force Behind the Power

Hegemony, the very epidermis of the American advertisement agency, is the medium through which those agencies infiltrate the minds of America, specifically women. This medium is defined by answers.com as "The predominant influence, as of a state, region, or group, over another or others." In other words, hegemony can be used to describe the position of ad agencies as being at the top of the media hierarchy where they can actively and daily reach an audience of millions who are actively and daily receiving them, many with open arms. This reality is particularly disturbing to me as I see the portrayal of women as objects plastered in the windows of stores, in almost all magazines (possibly excluding Cat Fancy), and even on the sides of buses. Advertising, obviously, is necessary if a merchant desires to actually sell their products, but is revealing the most intimate areas of women's bodies and character the only way to sell? If so, I believe that our beautiful nation must review what it holds as freedom and delve deep into the core values that are said to lie right in the heart of the American dream. Although the imposition of ads affect everyone, whether positively or negatively, I believe that women take the brunt of what the ads seem to be selling. Are they selling products, merchandise, and services? Or are they selling an ideal, shoes to fill, and a physical mold for the body? The concept of hegemony not only has revealed the force that lies behind the advertising super head, but I have come to better understand what this means to me as a woman and a subject. It is clear to me now that the agency really does have a strong hold on our culture and every day lives, although I have always been aware of this concept I have never really been in the light of the real power. As a young girl in junior high I immediately was aware of the inadequacy of my own quite curvy body by "American standards" when I saw advertisements in Seventeen magazine such as the Bongo Jeans and Victoria's Secret ads. I quickly knew that I would never measure up according to these standards, unfortunately in my youth I was ignorant to the fact that most girls never would either and that beauty is defined by myself, not the media. Several, several other merchants use a woman's sexuality and body to sell their products, but my question is why is this what sells? If most American women find themselves in much different bodies than those in the ads and cannot relate to the images themselves, then who are they really partitioning? Men? They are not likely to by themselves a wonderbra, a pair of True Religion super skinny dark denim, or that new MAC bronzer to make you look like a goddess. If none of these are true then who is buying this? The sad truth is we are, in one form or another we women are buying these products, because whether consciously or sub consciously we desire to look similar to those gangly, curvless women. In which case, I wonder if we are also to blame for the media's powerful role in our nation and their successful influence on our minds and desires. Until we truely begin to actively turn away from those ideals and standards, change will never happen, industries will continue to feed us images of powerless and bodiless women and until we stop catering to their capital we will just have to get over it.