Essay #2

ESSAY #2 (Due Feb 8th @11:59pm)

MINIMUM: 500 WORDS

Prompt:

You should now have a pretty good grasp of how hegemonies and counter-hegemonies are expressed through cultural productions, both material and non-material.

For this second essay, I want you to find two (2) material cultural productions: one (1) you would consider hegemonic and one (1) you would consider counter-hegemonic. These cannot include any examples I have already used in this class (Old Spice campaign, Barbie Doll, all Disney Princesses. Beauty Standards in East Asia, Vaping, Crop tops on both women and men, makeup brand called fluid, Black Lives Matter Movement, James Charles on makeup on men, Live action Mulan movie). For each material cultural production, be sure to clearly describe:

1. Where did you find this production and why did you choose it?

2. What is going on in this material production? Who is the intended audience?

3. What ideologies are represented by the cultural production? What messages are being conveyed?

4. To which cultural group(s) are those ideologies considered hegemonic or counter-hegemonic? Could it possibly have elements of both?

5. Do you think this cultural production will remain hegemonic/counter-hegemonic over time? Why or why not?

Recall how I analyzed the Tiffany diamond ring ad in last week’s lecture as an example of how to do this (among many other examples from Lecture I this week).

Be sure to attach a picture (or link) of your two (2) cultural productions for me to reference. Keep in mind that a material cultural production can be anything such as an advertisement, book, commercial, song, music video, movie, or anything else that is materially produced by a culture, among endless possibilities.