5. Ideology is the study of ideas, or in other words, common sense. It is the idea that if you do certain things in certain places you are conditioned to react or expect certain things. Hegemony is the construction and sustaining of ideologies. The urinal game represents ideology through representation of an understanding of social norms. We are socially conditioned to choose the urinal furthest from people, as well as closest to the door, for no reason other than it is what is expected. Hegemony is represented through the goal of winning the game by understanding, as well as adhering to the social norms represented in the game.
6. Conan O’brien ventures through India in the American Express advertisement, yet even in a foreign country, which I highly doubt is exposed to TBS in order to watch Conan’s show, he is treated as a celebrity. He is distinctly taller than every individual in the city, as well as dressed in a much more modern style, as opposed to the Indians who are dressed in stereotypical turbans and gowns. The Indians are portrayed as exotic in the ad because they are foreign, and in some regards, are what people depict Indians to look like. He also rides an elephant through town, which furthers the exotic look of the Indian setting. However, globalization is represented through Conan’s popularity in a foreign country, as well as the allusion to the fine silk production that is needed for Conan’s curtains.
7. The video How To Make Your Breasts Look Bigger offers a dominant commentary through the objectification and sexualization of the female. She is constantly in need of attention from the Dominant figure, the white male handy man. The video seems to suggest that the woman is simply a sexual tool that craves attention, and that she should try every possible option in order to gain more sex appeal. The oppositional perspective relates to the male displaying no sense of attraction to the gorgeous woman, large breasts or not. It is only when she has highlighted her breasts that she becomes appealing, yet when she receives attention she shuns it off as a success, which signifies the absurdity of women’s obsession with their appearance, as well as the barbaric mindset of certain males that focus merely on a female’s appearance.
8. One of the approaches that the video Mouse Trapped 2010 displays is the idea that, “Cultural studies refuses to assume that people are cultural dupes, that they are entirely and passively manipulated, either by the media or by capitalism.” (Grossberg 634) My point being, that in the interviews with the agitated workers there was not a sense of disbelief that they were, in fact, being swindled out of money. They knew they were being underpaid and kept in a constant state of inescapable poverty. However, in Mickey Mouse Monopoly, the consumers of Disney World seem completely oblivious to the corruption and power hungry corporation they are funding. Grossberg goes on to argue, “But it does not deny that they are sometimes duped, that they are sometimes manipulated…” (Grossberg 634). The political economy ties into this idea of people being duped as well in the form of false consciousness. By contrasting a video of some people attending and supporting Disney World, and another of people who work for Disney and are exposing the unfair conditions, the idea of false consciousness is reaffirmed, in that, people know the facts and know the company is doing bad things, yet they still support it in hopes of the warnings being false.
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