Women are often restricted to the same stereotypical roles in every movie, TV show, advertisement, and novel. They are always perceived as a sex object, a mother, a homemaker or a wife; and generally are given the image of being dependent and passive. Hegemony is to blame for this false interpretation and image women are given. The power to dominate peoples minds and instill ideas in them that they will eventually turn in to part of their culture, defines hegemony. Hegemony ties in with the power media has to set agendas and choose what they want the audience to see, manipulating the world to live to their advantage. It is something that influences people every day and somehow gives them a sense of direction on how to live their life; it frames a picture of "normality."
Hegemony has basically invented what a women should be, in the sense that it has brain washed people in to believing that women are supposed to cook, look good, and always agree with the man. It has done this through movies, TV shows and anything else you can think of, by always giving women similar roles. Have women really fallen in to this perception of themselves? I mean generally that is how most American women live, they are mothers, they are the ones who cook and do chores, and always need to attend the man. Do women know that that is not how it has to be? The media and society have definitely suggested and given that idea, but who are they to tell us how to live?
A perfect example where hegemony is exercised to create the "ideal woman" is the show "7th Heaven." This weekly television series follows a family, the father is a minister while the mother is a stay-at-home wife (what a surprise) and together they have 7 children. It is basically about how the parents deal on a daily basis with the drama of having a large family. The mother, Annie, is portrayed as a caring and loving woman that basically is only good for cooking, cleaning, being a wife, and giving advice. In every episode she is often either in the kitchen or in the garden. Annie is a "good wife" because she always stands by her husbands decisions and never argues about it. This show is one of many! that give our society the perception that women are restricted to certain things, giving our world the idea that that is how a normal woman should be.
Below is a link to a short clip that shows Annie at different ocassions being a "typical woman" in her role in "7th Heaven."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geqQZUPMFQA
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