Hegemony & Fetishism

1. Hegemony & Fetishism

2. commodity • :  an economic good: as • a:  a product of agriculture or mining • b:  an article of commerce especially when delivered for shipment <commodities futures> • c:  a mass-produced unspecialized product <commoditychemicals> <commodity memory chips> • 2 • a:  something useful or valued <that valuable commoditypatience>; also:thing, entity • b:convenience, advantage

3. fetish • a:  an object (as a small stone carving of an animal) believed to have magical power to protect or aid its owner; broadly:  a material object regarded with superstitious or extravagant trust or reverence • b:  an object of irrational reverence or obsessive devotion :

4. voyeur •  a prying observer who is usually seeking the sordid or the scandalous

5. Cultural Hegemony(Das Kapital) • Thedomination of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class who manipulate the culture of the society — the beliefs,perceptions,values, and mores — so that their ruling-class becomes the worldview that is imposed and accepted as the cultural norm; as the universally valid dominant ideology that justifies the social, political, and economic status quo as natural and inevitable, perpetual and beneficial for everyone, rather than as artificial social constructs that benefit only the ruling class

6. Base and Superstructure • Base • base--the foundation on which a society rests (think, "basement").  Societies are inherently conservative, so each society (especially those currently benefiting from whatever economic base is in place) wants to perpetuate or continually reproduce its base--those foundational economic structures.  Those foundational economic structures are often class interactions and power hierarchies.  

7. Superstructure • The superstructure which is a more effective social tool for perpetrating the base is a collection of "ideological state apparatuses" such as religion, schools, and art, including literature.  Marxist Critics see art as reproducing the economic and social foundations of their societies, OR as (with varying degrees of success and overt-ness) criticizing and attempting to overthrow said economic and social foundations. 

8. Commodity Fetishism • Marx viewed the commodity as the "cell-form" or building unit of capitalist society—it is an object useful to somebody else, but with a trading value for the owner. • because the expansion of markets had in reality objectified most economic relations: the cash nexus stripped away all previous religious and political illusions (only to replace them, however, with another kind of illusion— commodity fetishism).

9. The power of the dominant ideology to reproduce itself in art and through art is called hegemony.

10. What about Film and TV? • How could film/art/music/literature be used to support the status quo? • What does it say about a society when we value/uphold/ and propagate TV/actors/films that promote stupidity and greed? Or unattainable images of beauty? • Examples?

11. Or that inform viewers that beauty is the only way to obtain success in life? You must be aesthetically appealing- at all costs….

12. Can we simply purchase beauty? If so, how much is it really worth?