The Power of Hegemony over Sexuality: An Analysis of Game of Thrones and True Blood

     I admire Antonio Gramsci. Why, you ask. His work on cultural hegemony was ground-breaking. After spending four years studying history, literature, religion, and international development, my view towards the world has become largely pessimistic. My feminism has been strengthened. My passion to change the status quo has grown. I admit that I feel frustrated at times. I am disgusted by the news media, and the hegemonic power it exercises. We have become so influenced, and so brainwashed into accepting what the media presents us with that our abilities to question, analyze and critique have evaporated. The violence depicted on television on a daily basis has resulted in all of us becoming desensitized. We don’t care anymore that the Hazaras are subject to a mass genocidal campaign in Quetta. We don’t care that civil war rages on in Syria, and that women are beaten up by brutal Assad forces. It doesn’t matter that gang rapes take place in India every minute of the day, nor do we consider what the hell is happening in Mali. Life goes on. Let’s live in our tiny bubbles, and thrive in this neoliberal anarchist individualism that permeates our souls (thanks a lot, capitalism). In fact, hegemonic forces have become so invasive in our lives that we don’t even know that every single one of us is oppressed by them.

     Neoliberalism and capitalism have actually created a society driven by greed and consumerism. And of course, it has also resulted in the creation of gargantuan inequalities as Marx had predicted. Capitalism thrives on the concept of hegemony. Hegemony involves the clever exercise of power by a dominant force in such a way that the oppressed force or group does not realize that they are being exploited. Moreover, the oppressed group accepts the exploitation and even enjoys it in some ways. An excellent example of a powerful hegemonic force is the United States. The US exercises cultural hegemony globally. Canadians are dominated by US culture and obsessed with Hollywood and American television shows. South Asia consumes and enjoys US culture regularly. And so does the rest of the world. Patriarchy is founded on the premise of hegemony. The male strives to exercise hegemonic control of the female. Media perpetuates and helps to brainwash our minds on a daily basis.

     Have you ever stopped to consider the powerful and hegemonic influence that television shows exercise on our minds? We just consume them mindlessly, bathing in the pleasure of pure entertainment, without stopping to think what ideas we are unconsciously absorbing into our heads. Breaking Bad, for example, is one of the top rated American television shows. However, its popularity is based upon our instinctive craving for violence and blood. HBO shows, such as True Blood and Game of Thrones are two of my favourite shows. But the impact they exercise on one’s mind is astounding.  These television shows dictate sexuality, and gender identities. True Blood, and Game of Thrones help to perpetuate the idea that sexuality is subject to hegemonic forces.

     Take a look at how gender is portrayed in the shows. Cersei Lannister is the Queen Regent of the Seven Kingdoms in Game of Thrones, which is set in the medieval era (Game of Thrones, Season 1). However, despite being a powerful Queen in a position of great authority, she is still subject to the patriarchal hegemony of her husband who is the King. Thus, the show plays on how the male hegemonic influence shapes the behavior and structure of Cercei’s identity and gender. The male dictates norms for her to follow and adhere to while he is free to do whatever he wants to without being judged by the hegemonic gaze of society. Cercei’s husband treats her as if she is a sexual commodity who is not supposed to enjoy sexual pleasure; her body is merely a site for reproduction (Game of Thrones, Season 1). Muvley encapsulates this idea perfectly when she asserts, “Traditional Hollywood cinema perpetuates these roles, through the production of films that enable the audience to identify with an active male and a passive heroine (Szeman, 91).” So while the King is active and engages in sexual pleasure and promiscuity, Cercei is trapped under his authoritarian and hegemonic rule and as a woman in the medieval times, she is expected to conform to the role of a modest woman if she is to remain in the position of a royal and respectable Queen. Here, we also see how gender is overlapping with sexuality to a point where it is almost impossible to discern the difference between the two. Cercei, as a woman, becomes the very epitome of sexuality; her beauty makes her the object of sexual desire as Vance says, “women as a marked gender group constitute the locus of sexuality…gender and sexuality are seamlessly knit together (Vance, 46).” Thus, Game of Thrones perfectly depicts how hegemonic forces not only define gender but also dictate sexual behavior and identity. Weeks, in his article, asserts that many prominent researchers have equated sexual difference with the subordination and subservience of women as it is a way for men to exercise their hegemonic power over women (Weeks, 38).

      

     Another hegemonic influence operating in television shows is race. Race is commonly used as a concept that draws differences between groups based on power denominations on the basis of biological, physical and genetic differences; race is not a natural state but it is socially constructed by hegemonic influences (Szeman, 242). It is mainly the white man that exercises hegemonic power over the black man as the history of colonialism and slavery depict and Weeks asserts that in the nineteenth century, black people were considered as crude and wild beasts with uncontrolled sexual energies (Weeks, 39). This idea is shown in True Blood through the characters of Tara and Lafayette, both of African American descent. Tara, in True Blood, is a black female who experiments with her sexuality by not only having sex with a vampire, a shape-shifter, heterosexual males but also with women (True Blood, Season 4). Her aggressive nature further shows her as a sexually deviant woman who cannot seem to suppress her sexual energy. Lafayette, another African American in the show, is a gay prostitute and also operates a porn website illegally (True Blood, Season 1). His open homosexual identity and erotic relationships with men, shown vividly and explicitly in all seasons, as well as his aggressive sexual language, show him as sexually promiscuous. This is an arena where race, sexuality and gender are all intertwined. It is also noteworthy to observe that two of the lead characters depicted as engaging in homosexual acts are both black while none of the white lead characters are homosexual. This shows how the media, as a hegemonic institution, uses its hegemonic power to depict the idea of blacks as more prone to homosexuality and sexual deviance.

         

     A further way through which these sex television shows show hegemonic power being exercised to mould, administer and control sexuality and its construction, is through the traditional hegemonic institutions of marriage and family. This idea is also pointed out by Gagnon and Simon as they assert that for sexuality, “there are governing rules, hierarchies structuring mobility and standards of evaluation (Kimmel, 64).” In Game of Thrones, we see the institution of marriage functioning as the hegemonic system through which Cercei’s sexuality is controlled. As a woman, she is not allowed to have multiple sexual partners although her husband freely engages in sex with prostitutes and with many other women. However, the interesting thing to note here is how some of the hegemonic work is being undone here; Cercei secretly rebels against the institution of marriage by having sex with other men and also by having sex with her brother, thus defying the barriers imposed on her by the traditional institutions of both marriage and family (Game of Thrones, Season 1). Cercei is however, one of the villains of the story, which shows that even if females in popular culture try to rebel against the hegemonic powers, they are shown as ruthlessly power hungry and treacherous.

          

     The institution of religion is another powerful, hegemonic force that seeks to constantly regulate and control sexuality as Kimmel asserts in the article that, “One had to speak of sex as of a thing to be not simply condemned or tolerated but managed insteadninto systems of utility, regulated for the greater good of all…it was a thing one administered (Kimmel, 64).” This idea of religion being used as a hegemonic and authoritarian force to control and regulate sexual energies and limit sexual deviance is illustrated in True Blood through the characters of Steve Newlin and Maxine. Steve Newlin is the organizer of the Fellowship of the Sun, which is a Christian organization that abhors vampires as un-godly creatures that wreak havoc, and sexual relations with them must be explicitly condemned; vampires in the show may be used as an allegory for homosexual peoples (True Blood, Season 2). Thus, the idea of religion trying to stop people from adhering to homosexual identities comes across in True Blood. Maxine is another character who is depicted as a God fearing Christian who always attends church and reads the bible; she is shocked and scandalized when her son wants to puruse sexual relations with a vampire (True Blood, Season 2). Maxine does everything in her power to convince her son that Jessica, the vampire he is in love with, is a demon that God abhors and Christianity hates (True Blood, Season 2). Religion is shown as a very dominant and powerful force in society that can be used to regulate sexual behavior.

          

     The construction of bodies in the show is also heavily sexualized and bodies are often depicted in the show as the site of hegemonic control, whether they are male or female. In True Blood, all of the males and especially the vampires, are shown as the active agents with highly muscular bodies which dazzle all the females. The body is thus depicted as a sexualized site which controls the other gender and draws it under the hegemonic influence of the male. It is also interesting to note that the opposite is also true; the sexualized female body is also shown as a site of power that dominates the male as the female vampires in the show, such as Jessica, control the sexual desires of male characters such as Jason and Hoyte (True Blood, Seasons 3 and 4). Here, we see how the construction of bodies intersects with sexuality.

          

     Popular culture is a powerful medium that can shape one’s perceptions of sexuality, help perpetuate traditional stereotypes, and reaffirm traditional power structures, allowing them to continue doing their hegemonic work. While sex shows such as True Blood and Game of Thrones, help the authoritarian power structures to stay intact through their depiction of sexuality, gender, race and the construction of bodies, some of that work is also being undone. This is illustrated through the rebellious character of the vindictive and villainous Cercei and also through the powerful female vampire characters in True Blood, such as Pam and Jessica, who use their sexual prowess to assert their dominance over many of the male characters. Thus, there is some hope that a conscious effort to break the exploitative grip of hegemonic forces may be undertaken by the subordinate groups in order for societies and individuals to freely assert their identities.

Sources

-Game of Thrones (Seasons 1 and 2). Created by David Benioff and D.B Weiss. HBO, 2011, DVD.

-Kimmel, Michael S and Rebecca Plante. “Sexulaities.” Contexts 6, no. 2 (2007): 63-65.

-O’Brien, Susie and Imre Szeman. Popular Culture: A User’s Guide. Toronto: Nelson, 2004.

-True Blood (Seasons 1-4). Created by Alan Bell. HBO, 2008, DVD.

-Vance, Carole. “Social Construction Theory and Sexuality.” Constructing Masculinity. Eds. Maurice --- Berger, Brian Wallis and Simon Watson. New York: Routledge, 1995. 37-48.

Weeks, Jeffrey. “The Invention of Sexuality.”  Sexuality. New York: Routledge, 1989. 19-37.