Jerry's Use Of Counter Hegemony In Poorlando

To understand counter-hegemony one must first all have a clue what hegemony is. Well, according to Gramsci (1971), hegemony is that cultural leadership that is usually exercised by the ruling class. In this essence, the dominants order is sustained by the intellectuals. This is done by popularizing and creating a world view to convince the oppressed that their live in subordination arena is inevitable, just and appropriate. So with that idea, counter-hegemony can be explained as that attempt to dismantle or critique of hegemonic power. It is an act of opposing or confronting the existing status quo. This can be done in media, written books, journal articles and also music (Gramsci, 1971).
This essay will put more emphasis on one of the TV
He invites her for party and she declines to an extent of calling him “Poorlando”. She prefers to rather attend Melissa’s party because of her class status than attend that of Orlando. This juxtaposition of poor/rich is rather a social commentary of status quo or class systems. It does not only portray how class systems create subordinate and dominant social relation but it also put more emphasis on the extent to how western constructions shape and portray oppressive social experiences. Jerry put more value on Melissa who don’t want even to see her over her only true friend Orlando just because Melissa is financially privileged and has a class. Jerry’s social class and position is constantly being compared to that of Melissa and other classmates who owns Flairs. In all her social interaction, Jerry is being overtly oppressed through dialogues. She is actually more scrutinized for not being able to own at least one pair of Flair (Danello, Sedaris & Leiner,
By Jerry taking the character of subordinate class position, she provides and wide opens the doors of critique by the viewers thus helping them realize that the class systems they are tied to are oppressive. However, chitchat critiques only reproduce and reinforce these stereotypes and oppressive classed discourses if viewers are not in a position to understand parody. This episode however, lays a ground and encourages viewers to internalize and interpret the discourses portrayed as ridiculous, wrong and oppressive. By this, viewers are encouraged to oppose these hegemonic systems of oppressive social relations and power by coming up with counter-hegemonic systems by sharing their views against hegemony. This can be done through media shows, books articles, journals or music amongst others (Stevenson,