JLO63O, Hebdige response to ashalaya

In response to ashlaya, I also picked up on the quote “The media, as Stuart Hall (1977) has argued, not only record resistance, they “situate it within the dominant framework of meanings” and those young people who choose to inhabit a spectacular youth culture are simultaneously returned, as they are represented on T.V. and in the newspapers, to the place where common sense would have them fit.” (155). I understand where you were coming from with the Dove commercials, but I think what Habdige is talking about is how power structures are taking subculture trends and portraying them as unnatural and puts a deviant label on it because they do not fit the norm. The norm, he says, is constructed by dominant ideologies which, and in this context, ideologies of fashion, which brings us to a whole other topic of dominance and getting to the top. Fashion – something so simple and unrepresentative of a person’s character –can determine how far, or how not far rather, a person can get to in the dominant/ruling class. I would pay to see the day that someone who dressed like the singer Pink would make it to any governmental position. You can only make important decisions in a hegemonic society if you meet the dominant hegemonic credentials, so hegemony is relatively homogeneous, which is ironic because as Americans we pride ourselves on freedom, diversity, and acceptance, but only to a certain extent it seems.
Back to the Dove commercials, I don’t think this is what Hebdige is saying because Dove is part of the dominant structure of media, but rather what he is saying is that it’s when the media broadcasts subcultures in a particular light which views them as either outcasts or accepted. I think the earlier quote is actually quite upsetting because national broadcasts aren’t only rising awareness that subcultures look different, but it makes people FEEL like they are different -- widely promoting negativity and rejection to certain groups and individuals nationwide.