Using the concept of “hegemony” analyze a popular culture text you selected. Use your own interest in choosing a topic.

Content Guideline: Popular culture text examples: a TV show, a website, a video game, etc. For your first paragraph, start your essay by explaining the concept of hegemony. Then you should explain how hegemony is related to the topic you chose. Remember to underline your thesis statement in your first paragraph. Really think about how the text shows both resistance to and incorporation of dominant values. The best essays will have analyzed example from popular culture that demonstrates this resistance – incorporation “negotiation”. Remember that the goal of Cultural Studies scholarship is to expose power relationships and examine how these relationships influence and shape cultural practices. The key idea behind hegemony is that power is always being negotiated and contested. Therefore, your analysis should focus on questions of power struggles between dominant and subordinate groups as they appear in popular culture (e.g. struggles relating to: racism, discrimination, sexism, homophobia, youth culture, intergenerational conflict, social class, etc.). A popular culture text is not just “good” or “bad”. For example, an essay that only examines how women are stereotyped in the media would not be a