I would echo Diane's question by asking, "Does ideology truly change or
does only its face change?" I'm sure there are times when ideologies do
change, but I think most often they only change on their face. Diane's
examples are good ones. Bruce says, "let's look at how and why the dominant
>ideologies in regards to race and gender have changed over the last 40
>years." _Have_ they changed?
I especially think about race, specifically the treatment of African
Americans in the U.S. On the face of it, ideologies have changed, but I
believe at the core, they are the same. Compare (if you can find them) 1910
and 1920's ads for cleaning products with the ones you see on tv today. The
clothes are different, the idea is the same: black women clean your house
better than white women with X,Y,Z product. What has changed here? Look at
MTV for a while and examine the message in videos: black men are sexual
beings. How is this any different than the stereotypes of black men that
have abounded in the US for 200 years? Is the underlying ideology different
that it used to be? If my eyes don't deceive me, the answer is "no."
Also consider slavery. We don't often see slaves in this country anymore,
but this country's ideology (capitalism) depends on slaves working for it
somewhere. Now those slaves are in countries we don't have to look at and
we don't call them slaves. But slavery still exists, ideology is still the
same.
Am I off the topic? Probably. But I think this is an important point: much
activity only reproduces the dominant ideology, even activity we intend to
change that ideology. The system shifts to accommodate a new ideology on
the surface, but the system remains the same--thus, the underlying ideology
remains the same.
Is this too pessimistic for comfort? Maybe. I do think some activity can
produce change, but what activity might that be? And how can we be sure
that activity is really changing the ideology, rather than just changing
the public face of that ideology? Even the activity of revolution--real,
hard core, violent revolution--often results in another regime, with a
different name, being set up and then operating with the exact same
ideology it just purported to overthrow.
I'm sure I'll get creamed for this view, especially by David Russell (if
he's not too busy to read), who always claims I am the world's biggest
pessimist. Anyway....food for thought.
Elizabeth
------------------------------
Elizabeth A. Wardle <ewardle@iastate.edu>
Doctoral Program in Rhetoric & Professional Communication
Iowa State University of Science & Technology
http://www.stuorg.iastate.edu/phorum/
www.public.iastate.edu/~ewardle
"Have no hard feelings toward anyone who has not shown you enmity, do not
fight with anyone who does not oppose you."
~The Art of War
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