Blog Post #2 assignment

Media content across many different platforms is able to convey and perpetuate ideologies for better or worse, and it is most prevalent through the medium of television shows. It is especially noticeable when one's narrative and the setting are based on our modern world as the societal norms would transfer over quite well. The show that I would like to analyze in this example would be the Amazon Prime show The Boys. The Boys is a show that centers on a world where individuals blessed with superpowers are generally hailed as heroes and work for agencies. The biggest and most powerful corporation that employs these heroes is Vought International which puts them into a group called The Seven and is marketed as celebrities. When the cameras are rolling, the heroes are righteous and upright but behind the scenes, their true natures are corrupt, narcissistic, and evil. Our protagonists are a band of vigilantes who have vendettas against these Vought heroes and decide to team up to expose them to the public.

In the first episode, there is already an abuse of power between the character of Starlight and The Deep. Starlight is a new hire into The Seven and as her elder, The Deep uses this opportunity as a celebrity to blackmail her into being sexually assaulted to retain her job. We find out later on that her inclusion into this group was less due to her accomplishments and the fact they needed more diversity as she was the second woman to join. Her costume is altered to be hyper-sexualized to appeal to the male demographic and to sell merchandise to young girls who look up to her. Her achievements and overall opinions are ignored as she is seen as a nobody because of her stature with The Seven and is cast aside for smaller jobs compared to her peers. This would relate to Bourdieu's Doxa and the ideology of stereotyping as everyone around her accepts her treatment as normal. She is only seen as the eye candy of the group and nothing more, her individuality is meaningless. She can also be considered the "token" of The Seven but I would use this term to apply to another character instead.

The character of A-Train is an African American superhero who is a part of the seven. I would consider him the token of the group as he is notably the only African American and minority in this group. In public, Stormfront, another superhero of The Seven openly pretends to be an advocate for equality and fronts being progressive but behind the scenes is a massive racist. It is to be noted that many of the characters act arrogant and rude to each other on a regular basis but he is the only one to also receive these racially charged remarks. A-Train also noticeably changes his cadence when speaking in public when compared to his casual speech as he talks more formally and less "ghetto" for lack of a better term. He even addresses many of his concerns as a part of The Seven as he says that he's finally made it in life and will do anything in his power to never go back to his old life. He knows that the inherent hegemony of The Seven uses him and he willingly accepts as he wants to play by the system and benefit from it even if he has to abandon all prior traits of his personality. 

I like that The Boys is never shy to talk about these problems in our society and even purposely goes out of their way to show bad elements under a microscope and amplify them. As a dark satirical twist on the superhero genre, it tries to weed out the silliness and inject reality into it by making every individual who would have superpowers have a napoleon complex and view themselves as gods essentially. Instead of helping people for a just cause, they help people because there are benefits to it. Portraying these modes of perpetuation in a genre filled with fun stories is exactly what makes The Boys so different and special when compared to other superhero content.