Point: Blind Side: Tackling Through the Walls of Hegemony
This is a point/counterpoint
with Taylor
The Blind Side could be one of my all-time favorite movies because not only does it include football, but it makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside. The fact that it is a true story is so heartwarming to me. The Blind Side, although it has its faults, which Taylor has pointed out, it still does a great job disrupting hegemonic notions of what a family looks like. The Tuohy family truly cares about Michael and just wants him to be happy. They wish to gain nothing from Michael but his love. This film breaks free from typical stereotypes of themes present in movies about African Americans and instead shows the struggles and triumphs a family must endure in a society where interracial families are not always accepted.
Hegemony is disrupted through the adoption of Michael into the family. Leigh Anne Tuohy is a genuinely nice woman who always tries to give back to others. Even her husband Sean told her, âyou get some twisted satisfaction from helping othersâ.  She never hopes to gain any special reward for her actions but rather seeing others happy, simply makes her happy. The only satisfaction she receives is knowing she did the right thing. Taylor argues that this could be seen as bell hooks idea of eating the other. That by taking in someone from a black culture it enhances Leigh Anneâs whiteness and power over him. In this case, âeating the otherâ is the idea that Leigh Anne only helps out Michael because her gains outweigh his. This is completely wrong, The Tuohy family only gain a son, brother, and friend. Even when her rich, snobby friends assume she is changing Michaelâs life, she replies with âNo, that boyâs changing mineâ. She sticks up for him just like she would her own son, and makes it very clear that he is not a charity case. In fact, sheâs actually giving up something of hers to make Michael happy, she pays for him to have a new bed and his very own room, the truck that he always wanted and a higher education. She didnât initially do these actions with the thought that she would receive a reward for them; it wasnât until after, that she realized how much Michael had meant to her. She just didnât want to see Michael end up like his friend that ran with the wrong crowd and ended up getting shot and killed.
The family endures discrimination and even gets accused of adopting Michael just so they can train him and shape him into a talented football player. Some believe they bred him to go on to play for Ole Miss, being that they are alumni and âbooster parentsâ of the school. Others cannot accept the fact that the Touhy family is doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. However, after realizing that they got caught up in the moment of their new son playing college football, they realized they never once asked Michael what he wanted. It was at this moment that hegemony was broken because Leigh Anne searched all over for Michael and admitted that she would support him no matter where he chose to play, even if it was for Alabama. In James Lullâs article Hegemony, he points out that hegemony occurs when âone class exercises hegemony to the extent that the dominating class has interests which the subaltern classes recognize as being in some degree their interests tooâ. Â However, this is not what Michael does, he doesnât take on their interest of playing for Ole Miss just because thatâs the Tuohyâs favorite school, he does it because thatâs where his family goes. He does consider all his options and in the end choses Ole Miss because it is the right fit for him.
The Blind Side also breaks freak from hegemony because it breaks hegemonic notions of typical films involving African-Americans. Most African-American representation we see in the media is stereotyped and has a lot of reference to drugs, alcohol, violence, and poverty. Although Taylor is right and we see this representation in The Blind Side but we see it in a unique way. Michael came from a low-income family that abused drugs. We see clips of his dad being abusive to his mom, and the mom being so drugged out that the cops had to take Michael away from his mother. Even in his old neighborhood, all of his âfriendsâ just sat around and drank all day, they carried guns and acted with violence. But unlike most stereotypical movies, this was not the center of the plot. In Greg Smithâs article, âItâs Just a Movieâ, he states that everything in movies is carefully thought about, every little aspect has a reason why itâs included. Â âA Hollywood film is one of the most highly scrutinized, carefully constructed, least random works imaginable,â Therefore, this conventional representation of African- Americanâs in movies is added only to show Michaelâs background and to be used as an inspiration to viewers. Michael, however, was able to overcome all of this. He didnât want to associate with those âfriendsâ, he was able to get out of poverty, and he has the impressive ability to just let go of things instead of acting reacting with violence. In this sense, the Blind Side doesnât reinforce hegemony but disrupts it because it was only done to retell the true story Michael Oher and how he got past it.
The Blind Side is a movie appropriate for people of all ages, races, and gender. It is a heartwarming story about family. Although I agree with some points Taylor makes, I believe the movie mostly disrupts hegemony because their actions are fueled by love, not by personal gains they might receive in return. Yes, there are some stereotypical elements added, but are not the focus of the movie and have a purpose to show how one can overcome this certain lifestyle.
See Taylorâs side of the story. http://ohiostate2230.tumblr.com/
