How is this hegemonic in the normative culture?

          Today I would like to discuss how popular social media such as magazine, television, radio, film, and music perpetuates the hegemony of heterosexual relationship or dating in our normative culture. The example that I would like to use is Carly Rae Jepsen's song "Call Me Maybe". In the music video, Carly is desperately trying to attract this young man. Falling for his "stare, ripped jeans, and skin", Carly, through the song, expresses how much she wants to be in a heterosexual relationship with that young muscular and masculinely looking man. Overtaken by her love for him, Carly, encouraged by her 2 friends or bandmates, goes out the garage and seduces him by posing "sexily" when that young man is fixing his own car. Toward the end of the song, as soon as she discovers that this young man has no interest in her and is homosexual, through her facial expression, we recognize that she is confused and can not understand how her crush is gay.

          In the music video, Carly dresses femininely. Wearing long hair, makeup, colorful nail polish, high heels, feminine accessories, tank-top and shorts, Carly is in no way resisting the dominant cultural understanding of what should a girl dress like in order to be recognized as being feminine. On the other hand, wearing ridded jeans, white T-shirt, short hair, tattoo on his chest, and having a muscular body figure, the bodily display and posture of Carly's crush is demonstrate what our culture perceives as sexy and bodily fit man. Teens who listen to this song, particularly young girls who are probably the intended major audience, are exposed to this idea of how to be attractive in front of guys and how to express their feeling to her crush. On the other hand, young male teenagers who watch the music video receive this message of how the six pack abs and tall body figure can get them a pretty girlfriend. From this point, we see how teens become vulnerable to the normative understanding of what masculine and feminine sexuality is through a popular music video like this. Using provocative image to sell adult sexuality and heterosexual relationship and educating them an unhealthy and discriminatory idea about homosexual relationship, this music video portrays the hegemonic idea of what a date or romance relationship should be like in the normative culture.