Although an individual’s identity is their own, their thinking and actions are influenced by external forces. This means that a person’s action can be defined by the dominant discourses in society, such as gender and sexuality. Michael Foucault’s definition of discourse is more than just the ways of thinking and producing meaning through communication. The notion of discourse defined by Foucault have become closely associated with power and knowledge (Miller, 1990). Dominant discourse demonstrates how reality has been socially constructed. They can be found in many forms of media and communication.
Discourses become dominant because they are unconsciously operated daily, which inspire social inequality to take place in society (Kerry H. Robinson and Criss Jones Diaz, 2016). Discourse of sexuality involves the concept of masculinity and femininity that is deeply embedded into our daily lives because of surrounding influences. Gendered discourses also exist in society, which begins in early childhood. The discourse in this setting highlights the distinct language and behavioural patterns between the two sexes. The repetitive difference in social behaviour between genders are observed and an expectations are formed within society.
Discourse holds a relationship with power and knowledge. Power is influenced by the knowledge we possess as individuals and constitutes in language and sustained through social communications. Foucault argues that the knowledge and power does not come from an individual group, but derives from the participation of many people in social interaction and ideas are produced that become a cultural norm (Stevenson & Cutcliffe, 2006). The media has grown to be a tool for mass communication that makes people sense that their conduct is constantly being monitored by somebody, which encourages dominant discourses.
This affects individuals to speak, think and behave differently in particular situations. However, there are educators in Early Childhood Education along with the assistance of deconstruction techniques, which aim to teach young children to contest dominant discourses. Discourse governs how individuals operate daily, but this is often hard for people to realise this because they are powerful enough to hide in plain sight. Bourdieu’s theory argued that habitus and field were key concepts that gives an understanding of the “interactions between people, or to explain an event or social phenomenon” (Grenfell, p. 65, 2012).
This means that people possess fixed habits, skills and dispositions, which are exercised in distinct fields with unique rules and they unintentionally compete with others to attain power. Dominant discourse come from those whose authority hold dominance over others. People with less power are generally influenced and motivated to do things that are set out by people with more power (Hiemer and Abele, 2012). This comes in to relation with Foucault’s theory of knowledge and power, as the more knowledge you hold over individuals in separate settings will grant you more success in attaining an influence over others.
Children at a young age are the most vulnerable to gendered discourse because they are taught to act a certain way that is acceptable. There are advertisements and influences from the media that affect the way children think about their identity of their gender. Hannah Goodall (2012) claims that exposure to media can persuade people to be “swayed by what is perceived to be societal norms” (p. 160). The image below is a prime example on the perception of gender roles. it basically highlights the notion that males cannot cook and females can.
This demonstrates discourse of gender roles in society, as the advertisement is produced due to the construction of social reality. Teacher’s awareness over diversity and differences assist them in their professional pedagogical practices. They possess the necessary skills and knowledge to teach children to ‘challenge’ the inequality rising from discourses (Ferfolja, Diaz and Ullman, 2015). Although discourses are formed and regulated by people with persuasive influential power in society, there are people in professional placements that are teaching others to confront the inequity that exists.
The inequity comes from the conventional ways of thinking, speaking and acting of society. Discourses are not just simple ideas, but they are closely connected with the way society functions. Burr (2015) comments that it is very unlikely for another regime of truth to occur outside of our current social reality, as “nothing exists except as it exists in discourse” (p. 94). This means that the effect of the existing dominant discourse being so powerful that it is psychologically ingrained within our being. This is exemplified with images that represent discourse of masculinity and femininity.
The image above is one of things that appear in the google images section when typing ‘femininity in the media’. The findings on the search engine demonstrates femininity being associated with women being slender, beautiful and dressed nicely across media. This evidently displays the heavy influence of discourse in the world. Pritchard & Cramblitt’s research (2014) has indicated that the media has an apparent mental and physical influence on individuals, especially on their own body appearance and what they consider are the norms.
In essence, such discourse are not just plain thoughts and ideals brought up by certain individuals, but they constitute to a system of society that functions based on what people think is the ‘truth’. Dominant discourses are powerful in a fashion that people generally accept these ‘rules’ it has produced in a society, but there are those who confront the norms and attempt to defy it. Social media can be a strong instrument to persuade the public to trust the information that is broadcast. Kamil Demirhan and Derya Cak? r-Demirhan’s findings (2015) has revealed that 93. 6% of all tweets on twitter give in to patriarchal discourse, but 6. 13% of tweets that have been about an unconventional discourse against it.
The statistics evidently demonstrates that the public have begun to understand the prejudice thinking of gender roles brought upon by discourse. There is suggestion that people need to be given a broader understanding on how discourse impacts on our subjectivity and the structure of our social system (Gilbert, Walker, Mckinney and Jessica, 1999). This will encourage others to challenge to generate alternative discourse that were initially rejected in society.
There already have been organisations that have formed distinct ideological beliefs about discourse. An example of an organisation would be the Equality Rights Alliance, which discourages the previous discourse that women cannot excel in areas that men can. Although there are powerful discourses that indirectly governs society, there are also those who use media to encourage an alternative discourse that promotes equality amongst everyone. In summary, the thinking and actions of an individual is some what affected by the discourses of society.
Discourses that are continuously practiced socially throughout history become more dominant. It produces invisible rules that people blindly follow and abide by. There is a noticeable relationship between discourse, power and knowledge. People who possess strong knowledge and power over others have more chances of making certain discourses stronger. This is because individuals are more influenced and motivated to do things that are based off people with greater power. Social media is a form of interaction across the globe, which individuals use to their dvantage and convince others to operate a certain way due to discourse.
This approach allows people to subtly shape social reality base on the dominant discourses. The social reality that creates cultural binaries and unfairness. However, there are organisations that attempt to use social media to persuade the to the public by conforming to an alternate discourse that brings equality among everyone. There are also professionals who utilise deconstruction techniques in education, which educates to children to question and tackle the negative discourses in society.