The idea for my first post in this blog
came to me last Saturday. No, I will not talk about the financial crisis. I
want to talk about a promotional video that the European Commission made to
encourage women and girls to pursue a career in science.
The idea that there are not enough women that
choose a scientific career I agree with. The idea that someone might want to do
something about it, I don’t disagree with. However, the idea that a Barbie type
advertisement is the best way to promote that, I completely disagree with, both
as a woman and as a political scientist.
It is not the first time that the EC has made
doubtful communication choices. Remember when they released that video remake of Kill Bill? Institutions like the European Commission do not only seek more
power and influence vis-à-vis the European Council and the Member States, but more importantly
they desperately seek a link with the European citizens, a link that can
legitimize them and possibly make them more popular to the European public. In
the theory of cultural hegemony of Gramsci, we can see how a particular
systemic capitalism manages to maintain the control of society. This theory can
I believe easily be translated to today’s financial and debt crisis, but I will
not do that today. Instead, I want to use that framework and apply it to the
EC. So Gramsci tells us, that the main reason why we don’t rebel against the current
political system is because we have adopted the values and interests of the
ruling elite as our own, and by doing so we deny our own interests. We believe
that what is good for the ruling elites is good for us. This concept of
cultural hegemony is a concept that I find quite convincing, and that is well
suited for application to a wide range of examples in the contemporary world.
If you apply the concept to the European
Commision you can see that it has effects on the nature of the Commission as an
institution. The Commission sees itself like a progressive institution that
promotes women’s rights. They even went as far as creating a European Women’s
lobby from scratch, to have a ‘women’s point of view’! So we have the Commission’s
self-perception as a progressive institution on the one side, and we have this
video on the other. A video that appeals to all the clichés you can think of when
it comes to young women: lipstick, sunglasses, pink, and fashion… As if the
only way to attract their attention is to appeal to their consumerist instinct,
exactly the same way as advertisement uses your most basic instincts to sell
you a product. So that’s it, the EC
advertises but doesn’t promote, appeals to your instincts but doesn’t inspire
you. The European Commission by assuming that this is what will appeal to young
women is self-sabotaging its purpose. The way you promote your ideals is as
important as the ideas themselves. Therefore the EC is stuck in a contradiction
here between its ends and its means, and because I do not believe that the ends
justify the means, the Commission has a problem! If the Commission promotes
this kind of values and ideals then it is precisely one of the institutions
that Gramsci describes, one of those institutions that build cultural hegemony
instead of promoting a credible alternative! The Commission did not convince me
that ‘science is a girl thing’, and if the guys in suits at the Commission
think that the only thing young girls respond to is a Barbie advert I suggest
they watch this and take this girl’s example!
Alexandra Athanasopoulou
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