Hegemony, "refers to the ways in which the media encourage people to consent to status quo power structures." (1) This is done by constantly pushing certain ideals and morals to the point where the viewer/receiver thinks of these viewpoints as common sense. In this way, the "power structures," such as executives of broadcasting or advertising companies, who control most of the media, are able to shape the thoughts of those who are supposed as subordinates. Hegemony is a concept in which those who critically study media use in order to discern what media is really trying to tell us besides the face value content.
In the 1950's comedy I Love Lucy, we can use hegemony to describe how the power structure of the television networks wants the viewer to understand gender roles. Ricky, although may be considered a minority, is seen as the dominant male always yelling at Lucy when she goes beyond what the power structure deems as socially acceptable. In this way, Lucy is forced into a typical homemaker role, even though she pursues others interests. Other 50's comedies, along with I Love Lucy, also told America that the family structure consisted of a mother, father, and their children (always including a boy). Since both ideas were consistently reinforced by not only the comedies, but also by the commercials that aired with them and subsequent programming, these ideas became imbedded into the viewers vision of how a family should be and made them frown upon other family structures.
And now, for your viewing pleasure, a clip of I Love Lucy in which gender roles are reinforced:
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