ABSTRACT
The aim of Chapter 1 is to establish that the focus of this book is to investigate the possibilities of constructing discourses of resistance to domination. The starting point is bell hook’s influential work on race, gender, and representation, with a focus on her key notion of “talking back.” The chapter then presents an overview of the context – the structures of domination which function as “packages of consciousness” to assert power. It lists the main tropes constructing Muslim women and men’s identity in mainstream media. Defining what constitutes a counter-hegemonic discourse depends on what is defined as hegemonic; the selected artists “talk back” to a large repertoire of dominant representations. Based on my reading of Gramsci as well as supplementary work that has elaborated or clarified his analysis of hegemony, I propose some of the constituent elements of “moments” of counter-hegemonic emergence. Chapter 1 furthermore offers a synthesis of different ways of talking back that can be deployed to challenge the constraining meta-structure. The alternative media literature tends to overlook the ways in which discursive resistance could have different meanings from a gendered perspective. Chapter 1 particularly brings to the fore the specificities of gendered resistance. Finally, the chapter ends with a reflection on the possibilities and limits of alternative discourses gaining access to the realm of popular culture. As cultural studies’ scholars indicate, popular culture can be understood as a site of struggle of hegemonic and counter-hegemonic discourses. Indeed, the realm of popular culture can offer opportunities to challenge the status quo and disseminate alternative perspectives to a wide audience. However, it is also the arena of dominant cultural production. The last section of the chapter addresses the role that alternative media can play to fuel organized action and inspire social movements.
