Blog #2: Coke or Soda? The concept of Hegemony

About 9 years ago I went to a restaurant with my Grandfather in Pueblo, Colorado. Once we were seated our waiter walked up to us and asked, “What would you like to drink”? I answered, “I'll have a Coke”, to which he responded, “Diet or Regular”? I was a little confused so I said, “Ahh a Sprite”. Our waiter then laughed and asked “What made you change your mind”? I said “Um I didn't, I said I wanted a coke and for it to be a Sprite”. He laughed once again and said to me “You must not be from around here. We refer to it as 'Soda' or 'Pop' here. But for future notice, Coke is a brand of soda, not it's entirety”. I felt so stupid after that interaction, and since then I've made sure to say soda instead of coke. But that begs the question of why we say coke to refer to all soda in general, as if it is not a brand and instead just another term for it. Countries like Afghanistan, the UK, and the United States all use the word 'Coke' as slang for soda, so this is something that has become quite dominant in the world. I believe the answer for this can be find thanks to the concept of Hegemony.


(The link below is a map of the US and there areas in which 'coke' is used)
http://popvssoda.com:2998/

Hegemony is the capacity of the ruling group that enables it to maintain its power and reinforce its ideology. In other words it is the way that one person, thing, or idea gains and maintains dominance over anything else. Hegemony has four characteristics that give things like the word coke dominance. Its control comes through consent, which means that people are not forced or tricked, but willing follow. The term Coke is not forced on people, we simply just use it as a 'slang' word. This moves into the second characteristic, the term becomes common sense. Because we refer to all sodas as coke it becomes common sense. “I'll take a coke and make it a Dr. Pepper!” We don't find anything strange about that sentence, even though we technically just asked for two different soda brands. The third characteristic makes it seem that this dominant ideology is natural. The forth characteristic of hegemony is that this is an ongoing process, however it is not permanent. So perhaps if I keep correcting people about Coke, we can all be on the same page about sodas.