In Louis Althusser’s paper on Ideology, he points out the main tenets of his argument. The two to be focused on in this blog are; 1) ideology represents the imaginary/idealized form of real relations/conditions of their world and 2) The material existence of ideology is in the forms of rituals, apparatuses, or practice, and 3) a person is always-already a subject. Ideology creates mis-recongnition because it attributes certain practices to certain ideologies, leaving little room for error or customization. A person can be categorized according to a certain ideology because they mostly fit in. Yet, no ideology is truthful to its subjects as each subject is never the same. The protagonist of the show, Piper Chapman, visually exhibits the mis-recognition associated with ideology because it is an idealized form of relation and not real.
Piper Chapman is a woman who considers herself “a nice, blonde lady”. Piper’s familial background initially initiated her into the world as someone who would grow up into being a “nice, blonde lady”, we assume her mother is at the mention of shock at her daughter’s criminal actions. She always already perceived as a good girl. She attempts to fit into that ideology by getting a boyfriend, having nice house, etc..’She is attempting to live up to what the ideology presents itself as in the collective conscious. Unfortunately, her past has caught up with her and she is now guilty of a felony preformed in her youth. When she tells her family, they are shocked. Piper’s involvement with the ‘practice’ is equated to the ideology of a drug dealer/lesbian are not associated a ‘nice blonde lady.” Women of Piper’s type (blond, white, college-educated, engaged) arent considered the norm of drug dealers/ lesbians. Piper’s physical “practice” of carrying drug money transform her as a subject from “nice, blonde lady” to ” felon”. Piper’s physical appearance is also an intended exercise in the ideological practice of being a ‘nice, blond lady’ which people, including the prison guards, perceive her as until otherwise notified. However, when Piper attempts to tell the federal guard her purpose was to surrender herself, he was mildly surprised, initially thinking that she had been a visitor. The “practice” (nice car, nice clothes, nice boyfriend) referenced the ideologue of “nice, blond lady” to the guard. Following the ideological rules, Piper is mi-srecognized in two ways: 1) she is not as wholesome and clean as her peers expect being a ‘nice,blonde lady” 2) she is outside the norm of consideration for drug-dealers. If her ‘practice” was to show up in dingy clothes, resisitant to atuhority, and/or showing up in a cop car, he would have instantly pegged her as potential inmate and not a visitor. Certain practices are associated with certain ideologies thus constricting how we thinking of them individually, leaving us to change the ideas we have of people when there particular actions don’t fit within certain ideologies. Piper quickly shifted from ‘nice, blond lady’ to ‘inmate” in her practice of donning prison uniform and listening to the guards. Piper’s involvement in the practice make her a subject of the system and no longer “a nice, blonde lady.” The ideologies constructed around ‘ nice blonde, lady’ and prisoners are shattered in this opening pilot of the series. Ideology does not represent how things are but how we see them.
Schuyler J's 