The Importance Of The Outsiders In The Mainstream Society

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The term ‘outsider’ refers to those who have little or no contact with mainstream society. Outsiders are people who do not fall into the bracket of what is considered ‘normal’. They are different - difference and authenticity being the two things most foreign and alien to the mainstream world (Becker, 1963:9-15). The only reason one can identify with what is mainstream, is because outsiders exists. Majority of society falls under the mainstream category, making it largely powerful and influential, with the ability to define what is acceptable and unacceptable – known as hegemony (Hebdige, 2002:179). According to Hebdige (2002:16), “the term ‘hegemony’ refers to a situation in which a provisional alliance of certain social groups can exert ‘total social authority’ over other subordinate groups; not simply by coercion or by the direct imposition of ruling ideas, but by ‘winning and shaping consent so that the power of the dominant classes appears both legitimte and natural”. Only through identifying differences between the two is one able to establish what is considered normal. So therefore, the only reason mainstream society can consider itself to be normal and acceptable is because the ‘other’ exists. Mainstream society would lack identification without this comparison. Due the outsider being alienated from the rest of society, it is, a lot of the time, considered acceptable to criticise its differences from the ‘norm’. Despite the majority lacking knowledge and