WestWorld’s Hegemonic Process: Capitalist Critique Alongside Constructed Rebellion
WestWorld presents a seething capitalist critique, but only alongside subtle reinforcements of that same economic structure.
WestWorld is a science fiction serial drama that, like many foundational texts of the genre, seeks to comment on the present by looking to the future, or in WestWorld’s case, the past as well. The show centers around an amusement park for the ultra-rich, where patrons can visit recreations of different historical periods to enact their most sinister desires, with the show’s focus being a Western themed joyride. Within these worlds are “hosts,” or androids manufactured by Delos, the company that created the park. These hosts are sentient but dominated, acting as unknowingly enslaved beings with a consciousness and memory controlled by their masters. Thus, WestWorld presents an ideological problematic for a striking critique on capitalism. By foregrounding a world wrought with corruption via the indescribably wealthy park creators building and enslaving conscious lower class beings for the entertainment of oppressive elites and personal profit, WestWorld invites a critique on capitalist systems and relational social injustices.
Nonetheless, this social rebellion is only one of the ideologies WestWorld navigates in its premiere episode “The Original.” In his essay “Prime Time Ideology: The Hegemonic Process in Television Entertainment,” Todd Gitlin describes the hegemonic ideological process applied to television, stating, “Commercial culture does not manufacture ideology; it relays and reproduces…ideology that is constantly arising from both social elites and from active social groups and movements throughout the society...to reproduce itself - and its internal conflicts - within its cultural order.” Applying this thinking to WestWorld, “The Originals” presents an overtly anti-capitalist message, but notably with gentle reinforcement of other ideological positions in line with the real-world status quo and the social elites of television manufacturers – or, those who benefit from a capitalist society much like the one the show critiques in order to maintain their advantageous societal position. By arguing between positive and negative ideological positions regarding capitalism and its resulting oppression, WestWorld reinforces the very system it scrutinizes by distracting audiences from their own oppression under a capitalist system, one that they would otherwise fight against if not for the allure of the safe rebellion of WestWorld.
While “The Original” presents Delos’ oppression of the hosts as unequivocally vile, the pilot depicts this suffering in a way that distracts audiences from the reality of their own oppression under a similar capitalist system by presenting alternative forms of oppression that appear too cruel for our own reality. This is seen as early as the opening sequence, where the pilot opens on a wide shot of the main character - a host named Dolores - naked and immobile in a chair with an empty gaze shot straight into the camera. In a vulnerable position and completely subservient to the voice of Bernard Lowe, developer of the hosts, Dolores is told that she cannot leave her role as park play-thing, which displays the grotesque control the corporation has over its population. The camera then zooms into Dolores’ eye, with the movement mimicking a literal pull of the audience's attention into the show while simultaneously placing the audience in Dolores’ perspective. The combination of this vile act of domination, Dolores’ dead stare at the audience and consuming camera movement thus represents the show’s attempt at hailing the viewer by connecting them with Dolores, with this hailing simultaneously inviting the audience into the ideological negotiations at play. Thus, the opening shot strengthens the episode’s capitalist critique by connecting the audience to Dolores - who is suffering at the hands of the elite - while also hailing the audience to become more subservient to its ideologies.
The remainder of the sequence builds a Western fantasy that, when it’s inevitably destroyed by the pilot’s end, leaves the audience horrified. After reuniting with her beloved Jack Flood, another host playing cowboy, Dolores learns that her father has been murdered by a rogue gang. Jack, ever the hero, kills the gang with ease. However, the victory is short lived as the true horror of the hosts’ oppression is revealed. It is not until this moment when the show exposes the reality of the hosts and the park they inhabit, with Lowe describing the hosts’ existence as a new antagonist approaches - The Man in Black. As the mysterious villain brutally kills Flood, Lowe states that hosts have no consciousness or agency and they only work to serve the elite guests who pay to be in the park. Having their memories wiped and programs reset every day, without the ability to act outside of their code to even “hurt a fly,” the hosts are the ultimate slaves to a capitalist system that uses their suffering as entertainment.
The capitalist critique is thus explicit at this moment due to the sheer horror of it all explained in dialogue, as well as displayed in its visuals. As Lowe reveals the dreadful nature of the hosts’ existence, Dolores is taken by The Man in Black. In a brutal close up, Dolores’ pained expression is captured to exploit the audience’s established sympathy with the heroine. Cut to a close-up of the dead Jack Flood, where in his eye we see the reflection of a wailing Dolores as she is raped and killed by the mysterious antagonist. She then unknowingly wakes up the next morning for another day of voluntary, systemic oppression. Meaning, the show depicts upper classes infinitely not just oppressing, but torturing those lower on the social ladder for entertainment and monetary gain, which recalls similar horrors of the audience’s lived reality. But when presented as terrifying as it is in WestWorld, the critique simultaneously works to distract viewers from their comparably better lived experiences. The episode’s opening thus presents the complicated hegemonic ideological negotiation at play – the viewer becomes enraged at, and terrified of, a system they are simultaneously made to forget.
However, WestWorld doesn’t only distract audiences from their real-world oppression by presenting a system worse than their own. It also does so by erasing the issue of racism and making sexism acceptable. For a show with an ideological problematic regarding systemic oppression of minorities, one would think it would decry such systemic issues. However, WestWorld is just as reductive in its presentation of feminist values as it is progressive, while also effacing the issue of racism as a whole in a way that maintains the viewers lived status quo. These negotiations become apparent when looking at the ideological framing of the Western genre, specifically in the show’s opening sequence.
When discussing how hegemonic ideologies exist in television, Giltin points out how genre transformations can be used to track social and ideological developments. Western genres remind audiences of traditional ideologies that are problematic, yet seen as a part of the status quo, such as racism and sexism. For example, many Western heroes were typically, and therefore acceptably, racist or sexist in nature. However, WestWorld’s take on the genre is different. By presenting the independent Dolores as the main character rebelling against a dominant system of oppression instead of a toxically masculine brute, the series ideologically challenges problematic representations seen in traditional Westerns. In this way, WestWorld holds merit in a feminist reading and reflects the progressive social changes made since the peak popularity of Westerns in the 40s-60s. However, due to the ideological framing of the Western, WestWorld is also able to present these feminist values comfortably alongside acceptable sexism that aligns with, and thus maintains, the status quo of the audience’s lived capitalist society.
Returning to the opening ten minutes of the pilot, this day-in-a-life for Dolores utilizes traditional Western aesthetics to place the audience in that world, which emphasizes the powerful change of having a rebellious female protagonist in a traditionally sexist genre. Banjos ambiently play in the background, a desaturated filter taints the screen for a worn aesthetic, and even the clichéd narrative of lost lovers Dolores and Flood reuniting with a familiar corny ride across the frontier makes an appearance. However, the presentation of feminist values is nullified when the show’s Western aesthetic is combined with the overt level of oppression faced by the hosts. Firstly, Dolores may be raped and killed on a routine basis, but this oppression is, as implied by WestWorld, not due to her status as a female, but her status as a host, thus mitigating the impact of sexism as a legitimate social injustice. The ideological framework of the traditional Western then aids in making the audience accept the blatant sexism on screen in light of the “more severe” oppression faced by the androids. However, the show does not erase sexism as it does with race. Elite guests are routinely seen dominating female hosts, but instead of being a terrifying sight for the audience and a result of an oppressive capitalist structure, it is positioned as inevitable within the Western setting. In this way, the pilot uses the Western genre as an ideological framework to present feminist values on the surface while simultaneously conditioning the viewer to accept real-world sexism in light of the hosts’ oppression.
A similar tactic is used to efface inequalities regarding race. Frequently throughout the episode, black patrons are seen acting alongside their white counterparts with ease, which is out of place for a Western. In one particular scene, two patrons, one black and one white, assumed wealthy by their position as newcomers, comment on Flood’s uncanniness, noting that if they get bored they could use the host as target practice. Meaning, Flood’s life is presented as being less meaningful than a bullet, further bolstering the capitalist critique. However, when this line is stated by a black character to a white-passing cowboy in a Western setting, the ideological complications reveal themselves. Again, WestWorld manages to convince its audience that the real-world oppression faced by a historically repressed demographic is light in comparison to those faced by the hosts, and is thus accepted by the audience. Much in the way the show frames sexism as preferable to other forms of oppression, racism is a non-sequitur in comparison to the horrific existence of the android victims. By having black characters in positions of oppressive power within the framework of the historically racist Western, WestWorld presents a world that is beyond racism, with the larger issue at hand being the oppression faced by the white-passing hosts. So, the mixed ideologies of social rebellion are placed alongside the effacement of racism and acceptability of sexism, which aligns with the maintenance of the social status quo by subliminally reproducing and reinforcing dominant ideologies.
WestWorld is thus able to prevent the same social upheaval it displays in its main narrative by erasing real-world social inequalities that audiences would desire to rebel against. On the other hand, “The Originals” also keeps audiences from performing social rebellion not by hiding revolt, but hinting at its potential, thus allowing for the vicarious release of those rebellious desires. This ideological analysis of “The Originals” draws on the notion of television as a means of control posited by Adorno and Horkheimer in their seminal essay “The Culture Industry: Entertainment as Mass Enlightenment,” as well as Marx’s concept of false consciousness. However, incorporating these ideas within a hegemonic framework reveals the depth of the ideological negotiation at play in WestWorld’s pilot - by presenting alternative ideologies alongside a vicarious rebellion against the system, “The Originals” is able to appease, and thereby stunt, the rebellious audience’s desire for social change while disguising itself as progressive.
This vicarious release is best demonstrated in the pilot’s closing scene, where the episode returns to its opening to reveal how Dolores landed in that position. Only when it is confirmed that she will stay in line is she sent back into the falsified Western, where in the episode’s closing moments, the potential for rebellion is presented by Dolores swatting a fly before cutting to black. The camera lingers on the smiling Dolores, unaware of the influence her act of agency has on the world of the show and the audience. This moment teases the viewer, as after an hour of being aligned with the victim, a fleeting glimpse at freedom not just for, but enacted by, our heroine leaves audiences feeling triumphant and ready for more. Maybe, WestWorld posits, social change can be made, but only if the viewer keeps watching. In other words, the promise of rebellion against an oppressive system keeps the viewer firmly situated in front of the television, passively accepting their own oppression in a system like the one presented on screen. WestWorld thus brings to life Adorno, Horkheimer and Marx’s theories, as well as Giltin’s assertion that hegemonic ideological processes maintain the status quo by domesticating alternative ideologies held by audiences.
In this way, WestWorld provides an answer to Gitlin’s framing question for his essay, “Why do workers oppose socialism?” The answer, as demonstrated in WestWorld’s ideological negotiation within its pilot episode, is that it convinces the audience that the reality of capitalism is manageable compared to the fiction the audience has been hailed into. By becoming subject to the television through ideological positioning of genre and point of view, the audience becomes entranced by the alternative ideologies presented, feels relieved by the rebellion taking place on screen, and therefore becomes forgetful of the oppression in their lived experience. By distracting the audience from reality, WestWorld maintains the real-world illusion of a capitalist society where the viewer is not also the oppressed.