Interpellation

Overview

Interpellation is a theory used to describe how communication can be used to hail someone into an assigned role. Louis Althusser created interpellation and it has been used and interpreted by many scholars following including Judith Butler.This definition of Interpellation will give a social justice definition. It will be looking at how interpellation is used to further oppress people within popular culture and the media.

Historical Context

Althusser uses hailing a police officer and the law to express how interpellation works. The law is the staging of a subject’s call into being. A person on the street is hailed by a police officer. The officer recognizes him or herself in the call and turns to an agent of the law.The process of interpellation is embedded in the materiality of social rituals. Interpellation allows the subject to be imbedded in ideology by the response to the hail.

In his central thesis, Althusser notes that ideology interpellates individuals as subjects and reveals that interpellation works in two complementary engagements. First, interpellation occurs within an individual subjectivity and secondly, interpellation is a process set in motion in an encounter between subjects. . Thus, when looking at how the media interpellates individuals as certain subjects, Althusser’s second point is being illustrated – that interpellation is relational. Althusser notes that we “constantly practice this ritual of ideological recognition, which guarantees for us that we are indeed concrete, individual, distinguishable and (naturally) irreplaceable subjects” . He is saying that since a person’s sense of being is tied to interpellation, it is also key in ensuring social stability. Another point raised by Althusser is the notion that upon interpellation, the subject is an always-already subject . "Always" notes a structural relation while "Already" refers to an action in the past: therefore, Always-already refers to the structural relation that has already defined us. We can infer from this statement that if subjectivity is always-already, the construction of subjectivity is critically dependent on engaging with an external source. Thus, interpellation is relationally contingent and therefore an unending process – like a dialogue between positioning and being positioned.

Media Example

The Tyra Banks Show is known for hosting ‘controversial’ guests such as Isis King, who identifies as a transwoman. Tyra asks her guests intimate questions about their sexuality, genitalia, and surgical procedures they’ve had done. Interpellation is used here by the questions Tyra asks her guests. In 2008, Trya hosted Isis King, a former model on Tyra's reality television show, America’s Next Top Model. Tyra asked Isis questions about her experiences and resilience as a trans model. She also asked her personal questions such as “do you still have the parts?” She asked her when she realized she was “different”. In this interview, interpellation is used to illustrate that Isis is not of the norm in both the model industry and in North American society. In a later show, Tyra invited Isis and her new boyfriend after Isis received her gender reassignment surgery. In this interview, Tyra asked Isis questions about looking at her body post-operation and how she feels now that “her journey is complete”. By saying this, Tyra suggested that Isis could not be fully female, or as ‘complete’ as her peers before her genitals matched her gender. By asking her questions like this, Tyra suggested that Isis has to share updated information about her surgery in order for the public to view her as a ‘real woman’. On the show, Tyra invited Isis’ boyfriend to join them on stage. She told him that she had to ask him a question because she knew all of the viewers were thinking about it before asking him if he is gay or bisexual, as he is dating Isis. Isis’ boyfriend went on to say that he is straight because he is dating a woman. Tyra assumed first that Isis’ boyfriend must be gay or bisexual without even asking if he identified as heterosexual. Interpellation works here as Tyra hailed Isis’ boyfriend to pronounce his sexuality. She hailed him into a non-normative role, before he answered her question, as she assumed he was not heterosexual. Although Isis’ boyfriend identifies as heterosexual, he was viewed outside of the norm as Tyra introduced his sexuality as questionable because he was dating a transwoman.

Isis King and Boyfriend on Tyra Banks Show [1]

Relevance

Interpellation is a theory that helps us understand how people are called into their identity through communicative interactions. The interview between Tyra Banks and Isis King is a relevant example of how interpellation is used to further cultural ideologies about gender and sexuality. Tyra asks questions that call her guests into being. She hails them as oppressed and hails herself as their oppressor. This is easily understood by comparing her interview with any other interview with a person who may or may not have had any cosmetic surgery. Cultural ideologies ‘allow’ us to question trans people about their ‘experience’. This forces them to identify as outside of the norm, answering personal, intimate details about themselves. In her lecture "Cultural Criticism and Transformation", Bell Hooks states that studying the media helps make theory relevant to our everyday lives. The Tyra Banks Show interviews are important, as they are current examples of how interpellation is used in the media, in front of a wide audience. It also helps us understand how interpellation is used in everyday communication.