Hegemonic Moral Values and the Marquis de Sade

Nearly every group suffered at one point in time: Romans fed Christians to lions for entertainment; Nazis killed Jews, gays, and the handicapped en masse; Americans white landowners enslaved blacks--the informed reader might cite myriad instances throughout human history when a particular community suffered at the hands of another. In "Border Crossing" David Sibley, writing primarily about recent events in both Britain and in the U.S.A., references numerous "manifestations of deep antagonism within society, for example between adults and teenagers, blacks and whites, heterosexuals and homosexuals," (273.) Why after so much time does this antagonism still exist? Sibley suggests that moral boundaries are at the root of the troubles (272.) Intolerance between groups grows when a particular group's moral boundaries become hegemonic, such as white, heterosexual, Judeo-Christian values became in both the U.S.A. and Western Europe--any individual or community that does not fit within the aforementioned description experiences discrimination from the hegemonic community. Brent Staples, an American black man, exemplifies this discrimination in his short story, "Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space," just as the Marquis de Sade, an eighteenth century French prisoner, exemplifies the inversion of hegemonic morals in 120 Days of Sodom--discrimination however, remains.

Certain communities possess certain moral values that cause the hegemonic community to feel threatened. What are those certain values and why does the hegemonic community feel threatened? The ascendant values des temps in the U.S.A. and throughout Western Europe are white, heterosexual, Judeo-Christian. Sibley asserts that t...

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... a moral ascendancy (by whatever means) over another group that possesses different values. The ascendant community then exerts a hegemonic influence and discriminates against other "different" communities in effort to quash any threat to its sovereignty. These discriminations manifest themselves in various forms: racism, religious intolerance, sexual intolerance, etc. Hegemony and the human desire therefor make solutions to the problem of antagonism between groups a very unlikely prospect indeed.

Works cited:

Sade, Marquis de. 120 Days of Sodom. New York: Grove Press, 2001

Sibley, David. "Border Crossings." The Urban Frontier. Ed. Thomas Finn. Boston: Emerson College, 2003

Staples, Brent. "Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Ability to Alter Public Space." The Urban Frontier. Ed. Thomas Finn. Boston: Emerson College, 2003