Week Three Blog!
The concept of material power is power at its simplest and somewhat most barbaric form. Material power revolves around the belief that a person is only as strong and commanding as the amount of money and material objects he or she owns. The magnitude of a person’s power also includes the number of people that ruler has working below him. When material power was introduced by Karl Marx, he spoke of power only in respect to white men. I included women when talking about material power for a more appropriate look to today’s standards, but Marx and his followers thought that men where better and stronger than women.
Material power operates through norms in the sense of the corporate industry in today’s world. Sadly many people buy or cheat their way to the top of corporations with a lot of hard work. Most of the time, men are the presidents or CEO’s of businesses and then their strength is afterwords based on how many workers they have and how much money they rake in. Then the respect they earn from peers is based upon the house(s) they have or the cars they drive.
I think material power is best shown in the corporate world because it’s the most cutthroat part of businesses and usually men are the normal dominators, and they become consumed with materials and dominating. This actually keeps the traditional role of men alive even today because in the sense of doing gender men are strong, intelligent, and aggressive in the work force. Most of the time it is very hard for a women to make it to the top or even near it because right away they are stereotyped as weak and not qualified to be a main operator because they are a woman.