Orange is the New Black, Season 2, Episode 11 (minute 43:40- 44:50)

Title: Orange is the New Black, Season 2, Episode 11 (minute 43:40-44:50)
Tags: Freedom of expression, Neoliberalism, Power relations, Dimensions of power, Over and covert power, Subjective interests, Decision making
Authors: Maria Cely, Lauren Sherman, Jessica Bonnett
Date: March 23rd, 2015

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This clip, located in season two, episode eleven of Orange is the New Black, illustrates Luke’s three dimensions of power and is briefly associated with Chomsky’s illusions to neoliberalism. The scene takes place in an episode where the prisoners are practicing what they believe to be their “right” to free speech through creating and distributing a newsletter and participating in a hunger strike.

In this extract it is possible to observe how one-dimensional power takes place with the decision making of the character Figueroa. She is the decision maker of the prison and decides to take away the freedom of speech within the prison by suppressing the newsletter that was being published and not allowing the inmates to make hunger strike posters. Figueroa states her decision very clearly and loudly, making it an overt decision on an overt subject, which is ultimately for a subjective reason. The reason behind the banning of freedom of speech is to maintain the prison’s reputation, but ultimately the reputation of her and her husband. Nevertheless, Figueroa justifies her actions by whispering to Caputo that she is a defender of women.

Luke’s two-dimensional power is manifest in two ways by the prisoners. One is the hunger strike practiced by the nun, Soso, and the yoga teacher. Their decision not to eat represents an attempt to display that they still have control over their own bodies. They mainly participate in the hunger strike to bring awareness to key issues that satisfy their subjective interests and well-being. Soso is doing it to maintain her values after she was forced to take a shower, while the yoga teacher is rebelling against Shoe being used as a punishment and the nun is doing it in response to her old friend being thrown out on the street to die. In addition to the hunger strike, Piper has started a prison newsletter that serves as a source of covert power of the prisoners who post their own articles and cartoons, making fun of those who have power over them as a sort of an inside joke.

            The third power dimension is represented throughout this scene when observing the prisoners’ actions and reactions. They set an agenda of what they want to see and what they want to be changed in the prison through a newsletter. This agenda setting is prompted by their assumption of still being in a neoliberal atmosphere, where they have freedoms of speech and expression, but they soon realize that these articulations of neoliberal policies are no longer recognized in prison. Their freedoms have been stripped from them, including rights over their own bodies. This latent conflict shows that the prisoners’ backgrounds and cultures have led them to believe that they have these rights and freedoms, while Figueroa quickly shows them that they do not within the prison walls. The interest of freedom of speech is real, and the prisoners are fighting for this objective interest to fulfill their own subjective interests afterwards.