Hegemony
In the 19th century, hegemony came to denote the "Social or cultural predominance or ascendancy; predominance by one group within a society or milieu". Later, it could be used to mean "a group or regime which exerts undue influence within a society". Also, it could be used for the geopolitical and the cultural predominance of one country over others, from which was derived "hegemonism", as in the idea that the Great Powers meant to establish European hegemony over Asia and Africa.
Hegemonic masculinity
Early criticisms of the concept raised the question of who actually represents hegemonic masculinity. Many men who hold great social power do not embody an ideal masculinity. Martin criticizes the concept for leading to inconsistent applications sometimes referring to a fixed type and other times to whatever the dominant form is. Wetherell and Edley contend this concept fails to specify what conformity to hegemonic masculinity actually looks like in practice. Similarly Whitehead suggests there is confusion over who actually is a hegemonically masculine man. Inspired by Gramsci's differentiation between hegemony as a form of ideological consent and dominance as an expression of conflict Groes-Green has argued that when hegemonic masculinities are challenged in a society dominant masculinities are emerging based on bodily powers, such as violence and sexuality, rather than based on economic and social powers. Through examples from his fieldwork among youth in Maputo, Mozambique he shows that this change is related to social polarization, new class identities and the undermining of breadwinner roles and ideologies in a neoliberal economy.