Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Culture Analysis

Blog #5


Over the course of this project, I found it very interesting to analyze my own culture while existing in it.  I would like to say that now I am more aware, and less vulnerable to media and cartoons now, yet I can’t say that anything will change.  The fact of the matter is that us humans can’t help but give in to these advertisements and cartoons.  We will always want that perfect complexion from a face-wash commercial, or those perfectly cooked, mouthwatering, 98-cent burgers from McDonalds.   Whether we accept it or not, Cartoons have successfully shaped our outlook on the majority of social groups.  However, as a child you don’t realize what is happening, before it is too late.  The media purposely has beautiful actresses and muscular men to make us associate that look of perfection with their product. The human mind is naturally designed to attract to perfection, which is why advertisements are so successful in taking advantage of the human’s wallet.  These same advertisements tell us what we should wear, and how we should appear.  The media creates these gender roles that we must go along with, and if you rebel, you will be penalized by humiliation. 

I found that stores form their own atmospheres by attracting specific demographics.  By singling out a specific group, they are empowering them.  Naturally, this causes the group to want to shop there because their attraction to power.  Also, people are attracted to other people that are exactly like themselves. People change their behavior depending on who they are with. The dynamics can change quickly depending on the place at hand.  This is the connection between cultural spaces and physical places. 

Why do we have to give in to the social norm?  Why must we fit into the world, and play into gender roles that the media encourages us to?  So that we are not humiliated and so we look like everyone around us? “I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine." ( Henry David Thoreau, "Civil Disobedience”)

1 comment:

  1. Yay, Thoreau! But what does this mean? How will you be a counter-friction, if that's what you're arguing? And what is the breaking point with humiliation? Can a person resist a little bit, and bear a certain about of humiliation in the name of social progress--or not? Or does it depend upon the cultural space?
    I quite like the idea of cultural spaces as being places of empowerment. That's a tremendous observation, and one well-worth expanding on in the future if the opportunity arises.

    ReplyDelete