Thursday, March 25, 2010
post 3
I found the concept on cultures being interesting. Specifically the concept about cultures being shared. According to Trenholm, "Cultures are group understandings rather than individual ones, and belonging to a culture means acting according to group norms" (p. 344). I consider my group of friends a particular sub-culture. We all call our group "The Burn-outs". Whatever we do, we do it hard and end up passing out everywhere. We are all always trying to recover from something we did the night before. We have even made jokes about documenting our burned out lives. I adore my culture with my friends. But I am also apart of another culture that I don't necessarily agree with. The culture of America. The pressure to be pretty, to make money, to go to school and get good grades, and the pressure to please others. According to Trenholm, "Indeed, we spend a good deal of time proving who we are and living up to the expectations of others"(p. 344). This is a sad but true notion in a lot of cultures. If one does something wrong that isn't considered culturally acceptable, they get reprimanded for it. It makes me question how free we really are in America.
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I thought the quote “we spend a good deal of time proving who we are and living up to the expectations of others"(p. 344) was interesting and glad you brought it up in your post. I think Americans spend way too much time proving to others who they are and trying to live up to others expectations. Being a woman, you are expected to finish high school, go to college, excel in your major and get a decent job, while at the same time meet Mr. Right and have his babies before your biological clock stops ticking, raise the munchkins and put dinner on the table all at the same time. You also have to look fabulous doing this, be a certain size, look a certain way, and be emotionally stable. I do also think men have a lot of pressure as well, especially in the working department, but women have more expectations to fill. And once we grow up and fill other people’s expectations, we finally realize that certain things don’t make us happy. I hope I figure these things out before I am on my death bed.
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