Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Question 1
I definitely agree with Ruth Benedict that we are "creatures of our culture". Before a child is even born we can now determine the gender of the baby. Many people decorate the rooms in stereotypical gender like colors. Everyone knows that boys get blue things and girls get pink things. This is something that is apart of cour culture creates our beliefs about boys being more masculine and girls being more feminine. In other cultures the gender is important as well, but they don't have a sense of masculinity or femininity. As we get older we all learn what is considered culturally right and what is considered culturally wrong. I partake in a lot of things in my culture that are considered normal, but I also have this sense of rebellion against my culture. For example in the California culture there is a so much pressure to be skinny, pretty and tan. I tend to do little things to rebel against this part of our culture because I don't agree with the pressure to be attractive to other men. It seems like in our culture personality comes last and the pressure to be cute matters more. This is just one of the many ways we can break the cultural patterns. A lot of people are to scared to break cultural norms because our culture makes it scary. If one doesn't conform, they could risk being made fun of or getting a certain job.
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Hi Ray-Ray
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post. I think you tied in the information from the book and you gave interesting exampled that apply to your own life. I really liked your example of gender because I think gender is something that society is obsessed with. You have to be a boy or a girl, there is no in between and no switching. If people don't follow the gender norms in society they are ridiculed and face a backlash. I shop at Babies R Us a lot because I have a seven month old son and the store is divided, the left side has boy clothing and the right side has girl clothing. There is one part of the store that has a combination of boy and girls clothing and it feels confusing and it is not the way I am used to shopping for clothes, because everything is always separated. I also think it is really great that you try to be different and not conform to all the ridiculous expectation we have in society!
Blue Moon
Hi Ray Ray
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy your post and I too agreed on we are the creation of our own culture. I think you gave a good example about gender because that is something very obvious in our society. We always behave according to how the society wants us to behave and most of the time we don’t question about these gender behaviors. It seems very natural within our surroundings. However, as we get older, we learn to differentiate what is considered right or wrong, therefore, I can totally relate to you when you said you are somewhat rebellion against your culture. I sometimes feel the same way. For example, I would get angry when my grandfather tells me I should get marry to a guy early instead of earning money on my own.
-Sogo
Ray Ray,
ReplyDeleteI liked reading your post this week and I also agreed that we are "creature of our culture" as Ruth Benedict said. As you pointed out, there is definitely separate gender expectations in American culture. I too find the whole tanning thing to be ridiculous. I'll admit that I like to get some color during the summer, but I'm naturally super pale and have dark brown hair. It's not meant to be unless I want a bad sunburn. Women are also expected to be pretty and feminine. Again, of course it's nice to be pretty but who feels gorgeous on the outside every day? It's an impossible standard to live up to. Despite the things we don't like about conforming to culture, I do think it's a good and often necessary thing. If we didn't conform to culture in some ways, we would probably have chaos and it would be difficult to understand the world. Conforming is partly what makes culture exist at all.