Reflection on Pop Culture #4

With the chapter being on pop culture, I feel like those of us in America really understand how negative our pop culture is, and how it makes up appear to other places in the world. Here, to be skinny to the point of it damaging health is considered beauty. Why is that? Looking back at other pop culture fads from historical times, people did crazy things to “be beautiful and in style.” 

In medieval England, being a plump woman signified having enough food to eat, which indicated wealth and good health for childbearing in women. Also, having pale alabaster colored skin indicated high class women, as the laborers of the fields were tanned from being in the sun all day. Go to the 1950’s for example, Bridget Bardot, a famous model, took the trend of pale skin, and spent much time lying on the beach getting a sun-tan. When she did photo-shoots then in her “scandalous” two piece bikini, women saw her tan, slim figure, and ever since, slim and tan has become the “beautiful” look for the last 75 years. 

At least the women who stayed inside all day and ate had better health, than the women of today who put their lives on the line, from skin cancer, to near starvation with eating disorders to be “beautiful.” Look at any "high fashion" runway in the world. The models are all slim as can be, with the younger looking girls being the focus. Many are so slim, that they do not even have womanly curves because of the anorexia and binge-purging lifestyles to stay thin.

Who defines beauty? What a beautiful person looks like? Who shows the nation ideas of what “beauty” really is? The media and pop culture, they poison the minds of young girls and set them up for a lifetime of feeling inadequate and ugly. Pop culture should promote “healthy” women and not skin &bones for fashion. 

American pop culture is flawed, and any culture who believes they should follow our media is entirely wrong. Health should never be sacrificed for beauty!

Reflection #3

In “Jihad v McWorld” the author Benjamin Barber strongly compares the struggle of Jihad to the popular culture of the McWorld. These ideologies are far from similar, with Jihad being resistance to pop culture, while McWorld is all about their same ideals being spread worldwide. If you look, McDonald's is located in over 100 different countries, and not only that, they have more than 36,000 restaurants. They are taking over the world seemingly, and the “Jihad” resistance-struggle is resisting this mainstream takeover.

To individuals who strongly believe in their culture, this drastic shift from individuality, to the mainstream forced culture is unwelcome. From American and other western countries, we push our very different culture and way of life on many other nations who are very dissimilar to ours. The media is very destructive tool, forcing ideals of American-ology being the best for people, but in reality, is that true? We have so many of our own political and social/race problems that we leave unsolved, from prejudices and hate crimes, we are a national many of thousands of cultures, that “add a little bit of flair to the salad” whereas Jihadists extremists I believe generally have one cultural background that they focus upon. We can not push western culture on countries who do not want any part of it. 

Reflection on Promises

       In class we had watched the documentary "Promises" about the children growing up in the city quarters of Jerusalem, and how the different religions of the children affected their daily lives. To me, it seemed very sad to see these children place so much hatred upon each other, and how they spoke so many violent words about death to those not of their religion. To me, this seemed like a type of ethnocentrism, but from the religious aspect, not race. Religion in the holy land has always been a struggle. 

       With  the tensions exhibited by these young kids, it really worried me for the future of these nations. With all the hatred towards the orthodox Jews, non-strict Jews, Muslims and other religious groups, they are setting their children and grandchildren up for decades more unrest and bias, and also many years more of violence and bombing on buses and shootings in the streets. 

     

To try and fix this, the producers of this documentary traveled to the Holy City, and began integrating ideas of intercultural communication with the children in hopes of removing the walls of distrust for members of the other groups so that hopefully someday, these kids would grow up, have kids of their own, and pass along ideas that people of other faiths truly aren’t as evil as their adults have perceived them to be. 

Erika Beedle Reflection #6

Erika Beedle

Comm 211

Reflection #6

            My freshman year in high school I watched a documentary titled “Promises,” and my freshman year in college in my Intercultural Communications class I watched it again.  Both times I watched the documentary I asked myself the same question; why has this problem not been fixed yet?  If both the Arabs and Jews just simply talk to each other, progress could be made.  As I watched this documentary in high school I remember feeling sad for these young children and how this problem affected everything about their life.  But after a few years, I forgot about this documentary and the children.

            As I watch it four years later those same feelings of sadness come back to mind.  I started thinking about how in those past four years since I last watched the documentary how my life has changed.  I have graduated high school, starting college, and America has its first black President.  What has happened to those children in the documentary? How has the conflict between the Arabs and Jews impacted their adult lives?  In Nepal this summer it was amazing to me that the Buddhists and Hindus live together in peace.  Both of these religions impact the daily lives of their followers, similar to Muslim and Judaism.  After thinking about our class discussions is when I began to ponder the power of intercultural communications.  The people of Nepal, both Hindu and Buddhist, live, learn, and prosper through communication.  Little things, such as getting children together to play soccer can go a long way.  I do not know what has happened to those children in the documentary but I hope they share their intercultural experience with others and increase communication between the religions. 

Reflection #6

Audrey Beedle

COMM 211 – Reflection 6

            I remember watching the documentary “Promises” awhile back in middle school.  At the time, I was a little younger, and although I understood the general idea of the story, I don’t think it really hit me until watching it again at a slightly older age with more experiences and insight.  I really appreciated and took notice of the carefully ordered clips in the film; the creator was very intentional in how he portrayed this conflict in Israel.  It started out as showing these very likeable, young children, some Arab, and others Jewish.  They all seemed very friendly and easy to talk to.  You wanted to be on their side and you assumed they were just innocent children.  Then, as you get to know the children a little better, it is clear that they have very strong opinions that are influenced by their families and surroundings everyday.  Many of these children were more articulate than the average American adult when speaking about their country’s history, religion, and current territorial conflict.  It was truly shocking to hear the words come out of their mouths, as if they’ve heard it said millions of times before.  They are what seem to be, “trained,” to recite the story of their ancestors and family members, who lived through the conflict and violent times of war over the land.  Both the Arabs and the Jews feel that the land is rightfully theirs. 

            The most frightening/shocking thing about the film was the desire for violent vengeance from these children.  A few of them had peaceful natures, and wanted to meet with the other children in order to solve the dispute by communicating and befriending one another, in order to peacefully share the land.  At the same time, other children were threatening to kill the opposite group, refused to meet them, and continued to explain why the land was “theirs.”  The film made me very thankful for my country.  For the ability we have had to live among people with drastically different views, beliefs, and cultural backgrounds, relatively peacefully for many years.  Of course, the United States is not perfect, and religious/cultural intolerance are a real issues that affect people today, but most Americans are not living in constant fear and desire for retaliation against their neighbors.  I am extremely grateful for this.

Reflection #6

As we have already covered popular culture and communication, I decided to reflect about the documentary, "Living On One Dollar." I was not in class the day the documentary was shown, but I watched it on my own and was amazed. I have witnessed cultures and poverty similar to the village they lived in in Guatemala, but I have never truly experienced that poverty. These men spent their whole summer living to understand what life is like truly living on one dollar a day. They figured out the economic system, tried to grow their own crops for sustenance, and talked about the different loan systems used to help support communities. Prior to watching this film, I was aware of what micro-finance loans were and have given Kiva loans, but I have never truly thought about the impact these loans have on businesses. Micro-finance systems truly are the only hope for small businesses to start and survive in many parts of the world. Unlike many forms of charity, micro-finance loans allow individuals to receive assistance and then take responsibility to create something for themselves. When an individual pays back a loan, they get to feel the satisfaction of being self-sustainable. This film opened my eyes up to the impact micro-finance loans and other global resources can have on families across the world. It's incredibly easy for many Americans to give a $20 loan, and when people come together for a common cause, that all adds up and great things can be done. I strongly admire the college men in this documentary that risked their lives to better understand the lives of others. Through their experience, they learned that though their cultures and economic circumstances are different, they shared similar values with the people in Guatemala. This is one of the foundations of intercultural communication. I thoroughly enjoyed this film, and the next time I make a Kiva loan, I will think more about the impact that is having on the individual and family.

Chapter 6

Reflection

Language plays an important role in intercultural communication, but it is also a barrier of communication when people do not speak the same language.  The nominalist position is the view that perception is not shaped by the particular language one speaks. The relativist position on the other hand is the view that the particular language individuals speak, especially the structure of language, shapes their perception of reality and cultural patterns. The qualified relativist position is the view that the particular language we speak influences our perception but does not completely determine our perception.

There are types of ways in which we communicate, high context and low context. High context communication is a style of communication in which much of the information is contained in the texts and nonverbal cues rather than expressed explicitly in words. Low context communication is the style of communication in which much of the information is conveyed in words instead of nonverbal communication.

When communicating we often tend to use slangs. Slangs are an informal way for communicating and we often only use it to selective groups or individuals we feel comfortable around. An example of this would be the fact that I use slangs “sup” when talking to close friends and I would refrain from slangs when talking to someone like my lecturers.

In a community like Lincoln Nebraska there can be many different languages spoken but there is usually one language which is dominant that everybody can understand. For example English. This language will be known as the Lingua Franca.