How Come…..? Culture is so taken for granted that we
seldom question our behaviors, values, and norms… even the most simple ones?
“The last thing a fish notices is the water”
CULTURE How come……..
When you’re driving down the road…..
When someone comes behind you…..
When Dr. H walks up and ……
CULTURE Learned set of beliefs, values, and norms
Creation of culture is universal phenomenon but the form it takes is not
Changes can be internal and external
Cultural Universals• Cultural Universals are customs and
practices that occur across all societies.• Examples:
– Appearance (bodily adornment, hairstyles)– Activities (sports, dancing, games, joking)– Social institutions (family, law, religion)– Practices (cooking, folklore, gift giving)
Material – the “stuff” (Jewelry, Fashion, Weapons of War,
Technology)
An expression of …… Symbolic Non-Material Beliefs, Norms, Values
Symbolic shapes and is sometimes shaped by material culture
Beliefs or ideologies…. How we think the world operates “meritocracy” – Monopoly game (material
expression) Values….. Our moral blueprint – what we hold dear
http://Strange and harmful cutlural practices
Other American Values? Achievement Religiosity Individualism Education Work Ethic Romantic Love Efficiency Democracy Rationalization Personal Freedom Material Comfort Equality Progress Humanitarianism
Value Contradictions and Social Change
It is precisely at the point of value contradictions, then, that one can see
a major force for social change in a society.
Often leads to Culture wars – social upheaval
Norms Folkways – informal -- violation is minimal Texting in class? Airplane Travel? Mores – moral component -- violation might be
severe Smartphones and cheating? Laws – formalized and enforced Taboos – most important -- violation causes
repulsion
Nature Versus Nurture Sociability Intelligence Sensitive hands Vocality Eyesight Upright posture Instincts
What instincts do we have?
Instincts versus Innate behaviors Reflexive behaviors
Instincts
Innate capacities
Symbols Change over time…..
Old Symbol
New Symbol
Has given way to ????
What is “consumer culture” in the U.S. ?
Powerful marketing convinces us to buy things we would not normally purchase
The manufacturing of desire??
Advertising Culture: The average person is
exposed to more than 3,000 ads per day….
Why is cash no longer popular? No plastic? No service
Take a guess at the following….. What are the main causes of credit card
default? A. divorce/loss of loved one, loss of job,
health care B. over spending, depression, loss of job C. Depression, divorce, over spending D. None of the above
Postmodernism & Consumer Culture
Cultural Leveling – the ‘McDonaldization of Society” -- more sectors of society are adopting the principles of fast-food restaurants – also seen as the Americanization of culture
Credit cards are our tools of consumption 3.5 billion letters per year to solicit new
consumers 83 percent of college students have at least one
and average debt is almost $3,000
Consumer Culture and Credit….. Credit card companies now control debit
cards too. They consider those who pay off their credit
cards at the end of the month as “deadbeats” - Why might this be the case?
Postmodernism? An eclectic blending of facets of culture
old/new, east/west, high/low Globalization
Cultural Lag -- material and non-material move at different pace
Components of McDonaldization Efficiency, such as a drive-through windows, ready-made
fast-food is meant to get us in and out fast.
Calculability is emphasis on large quantities, e.g., Big Mac, Whopper or Biggie Fries – mass production
Predictability - people don't like surprises, and at chains they know what to expect: A Big Mac tastes the same in Syracuse as in Salt Lake City.
Control -- options are limited to force customers through –also includes replacing human workers with machines, which are much easier than humans to manage.
Information Overload?? Advertising…… Are we swimming in a sea of messages??
“copywriters, market researchers, pollsters, consultants, and even linguists—most of whom work for one of six giant companies—spend billions of dollars and millions of man-hours trying to determine how to persuade consumers what to buy, whom to trust, and what to think. Increasingly, these techniques are migrating to the high-stakes arena of politics, shaping policy and influencing how Americans choose their leaders.” pbs--frontline
Charlie and FidoWho is superior?
“You are so in my spot!!”
Culture has two faces…. It can allow us to exercise our freedoms
But because it is so taken for granted…. It can also constrain us and we never even
realize it.
“Beauty” always refers to
the female body
“What are the norms for feminine beauty?
Do your ideas coincide? Differ?
How did this happen?
Culture told us to do it
How does it stay this way?
We’ve embodied those images
If Barbie Was Real.. Height 7’2”
Measurement 40-22-36 Weight 83 lbs / 50 lbs would be her breasts
Neck would be twice as long as a normal human
If real, she could not menstruate because she would not have enough body fat
Average Woman in America -- 5’4” 60% wear size 12 or higher
Average Mannequin 6’ 34-22-34 Size 6
“To men a man is but a mind. Who cares what face he carries or what he wears? But woman's body is the woman.”
Ambrose Bierce (1958)
Why is it that…… Attractiveness is a prerequisite for
femininity -- but not for masculinity or this changing too????
Would you go through physical torture to achieve attractiveness?
You would not be the first to do so…..
Questions Would you consider cosmetic surgery for
yourself?
31% women 20% men said yes 27% 18 to 24 years old said yes to now or
in the future 27% white 24% non-white
Percentage change 2010 vs. 2009 13.1 million cosmetic procedures 5% • 1.6 million cosmetic surgical
procedures 2% • 11.6 million cosmetic minimally-
invasive procedures 5% 5.3 million reconstructive procedures
2%http://www.plasticsurgery.org/Documents/news-resources/statistics/2010-statisticss/Top-Level/2010-US-cosmetic-reconstructive-plastic-surgery-minimally-invasive-statistics2.pdf
Overall, women have 91 percent of cosmetic procedures number of surgical and nonsurgical procedures performed on women was more than 10.6 million, an increase of 1 percent over 2006. Surgical procedures increased by 9 percent in women in 2007, while nonsurgical procedures decreased by less than 1 percent.
But men are jumping on the cosmetic surgery bandwagon in droves. In fact, men had 9 percent of cosmetic procedures in 2007, with the number of total procedures (both surgical and nonsurgical) increasing 17 percent over 2006, to just over 1 million. Surgical procedures increased 5 percent, and nonsurgical procedures increased 21 percent.
Source:http://www.yourplasticsurgeryguide.com/trends/charts-graphs.htm
Americans spent nearly $10 billion on cosmetic procedures in 2011. Of that total, $6.2 billion was spent on surgical procedures; $1.7 billion was spent on injectable procedures; $1.6 billion was spent on skin rejuvenation procedures; and over $360 million was spent on other nonsurgical procedures such as laser hair removal.
Women had almost 8.4 million procedures in 2011, while men had almost 800,000 during the same year. Male plastic surgery has increased by more than 121 percent since 1997.
Source: http://www.yourplasticsurgeryguide.com/trends/asaps-2011.htm
In 2011, the top five surgical procedures were:
Liposuction Breast augmentation Tummy tuck (abdominoplasty) Eyelid surgery Breast lift
Top five Cosmetic – minimally Invasive BOTox Soft tissue fillers Chemical Peels Laser Hair Removal Microdermabrasion
Food Poisoning? Sales of Botox grew "at double the rate at
constant currency internationally than in the United States." Botox sales rose 18 percent to $315.5 million, while eye-care pharmaceuticals sales increased 22 percent, to $492.2 million. Medical devices sales rose 23 percent to $203.4 million, with obesity intervention sales up 36 percent and facial aesthetics sales up 24 percent.
Source: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080507/earns_allergan.html
A sampling of 2,000 girls, with an average age of 15, found that 42 percent have considered getting plastic surgery.
The number of cosmetic surgery procedures has jumped a whopping 457 percent since ASAPS first began gathering these stats in 1997.
Chinese foot binding –
the first historical example of objectification and first sign of norms that
demanded conformity. “golden lotus”
Torture or Fashion?
Painful Memories of Foot Binding
Some scholars say footbinding deepened female subjugation by making women more dependent on their men folk, restricting their movements and enforcing their chastity, since women with bound feet were physically incapable of venturing far from their homes.
16th century
Corsets made of whalebone, wood, and hardened canvas
“farthingale”
Miscarriages, organ damage, death
18th century
Floating ribs removed Women still dying from direct or indirect
Cost of achieving beauty…
AND Paid twice that of men for public transportation in
New York City
19th century
laced corsets but large hips and breasts
Went on diets to gain weight
early 20th century
20s – slender legs, hips, breasts, bobbed
hair women were binding
their breasts 40s and 50s – hourglass back in
style Marilyn Monroe
60s Twiggy - same as 20s but with long hair
80s thin but muscular - today a mixture of several
conflicting traits
thin body & large breasts
Marilyn Monroe, Twiggy, Sophia Loren, Kate Moss, and the Venus de Milo all have ratios around 0.7.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_attractiveness#Olfactory_factors
Trying to fitAll the normsOf attractiveness
Can drive us crazy!
American Culture = Diet Culture
Which also means….. Culture of anorexia/bulimia
Culture of obesity
In the United States, as many as 25 million Americans have an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia.
Students
• 91% of women surveyed on a college campus had attempted to control their weight through dieting. 22% dieted “often” or “always.”• 86% report onset of eating disorder by age 20; 43% report onset between ages of 16 and 20.6
• 25% of college-aged women engage in bingeing and
purging as a weight-management technique.
For Women: • Women are much more likely than men to develop an
eating disorder. Only an estimated 5 to 15 percent of people with anorexia or bulimia are male.14• An estimated 0.5 to 3.7 percent of women suffer from anorexia nervosa in their lifetime.14 Research suggests that about 1 percent of female adolescents have anorexia.15• An estimated 1.1 to 4.2 percent of women have bulimia nervosa in their lifetime.
• An estimated 10-15% of people with anorexia or bulimia are male.• Men are less likely to seek treatment for eating disorders because of the perception that they are “woman’s diseases.”• Among gay men, nearly 14% appeared to suffer from bulimia and over 20% appeared to be anorexic.
Source: http://www.anad.org/get-information/about-eating-disorders/eating-
disorders-statistics/
www.nationaleatingdisorders.org
Once described as “Western Disease”
As many as 150,000 will die of the disease
Very rare disorder until 1970
From Adbusters
Women and Men become both producers of ….and products of our culture….
Another study found…. A majority of woman and men rate
borderline anorexic bodies as very attractive
Attractiveness ratings do not vary for men as they age – for women, the older they are, the lower their rating.
Real versus Ideal Culture Myths
We all start out with the same opportunities
Factors like age, gender, social class, race, ethnicity can inhibit or enhance your
chances in life
Cultural Change Diffusion - spread of culture Imperialism – imposition of culture and
destruction of local cultures
Ethnocentrism – judgment of culture
Ethnocentrism A little goes a long way…… Often times --- To say that you are ready to die for cultural
identity means that you’re also ready to kill for cultural identity.
For examples of this -- look to the Middle East,
India, Africa (e.g., Israel, Palestine, former Yugoslavia, Bosnia, Ruwanda)
Could it be that… Sometimes culture becomes an instrument
of repression, exclusion, and extinction?
Honor Killings, Genital Mutilation
What can we learn from our American Experience?
The waves of new Americans learned to tolerate each other -- first as groups, only thereafter as individuals. Rubbing up against each other in an urbanizing America, they discovered not just the old Christian lesson that all men are brothers, but the hard, new, multicultural lesson that all brothers are different. Equality is not the product of similarity; it is the cheerful acknowledgement of difference. (P.65)
Tempocentrism – judgment of time period Relativism – appreciation as equally valid
Relativist Fallacy – going too far with appreciation
“Basic Human rights”
Bourdieu offers two important terms for us symbolic capital – consists of culturally approved
intangibles – honor, integrity, trust, goodwill – that may be accumulated and used for tangible gain – Disney – Walmart -- GE
We buy their products because we have public trust in them
Toyota????
Cultural capital habits, tastes, mannerisms used to
distinguish class location – High cultural knowledge converts to social and economic advantage Knowing how to dress for successHow to comport oneself in accordance with elite statusTable manners, knowledge of wine, arty chit-chat
Cultural Capital among the Rich
Pop (Low) Culture versus High Culture
Pop - activities, products, customs, traditions that belong to the “masses” or the middle and working classes. Sometimes called “mass” culture
High -- same as above but restricted to those in the upper classes. Sometimes called “elite” culture
Examples:
High: Opera Pop: Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Lil Wayne High: Ballet Pop: Mosh-pits, country line-dance, hip-hop High: poetry readings Pop: Poetry slams
High: Tennis match Pop: Bowling High: Yacht Race Pop: Tractor Pulls
Biology Gave us DNA Culture gave us
OPRAH WINFREYHIP-HOP
NIKEWAL-MART
Language Language involves symbols that express
ideas and enable people to communicate. Can be verbal or nonverbal Allows us to:
create visual images Share experiences Maintain group boundaries
How does language affect us?
Does language determine how we see the world?
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis…. Linguistic Relativity……. We acquire not only words but perceptions of the world.
New Words Memory foam Unfriend Carbon Footprint Green-collar Twitter Facebook Flash Mob Waterboarding Staycation Sock Puppet
A language-based predisposition to think about women in sexual terms reinforces the notion that women are sexual objects.
Ethnic slurs predispose us to think about groups in derogatory terms
“Hunk” “Stud” (power, strength) “Babe” “Doll” (powerless, childlike) “Don’t act like a sissy!” (masculine is better) “That was white of you.” (white supremacy) “cracker” (southern poor whites) “He Jewed me down on the price” (Jews are crooks) “Good guys wear white” versus “black sheep” (power) “Aunt Jemima” (black woman who acts “white”) See -www.racialicious.com and http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/inclusiv.htm
Neutral language?
Maxed Out!!