How Come

1
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

2
CULTURE

• How come..
• When youre driving down the road..
• When someone comes behind you..
• When Dr. H walks up and

3
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

4
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)

5

• 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

6

• Beliefs or ideologies.
• How we think the world operates
• meritocracy Monopoly game (material
  expression)
• Values..
• Our moral blueprint what we hold dear

7

• http//Strange and harmful cutlural practices

8
Other American Values?

• Achievement Religiosity
• Individualism Education
• Work Ethic Romantic Love
• Efficiency Democracy
• Rationalization Personal Freedom
• Material Comfort Equality
• Progress Humanitarianism

9
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

10
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

11
Nature Versus Nurture

• Sociability
• Intelligence
• Sensitive hands
• Vocality
• Eyesight
• Upright posture
• Instincts

12
What instincts do we have?
13
Instincts versus Innate behaviors

• Reflexive behaviors
• Instincts
• Innate capacities

14
Symbols Change over time..
Old Symbol
Has given way to ????
New Symbol
15
What is consumer culture in the U.S. ?
16

• Powerful marketing convinces us to buy things we
  would not normally purchase
• The manufacturing of desire??

17
Advertising Culture

• The average person is exposed to more than 3,000
  ads per day.

18
Why is cash no longer popular?

• No plastic? No service

19
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

20
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

21
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?

22
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

23
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.

24
Information Overload??

• Advertising
• Are we swimming in a sea of messages??
• copywriters, market researchers, pollsters,
  consultants, and even linguistsmost of whom work
  for one of six giant companiesspend 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

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Charlie and FidoWho is superior?

• You are so in my spot!!

26
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.

27
Beauty always refers to

• the female body
• What are the norms for feminine beauty?
• Do your ideas coincide? Differ?

28
How did this happen?

• Culture told us to do it
• How does it stay this way?
• Weve embodied those images

29

• If Barbie Was Real..
• Height 72
• 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

30

• Average Woman in America -- 54
• 60 wear size 12 or higher
• Average Mannequin 6 34-22-34 Size 6

31

• 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)

32
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..

33
Questions

• Would you consider cosmetic surgery for yourself?
  

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• 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

35

• 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-resou
rces/statistics/2010-statisticss/Top-Level/2010-US
-cosmetic-reconstructive-plastic-surgery-minimally
-invasive-statistics2.pdf
36

• 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.
• Sourcehttp//www.yourplasticsurgeryguide.com/tren
  ds/charts-graphs.htm

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• 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.

38

• 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/tr
  ends/asaps-2011.htm

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• In 2011, the top five surgical procedures were
• Liposuction
• Breast augmentation
• Tummy tuck (abdominoplasty)
• Eyelid surgery
• Breast lift

40

• Top five Cosmetic minimally Invasive
• BOTox
• Soft tissue fillers
• Chemical Peels
• Laser Hair Removal
• Microdermabrasion

41
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_aller
  gan.html

42

• 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.

43
Chinese foot binding the first historical
example of objectification and first sign of
norms that demanded conformity. golden lotus
44
Torture or Fashion?
Painful Memories of Foot Binding
45

• 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.

46
16th century

• Corsets made of whalebone, wood, and hardened
  canvas

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farthingale
Miscarriages, organ damage, death
48
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

49
19th century

• laced corsets but large hips and breasts
• Went on diets to gain weight

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early 20th century

• 20s slender legs, hips, breasts, bobbed hair
• women were binding their breasts
• 40s and 50s hourglass back in style
• Marilyn Monroe

51

• 60s Twiggy - same as
• 20s but with long hair
• 80s thin but muscular -
• today a mixture of several conflicting traits
• thin body large breasts

52
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_attractivene
ssOlfactory_factors
Marilyn Monroe, Twiggy, Sophia Loren, Kate
Moss, and the Venus de Milo all have ratios
around 0.7.
53
Trying to fit All the norms Of attractiveness Can
drive us crazy!
54
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.

55
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.

56

• 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.

57

• 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 womans 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/

58

• www.nationaleatingdisorders.org

59
Once described as Western Disease

• As many as 150,000 will die of the disease
• Very rare disorder until 1970

From Adbusters
60

• Women and Men become both producers of .and
  products of our culture.

61

• 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.

62
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

63
Cultural Change

• Diffusion - spread of culture
• Imperialism imposition of culture and
  destruction of local cultures
• Ethnocentrism judgment of culture

64
Ethnocentrism

• A little goes a long way
• Often times ---
• To say that you are ready to die for cultural
  identity means that youre 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)

65
Could it be that

• Sometimes culture becomes an instrument of
  repression, exclusion, and extinction?
• Honor Killings, Genital Mutilation

66
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)

67

• Tempocentrism judgment of time period
• Relativism appreciation as equally valid
• Relativist Fallacy
• going too far with appreciation
• Basic Human rights

68

• 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????

69

• Cultural capital
• habits, tastes, mannerisms used to distinguish
  class location High cultural knowledge converts
  to social and economic advantage
• Knowing how to dress for success
• How to comport oneself in accordance with elite
  status
• Table manners, knowledge of wine, arty chit-chat
• Cultural Capital among the Rich

70
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

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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

72

• High Tennis match
•  Pop Bowling
•  
• High Yacht Race
• Pop Tractor Pulls

73
Biology Gave us DNA

• Culture gave us
• OPRAH WINFREY
• HIP-HOP
• NIKE
• WAL-MART

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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

75
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.

76
New Words

• Memory foam Unfriend
• Carbon Footprint
• Green-collar
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Flash Mob
• Waterboarding
• Staycation
• Sock Puppet

77

• 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

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Neutral language?

• Hunk Stud (power, strength)
• Babe Doll (powerless, childlike)
• Dont 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/Fac
  DevCom/guidebk/teachtip/inclusiv.htm

79

• Maxed Out!!