How Can an Understanding of the Values, Beliefs, and Practices of Different Cultures Benefit Learners - Essay Example

Values, Beliefs, Practices and Cultures Name Course Name and Code Instructor’s Name Date How can an understanding of the values, beliefs and practices of different cultures benefit learners? Different beliefs, values and practices affect or benefit the learners. This is because they are the main components’ of culture. Culture refers to the different values, traditions, practices and rules that govern a particular community (Chris, 2003). Understanding and appreciating different culture is very important to the learners. This is because not all cultural practices and beliefs are acceptable to other communities. Most of the cultural practices are gender oriented. This means that there are roles, which are associated with gender. In other words, as a result to some of these roles there are taboos. This explains the emergence and role of feminist in the society and mainly in the process of learning. Feminism is a termed that has been widely described in different ways and by different people. It refers to the aspect of different beliefs put across by people as far as gender equality importance is concerned. This goes further to dismiss the fact that the hierarchy of gender is just but a social perception. The concept of feminism has brought a great change in the area of human being lifestyle and the education sector. This is because the feminist have continuously staged their consents as far as the rights of women are concerned in terms of social, political, health, economic and legal rights are concerned. Socially, issues the right to inherit property have been discussed. Legally, the rights to cast a vote, own property, and get a contract. Health wise the issues of reproductive health as far as abortion is concerned have been tackled. Economically, issues of discrimination in the work, maternity leave and reception in the work place have been accounted for (Cornell, 1998). The process of Feminism has been through three main stages namely the first wave, the second wave and the third wave. During the first wave, which took place in the U.K and the US at around the early 20th century, issues of right for the women to get education, contracts, property ownership and possessiveness of women and children by their husbands was dealt with. Further, issues of sexual violence, economic rights, right to political power and right to vote were dealt with. The second wave which was in 1960 on the other hand, focused on the issue of social inequality and more of their political rights since that was important as far as individual woman’s life is concerned. The social believe that women can only and only find their personal fulfilment in homemaking and bearing children was discussed in depth. Finally, the third wave, which took place 1990, was a reaction against much of what was done in the second wave (Humm, 1992). Post feminism Post feminism is a term that describes a wide range of arguments against the issue of feminist. As far as post feminism is concerned, the goals of the first wave were achieved but a lot has been criticized as far the second and the third ones are concerned. Many critical ideas have been suggested which were focused on exposing the challenges of the ideas brought forth in the second wave. Arguments have gone to an extent of claiming that feminism in the current society is invalid. Much of the work done by the post feminists argues that the agenda of feminism is separating the people of opposite sexes instead of re-uniting them. Most of the claims alleged by the feminist were dismissed in the sense that they lacked evidence. It was claimed that most of the issues dealt with in feminism were just of self-interests. However, McRobbie (2009), argues that post feminism simply undermines the efforts done by the feminist in as far as the issue of attaining equality is concerned. McRobbie (2009) further gives an example of post-feminism like media products by feminist like the famous TV program called sex & the city. Post-feminism in relation to gender, power and identity Apparently the feminist in the year 1970’s, were focused on achieving women freedom from struggles like on the reproductive health, sexual rights and inequality as far as work place is concerned (Whelehan 2000). However as the era of post-feminism came into being, the issue of empowerment came into place. There came a need for the females to be empowered to be able to make their own decisions like the choice of clothes to wear or buy and the kind of food to cook. These were found to be rather much important even more than the right of a woman to vote is concerned. Emphasizes on the issue of women being more proud of them selves, Bold enough to air their thoughts or grievances, independent and free from any form of oppression were dealt with. Women issues of independence decision-making like choosing whom to socialize with, the ability to care for the children on their own, making choices on the products on opts to buy were part of what the post-feminists fought for. Empowerment was expressed in form of mead adverts. For example, products for the women to use are widely being advertised. This enables them to freely and in their own free will make a choice of what to purchase and use with out the interference if any. However, in most cases this kind of empowerment has been criticized in the sense that it has been differently understood. Most post-feminist argues that such matters like the ones discussed above are not all ways in which a woman can be said to be empowered. In other words, it is a cheap way of showing independence in woman (Hollows 2000) For example, a woman who has so many types of shoes does not mean she is more empowered. However, further critics have been given on the issues of for example a woman wearing some very high-heeled shoes to show how confident she is. Some people have gone further and misinterpreted the whole idea in that it is a sign of sexual promiscuity. To add strength to such argument, many have criticizes the idea of a woman being so uncomfortable in such shoes to achieve sexual attractions at the expense of her freedom to move freely and comfortably. Advertisement has been considered a good form of achieving gender equality in as far as sexual issues are concerned. For example, some of the websites today and magazines have a column where women are invited to air their views as far as the issue of sexual gratification is concerned. Though women, feel that through such opportunities, their equality in conjugal rights is very well catered for, some other people, feel that, that is just a form of getting the magazine to be sold. In addition, since not many are able to air their views through such means, some people argue that, an article bearing such an issue, which has also attracted so many men to participate, gives an implication that women are just sexual objects for men (Gill 2006). It has been noted by (Gill 2006) that the emergence of some media products like pornography have been highly criticizes in the sense that such can not be a form or a way of a woman to express her freedom to make decisions on what to do and not to do. The basis of this argument is in the aspect of morals values. Many people feel that the art and secrets of the act of sex is no longer a secret to anyone anymore because these pornographic materials are even open to the children for viewing. Financial freedom in women has also been a negative target by many. This is because many products are being produced to catch the attention of women (Hollows 2000). The issue of commodity feminism where by products are being packaged in a way that they attract women is another strategy of misusing their financial and choice freedom. This is a form of taking advantage of a woman’s naivety. The issue of female bodies being represented structurally has been questioned as far feminism is concerned. Many adverts showing a wide range of women products have been a victim of this. This is because some women are using this form of adverts to form their identity in them. For instance, the use of a smooth faces woman structure in contrast to a rough skinned woman structure has caused some identity crises in women (Gill 2006). In addition, the use of a fat woman’s body structure against a slim woman’s body structure has caused some identity crises. All this has led to some social classes in women and lack of confidence in some women. The use of women naked and tattooed bodies in advertisement has totally misinterpreted the meaning of feminism. This is because a woman’s body is now being referred to as a property rather than a psychological or even a social structure. The woman’s body is now being referred to as a sexy body, which is a form of identification. In such cases, the woman body is not only assumed as a man’s gaze since they are no longer represented as passive objects. Such figure like midriff, where women are being represented in their active form hence appearing as sexual desiring subjects, are giving women wrong identity. They are believed in doing that one is showing a sense of confidence. In addition, others are being used to represent beauty in women. Some other representations are drawing a picture of a world where for one to be called beautiful a great price has to be paid in terms of time, finances and pain. Moreover, these midriff adverts give the impression of women’s potentiality being coined in their beauty. Representations in the form of a midriff have led to a state called power shift. The fact that a woman’s image is no longer being represented as passive structure but an active being like in the case of pornography, has painted a picture of oppression on the side of women. This is because women are no longer being sex objected but now they are sex subjected. The issues of objecting a woman in sexual representation was abate understandable to be violation of rights since it was done without consent. However, the issues of subjecting women to sexual activities like pornography with their consent have been greatly criticized. It is no longer referred to as oppression but it is now a disciplinary regulation (Gill, 2002). Some other forms of midriff adverts too have been criticized. For instance, a woman represented in a car looking as revengeful as an advert for a new model of a car. This brings a very wrong impression of a woman. In that it means the woman did not go for the car because of her financial empowerment but rather for the purposes of revenge to her sexual partner. Therefore, some other imagery representations of women empowerment are very detrimental to the men. In addition, this paints a woman as generally a very nasty and cruel being to the rest of the world. In addition, such forms of feminism representation are drawing a picture of how different men are from the women. The aspect of competition between the two genders is bright out through such (Driscoll 2002). Gender, identity and power have been highly criticized as far as feminism is concerned. It should be noted that not always that the state of fighting for feminism will result to the achievement of gender identity, power equality and female identity as post- feminism has shown. In actual sense some means of acquiring or showing the acquisition of that, have caused more harm to women than before. Media for instance has really contributed to such as shown above. Therefore, post-feminism is a very crucial means of trying to achieve positive feminism whereby as much as women seek equality it is important to look at the consequences of the whole issue as far as their identity is concerned. In addition, a form of feminism that is very much aware of the media agendas as far as the fight for political rights, identity and empowerment are concerned must be applied. So post-feminism is a form of awakening-call in as far as media, products production and packaging are concerned with reference to gender mainstreaming process. Print Media and Literary Culture It is believed that public riots, public or community rebellion, activity boycotts and public marches are descriptive and even more apparent ways to express resistance. In addition, any local forms of public expression as well as the media were believed to greatly initiate anti-colonial movements. The print media and literary culture in a great way successfully did facilitated resistance and rebellion to the colonial powers. Print capitalism on the other hand had serious implications as far as the anti-colonial movements are concerned (John, 2006). The expansion of Anderson’s theories on print capitalism, suggest that the advancement and introduction of literary culture was geared towards inciting the competitive edges for all the contending groups among the resistance movements. In addition, the competitive nature caused because of reading the anti-colonial literature caused much division. Nationalism was therefore according to, a key mobilizing fact of the anti-colonial movements. Historiography on Benedict Anderson's imagined communities Benedict Anderson is very popular for authoring the book imagined communities. In that book, has really described the factors that contributed to the existence of nationalism in entire world in the last three centuries. He has also deeply examined the increase of nationalism during those centuries. He urges that the main reason of emergence of nationalism and imagined communities is due to lack of opportunities to gain access to some specific scripts authored in some languages., the need to get rid of the so called divine rule and most important the creation of printing press which appeared in form of capitalism (John, 2006). He also argued that the emergence of nation state of European came into emergence as a response to the rising nature of nationalism, hence concluded that the act of nation or state building was definitely an imitative step of action because the political entities newly emerging were copying the existing models. He further, explained the role of the print literature, whereby according to him, the increase in nationalism was as result of the increase in the printed books. Apart from describing the origin of nationalism, he explained the main reason behind its development and the means in which people’s knowledge and understanding about what nationalism changed. Therefore, in short Benedict Anderson’ work in imagine communities is a comprehensive explanation of the origin of nationalism, its function and the power within it. Anderson's definition of nationalism Many definition of the word nationalism have been given by different authors particularly to mean one’s identification with a particular ethnic group or society. However,, Anderson in particular strongly believed that nationalism in short, was just a cultural setup that was created as a result of the convergence of some very discreet forces of historical origin in the beginning of the ninetieth century as well as the end eighteenth century, which was later spread throughout the world as people all over the world became aware of the possibility that they can belong to a community through nationality (John, 2006). He argued that nationalism is only developed and understood through cultural systems of production and not just through the political systems of power The role of print capitalism in mobilizing nationalist sentiment Print capitalism refers to mechanical production and reproduction of printed work in ethnic languages the language the entire community can understand. Print capitalism was the result of nationalism. This is because, due to nationalism in many countries there emerged a period of growth in the aspect of book printing, magazine writing and publishing. This is because there was great need for historic representation of people’s culture in written form (Mabee, 2004). Many nationalist felt the need to air their views as well as feelings as far as some things are concerned and so they went for the most convenient means on doing it, which was print media. Therefore, rise of print capitalism was very central and key reason for the success of representing anti-colonial point of views or even sentiment. This is because it clearly and deeply represented the nationalist sentiments. As a result, many people were able to gain access to the print media and in a language, they best understood. This brought a state of being consciousness of nationalism as people intimately interacted with print media. It then created what was referred to as “imagined community” that created the perception of horizontal solidarity (Sue & Nolan, 2007). By creating a chance for visualization of others like the self through print, harnessing within them the spirit of nationalism, anti-colonial literature was able to utilize the themes of a shared culture and loss of sovereignty to the raise ant-colonial sentiment among the masses. Although it is important to take into serious account the emergence of cultural movements of literature as far as the mobilization or emergence of nationalist sentiment is concerned, with reference to the issue of anti-colonialism, a conclusion can not be simply drawn to mean that the culture of print capitalism caused the unification or even the state of national communion of colonized population. It is imperative to understand that the consequences of colonization were felt differently among different people of society (Young, 2001). The effect of colonization which led to emergence of a sense and feeling of colonial oppression acted as a common bond among people in the nation even though ,each group and class with that nation were impacted by the colonialism in a different way. Reference Chris, J. 2003. Culture: critical concepts in sociology. London: Routledge. Cornell, D. 1998. At the heart of freedom: feminism, sex, and equality. Colombia: Colombia University Press Driscoll, C. 2002. Girls: Feminine Adolescence in Popular Culture and Cultural Theory. Columbia: Columbia University Press. Gill, R. 2006. Advertising and Post feminism. Cambridge: Polity press: Cambridge. Hollows, J. 2000. Feminism, Femininity and Popular Culture. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Humm, M. 1992. Modern feminisms: Political, Literary, Cultural. New York: Columbia University Press. John S. 2006. Cultural theory and popular culture: an introduction. Georgia: University of Georgia Press. Mabee, B. 2004. Discourses of empire: The US "Empire", globalisations and international relations. London: George Bell & sons.   McRobbie, A. 2009. Post-feminism and Popular Cultu. London: University of Oxford Press. Sue, S., and Nolan, Z. 2007. The role of culture and cultural techniques in psychotherapy: A critique and reformulation. American Psychologist, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 37-45. Whelehan, I. 2000. Overloaded: Popular Culture and the Future of Feminism. London: The Women’s Press Ltd. Young, R. 2001. Post colonialism: A Historical Introduction. Oxford: University of Oxford. Read More