GLOBAL CULTURE AND ITS RELEVANCE IN MEDIA AND GENDER

Impact of global culture and its relevance in media and gender

Media influence: Global media, for e.g., television, film, and the internet, play a significant role in the spread of global culture. This shapes societal norms and values, impacting local cultures.

Gender dynamics: Globalization can have both positive and negative effects on gender dynamics. On one hand, it can bring awareness to gender issues and promote equality. On the other hand, the spread of certain global stereotypes may reinforce traditional gender norms or create unrealistic expectations.

Empowerment and resistance: Globalization has empowered individuals and groups to challenge traditional gender norms through increased connectivity and access to information. Activism and movements for gender equality draw inspiration and support from global networks.

GLOBALIZATION AND LOCAL CULTURE

Globalization and local culture are complex and intertwined phenomena that have both positive and negative impacts on societies worldwide.

Homogenization:  homogenization occurs when distinct local traditions, languages, and practices are overshadowed by a dominant global culture, leading to a loss of diversity.

Heterogenization: Globalization can also lead to the hybridization of cultures, creating new and unique forms that incorporate both global and local elements. Thus globalization is an opportunity for cultural exchange and enrichment.

Economic inequality: Globalization often brings economic development, but it can also cause and increase inequalities. The dominance of global corporations may lead to the marginalization of local businesses, impacting the economic fabric of communities.

Cultural imperialism: Critics argue that the spread of global culture can lead to cultural imperialism, where the values and norms of powerful nations dominate and marginalize the indigenous (local) cultures. Local identities can get lost in the process.

Digital divide: The access to and control over technology is not uniform globally. The digital divide can further marginalize local cultures as global content is primarily disseminated (spread) through digital platforms, affecting those without adequate access. So those who do not have access remain behind.

Threat to regional and local identities:

Language and communication: The dominance of a global language, often English, can lead to the marginalization of local languages. This affects communication, education, and the preservation of indigenous knowledge

Cultural commodification: Local traditions and artifacts may be commodified and sold as global commodities, stripping them of their cultural significance. This commercialization can lead to the loss of authenticity and meaning.

Loss of cultural practices: Globalization can challenge traditional ways of life. Modern lifestyles are more efficient and uniform, however traditional practices get lost in the process.

Cyber Culture

The Internet / Cyber world - Few technologies in human history rival the Internet in its speed of adoption and range of impact. The Internet's spread has been compared to the advent of the printing press, which, like the Internet, greatly enhanced the availability of information and the rate of its reproduction.

Many have commented on the Internet's ability to transform business and the broader economy, but perhaps an equally profound change is being felt throughout society and culture, where the Internet and the World Wide Web are transforming how people live and interact.

The Internet's influence generates a range of reactions from different people, ranging from idealism to cynicism, but however it is received, there's no denying that it has led to dramatic shifts in such areas as interpersonal interaction, work culture, relations to time, expectations of speed and convenience, networking between individuals and groups, and even use of language.

The word "cyberculture" is used in a variety of ways, often referring to certain cultural products and practices born of computer and Internet technologies, but also to specific subcultures that champion computer-related hobbies, art, and language.

In the 1970s, cyberculture was the exclusive domain of a handful of technology experts, including mathematicians, computer scientists, digital enthusiasts, and academics, devoted to exchanging and promoting ideas related to the growing fields of computers and electronics. These early cybercultures sometimes advanced a view of the future guided by the progressive and beneficial hand of technological change.

But following the commercialization of the Internet and the World Wide Web in the mid-1990s, cyberculture took on a new life, and computer and information technologies took the dynamics of culture and social relations in dramatically new directions.

The Internet touches many parts of life in advanced industrial societies. Everything from shopping, paying bills, and playing the stock market to news gathering, family interaction, romantic courtships, and play all take place in cyberspace, whereas before the mid-1990s all these activities existed more commonly in the physical world.

The Internet profoundly influences what and how children learn, the vocabulary employed in daily conversation, the way people coordinate their schedules and work habits, and perceptions of distance and time.

 

Ref: https://www.encyclopedia.com/economics/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cyberculture-society-culture-and-internet

Culture Shock & its Relevance in Media

“Culture shock” describes the impact of moving from a familiar culture to one which is unfamiliar. It is an experience described by people who have travelled abroad to work, live or study; it can be felt to a certain extent even when abroad on holiday. It can affect anyone. It includes the shock of a new environment, meeting lots of new people and learning the ways of a different country.

It also includes the shock of being separated from the important people in your life, maybe family, friends, colleagues, teachers: people you would normally talk to at times of uncertainty, people who give you support and guidance.

When familiar sights, sounds, smells or tastes are no longer there you can miss them very much. If you are tired and jet-lagged when you arrive small things can be upsetting and out of all proportion to their real significance.

Culture shock can take place when people move from rural to urban areas and are exposed to different cultural practices, not just from one country to another.

Let us now look at culture shock and its relevance in Media

Mass communication influences both society and culture. Different societies have different media systems, and the way they are set up by law influences how the society works. Different forms of communication, including messages in the mass media, give shape and structure to society.

Individuals and groups in society influence what mass media organizations produce through their creativity on the input side and their consumption habits on the output side.

Many mass media products transcend social structures to influence multiple societies, and even in societies that heavily censor their mass media the news of scandals and corruption can get out. The mass media and society are bound together and shape each other

With the rise of global computer networks, particularly high-speed broadband and mobile communication technologies, individuals gained the ability to publish their own work and to comment on mass media messages more easily than ever before. If mass communication in the 20th century was best characterized as a one-to-many system where publishers and broadcasters reached waiting audiences, the mass media made possible by digital information networks in the twenty-first have taken on a many-to-many format.

For example, YouTube has millions of producers who themselves are also consumers. None of the social media giants such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Qzone and Weibo (in China), Twitter, Reddit or Pinterest is primarily known for producing content. Instead, they provide platforms for users to submit their own content and to share what mass media news and entertainment companies produce. The result is that the process of deciding what people should be interested in is much more decentralized in the digital network mass media environment than it was in the days of an analog one-to-many mass media system.

The process of making meaning in society — that is, the process of telling many smaller stories that add up to a narrative shared by mass audiences — is now much more collaborative than it was in the 20th century because more people are consuming news in networked platforms than through the channels managed by gatekeepers. A mass media gatekeeper is someone, professional or not, who decides what information to share with mass audiences and what information to leave out.

 

On social media platforms, media consumers have the ability to add their input and criticism, and this is an important function for users. Not only do we have a say as audience members in the content we would like to see, read and hear, but we also have an important role to play in society as voting citizens holding their elected officials accountable.

If social media platforms were only filled with mass media content, individual user comments, and their own homegrown content, digitally networked communication would be complex enough, but there are other forces at work. Rogue individuals, hacker networks and botnets — computers programmed to create false social media accounts, websites and other digital properties — can contribute content alongside messages produced by professionals and legitimate online community members. False presences on social media channels can amplify hate and misinformation and can stoke animosity between groups in a hyper-partisan media age.

Around the world, societies have democratized mass communication, but in many ways, agreeing on a shared narrative or even a shared list of facts is more difficult than ever. Users create filter bubbles for themselves where they mostly hear the voices and information that they want to hear. This has the potential to create opposing worldviews where users with different viewpoints not only have differing opinions, but they also have in mind completely different sets of facts creating different images about what is happening in the world and how society should operate.

The world of mass media has witnessed the convergence of media content on digital platforms, the ability of individuals to engage in one-to-many communication as though they were major broadcasters, and the emergence of structures that allow for many-to-many communication. 

Thus we see that with the wide variety of information available on the internet, the masses are exposed to varied cultural practices and are thus exposed to cultures that are different and unique from their own. It becomes easier to accept and understand the variety of cultures as we are now exposed to them via social media / mass media.

In conclusion, it is important to stress that culture shock is entirely normal, usually unavoidable and not a sign that you have made a mistake or that you won’t manage. In fact there are very positive aspects of culture shock. The experience can be a significant learning experience, making you more aware of aspects of your own culture as well as the new culture you have entered. It will give you valuable skills that will serve you in many ways now and in the future.

 

Ref: https://press.rebus.community/mscy/chapter/chapter-1/#:~:text=Mass%20communication%20influences%20both%20society,shape%20and%20structure%20to%20society.

 

 

 

COMMODIFICATION OF CULTURE

Media and culture share a relationship which is both positive and negative. Certain negative effects of media on culture are impact on violence, racial stereotypes, economic exploitation, and mindless consumption of commodities. 

On the other hand, media has helped in providing education opportunities, creating awareness about different and unique cultures, etc

One of the most intriguing and challenging perspectives emerging from critical cultural studies is the commodification of culture – the study of what happens when culture is mass produced and distributed in direct competition with locally based cultures.

Media are industries specializing in the producing and distribution of cultural commodities. As with other modern industries, they have also grown at the expense of small, local producers and the consequences of this displacement have been, and continue to be, disruptive to people’s life.

Some important consequences of lifting bits of everyday life culture out of their context, repackaging and then marketing them back to the people:

·        When elements of everyday culture are selected for repackaging, only a very limited range is chosen and thus important elements are overlooked or are consciously ignored.

·        The repackaging process involves dramatization of these elements of culture which have been selected.

·        The marketing of cultural commodities is done in a way which maximizes the likelihood that they will successfully intrude into and ultimately disrupt everyday life.

·        The elites who operate the cultural industries generally are ignorant of the consequences of their work.

·        Disruption of everyday life takes many forms – some are obviously linked to consumption of especially deleterious (negative impact)  content, but other forms of disruption are very subtle and occur over long periods of time.

In modern capitalist societies, ‘commodification’ points to the relationship between large economic systems and hegemonic cultural ideologies and is mainly concerned with generating profit rather than enriching human feelings or experience. Commodification of culture has had an intense impact on the lifestyle of people.

Critical cultural studies researchers have directed their most devasting criticism towards advertising which is viewed as the ultimate cultural commodity.

POPULAR CULTURE

We are surrounded and invaded by popular culture through our daily activities like listening to music, watching a variety of programs, reading books, comics, sports, etc. This form of culture is a characteristic of industrial societies.

Before industrialization, we were familiar with high culture and folk culture. High culture mostly related to a small, literate, elite group, or the upper class. They and encouraged and sustained such a culture. High culture relates to the classics of literature, the great traditions of art and sculpture. Folk culture on the other hand, was seen among folk people in their expression of serious and significant matter of life like birth and death, man and woman, child and adult, seasons, justice, cruelty, fate and destiny. It was shared by everyone and everyone participated in it. The folk people entertained themselves through it, especially on ceremonial occasions like weddings, religious holidays, harvest celebrations, etc.

Industrialization brought about changes that affected industrial capitalism and human culture. It is due to mass production that we have a mass of consumer goods. Folk culture has receded and now it is the mass media which plays a very important role. Mass media promotes and distributes mass culture. Popular culture is a positive term for mass-produced or mass-disseminated cultural products.

According to some scholars, mass culture and popular culture are terms that can be used interchangeably but other scholars state that there are also differences between the two.

Popular culture relates to the culture which is shared, accepted and liked by people.

Mass culture is the culture which cuts across and includes a wide range of social classes and groups. E.g. TV series attract a varied audience.

Since the 1930s sociologists have contended that the characteristics of different social classes determine their cultural preferences. American sociologists have asserted that high culture and popular culture express different values and represent different aesthetic standards.  There is a distinct separation between high and popular culture, that the two are consumed by different classes, and that the prestige of each class is attached to its culture.

Some conservative critics claim that mass culture is profane and dehumanizing and it encroaches upon high cultural production.

Some radical critics agree with the conservative critics as they focus on the negative impact on those who consume it and upon the society as a whole rather just on the high culture upon which it encroaches.

Radical critics call for ‘cultural mobility’ i.e., raising the masses’ tastes through education, opportunity, and economic redistribution. Cultural mobility would free the people from the economic elite and provide opportunity to appreciate high culture.

Moderate or liberal critics take the position that popular culture is harmful neither to the people who consume it nor to the society as a whole. According to them, all cultures are equal in worth if they meet the needs of the people. These liberal sociologists therefore call for reinvigoration of various cultures or subcultures.

In the late 1980s, many sociologists and communication scholars began challenging the validity of class-based distinction between high culture and popular culture. Some critics claim that modern media, particularly television, create ‘media cultures’ accessible to multiple taste public. Thus media culture sets the standards for culture and shapes popular taste.

POST FEMINISM | WOMEN IN INDIA

Characteristics of Post-Feminism

In early 1980s, the media has begun to classify women in their teens and women in their twenties as “post-feminist generation”. After twenty years, the term post-feminist is still used to refer to young women.

Post-feminism is a highly debated topic since it implies that “post” refers “dead” or “after” feminism. Post feminism celebrates sexuality and fueled by advances in abortion, employment and fertility laws and concentrates on furthering the idea of empowerment, celebration of feminists, freedom of choice and liberation.

Women in visual media

Advertisements in both print and audio-visual media reach all types of people. For advertisements, very attractive women and teenage girls are mostly used to promote the product through their acting skills.

Advertisements in the 1980s have portrayed a woman as a homemaker serving her husband and children at home.

Later in the 1990s, even though they have portrayed perfect and complete man, women are showed as a sex pictogram. The women have been shown as sexy, insensitive and hormone-driven female chauvinists. There have been many new advertisements being launched every month but the concept and idea have been often new when compared with the old ones.

The present concepts in advertisements avoid the stereotyping approach. While they portray an independent woman who is successful in her career, which inspires and motivates the young girls and registers a positive note in their minds to no longer spend time on useless activities.

Advertisements are made in a very attractive manner that they appeal to both men and women regardless of their age. Advertisements are often made to celebrate what is happening in the society. Events like International Women`s Day reach a wider audience by commercials which promote consumer items through the concepts based on liberated career-driven women. Most of the advertisements are based on the present scenario. To create the catchy advertisements, there are many private media companies running day and night all over the globe. They come up with apt concepts which are suitable for the target audience based on the products that they are going to sell. In this way, media helps a lot in keeping people aware of the feministic views.

Post-feminist views in media (Internationally)

The term ‘Post-feminist’ with regards to poetry has been, for the first time, used by Carol Rumens in her anthology titled Making for the Open: The Chatto Books of Post-feminist Poetry. Rumens have clarified the use of the term ‘Post-feminist’ in her introduction to the anthology. As a post-feminist supporter, she has applied the concept in the fields of media sector like print and visual media. It has reached earliest in England, Germany, the United States and other countries. The post-feminist ‘equality portrayals’ of women are visible in cinema, electronic and mass media advertisements and also in literature in the form of avoidance from depicting a young woman as passive, inferior, weaker and subordinate to a man. The impact of ‘the girl poser’ has been recognized, and women are represented as more assertive. Self-assured and confident women are shown as having equal footing with men. Even if some portrayals appear sexist, women are not shown as ‘victims’. The new women proclaim their womanhood in a bold manner.

 

Post-feminism has started in the media field in the year 1982. The feminist critics have explored the concept through media. It has shown those traditional felinities which are not allowable through feminism. These include an unabashed return to men, a spotlight on consumerism, reconsideration of motherhood and attempts at home life. The individualism, domesticity and consumerism are presented through powerful TV shows and films like Bridget Jones Diary. One of the modern novels (which also has its film version) concerned with feminist criticism is Bridget Jones`s Diary by Helen Fielding which portrays society`s views of single women in contemporary societies. The protagonist of the novel is a strong and independent person and her worries are that she does not want to arrive finally living alone without the support of man when she grows older.

Post Feminism and Advertising

the ideology of post-feminism as portrayed by visual media in India: Upon watching the advertisements which are always shown on TV and other forms of visual media seven advertisements which permeated the ideology of post-feminism are selected as examples. They are: Forest Essentials Ayurvedic Cream, Wedding Jewellery by TBZ Garlands, Dabur Vatika Hair Oil, Titan Ranga: “Woman of Today”, Havells’ Coffee Maker, Havells’ Fans and Femina

Avoiding Stereotypes

Avoiding stereotypes is an important feature of advertisements which carry the hallmark of post-feminism. For instance, in the advertisement ‘Wedding Jewellery’ by TBZ Garlands, the model Katrina Kaif talks about the concept of the right time for marriage denying the old school thoughts which condition women to stay at home after marriage. The commercial gives awareness to women and makes them catch hold of the post-feminist concept through its strong female character.

Another advertisement by Home Appliances has ideas as endless as their gadgets. The commercial depicts the Indian customary scene of seeing a bride where the mother of the boy laments that her darling son seeking a wife suffers so much in his bachelor life abroad and has to step out even for a cup of coffee. The defiant girl firmly places her coffee-maker before the startled boy, saying “Take this one and settle down, no travel authorization problem either”, as she wants only to be a wife, not a kitchen appliance. This advertisement stands against the stereotyping concept which has been there for ages that emphasizes women’s space in the kitchen. For breaking the stereotype mindset, this advertisement has earned the glorious Cannes award

.

Femina, the advertisement of the brand, opens the scene when a traditionally dressed girl with all her jewels and an expensive silk saree approaches directly facing the audience. Then the camera starts to pan around the house which she has just entered and it lets us know that there is a marriage function happening there. On her way to a room she casually looks at a middle-aged man’s photograph and closes her eyes suggesting that she is looking for his blessings. Finally she enters a room and there is a middle-aged woman in her bride costume looking at the window sadly. The table turns out when the girl calls the middle-aged woman ‘Ma’, it enable the audience understand that it’s the second marriage of the middle-aged woman, and the person in the picture is her ex-husband. The concept totally breaks all the stereotypes rooted in tradition which makes a woman’s life empty after her husband’s death.

Dabur Vatika hair oil advertisement tells us the tale of a woman who has survived cancer and lost her hair due to medication. Even though she looks tonsured, her family and colleagues are very happy with her real beauty. She gets comfortable with the society, and the advertisement demolishes the stereotypical idea of beauty.

Support for Female Characters

Most of the advertisements are made with female actors. It gives the clue that the post- feministic ideologies play a vital role in the marketing industry. An Ayurveda cream advertisement titled “Warrior Princess” directed by Carole Dennis tells us the story of the transformation of a warrior maiden sent to battle. Cream is rubbed on her forehead before she mounts a horse, sheathes a small sword and rides off with a small group. It shows female courage and enthusiasm to the audience.

Individualism

The main goal of post-feminism is a woman’s individualism. Mc Robbie introduces a new `female individualism’ which dismisses the ‘old’ feminism. Feminism itself is seen to belong to the past which characterizes the post-feminist woman of popular culture in individualism, sophistication and choice. The advertisement ‘Woman of Today’ featuring the Bollywood actresses Nimarat Kaur, made by the company Titan to sell their wrist watches, tells the audience that a woman has every right to make the choices of her own. It also has the tagline `Her Life Her Choices’.

Womens’ Identity

Mostly, the female actors from the film industry are used in the advertisements to showcase the women’s identity in the society, since the target audience of these commercials is women. It portrays every individual woman from different fields of the workplace, for example, IT professionals, students, home makers and so on. An advertisement for ceiling fans from Havells had been launched in the year 2013.The concept of the ad was to avoid patriarchy, and it also shares a socially relevant view on changing one’s name after marriage. In the commercial, a couple goes to an office for registration. At that time the husband decides to take his wife`s last name after their marriage, and it shows the female registrar surprised and satisfied. The couple from the ad has given a simple and yet never noticed lesson to the society. The Indian advertisements of the recent times give a lot of importance to womens identity when compared with the old ones.

Impact of Advertisement on Society

Advertisement is a medium of communication to send product related messages to customers along with various features of the products advertised. Each advertisement sells a product with a concept and a trending topic. At present advertisement companies have become a critical component for the overall advertising market.

Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are also becoming a powerful platform for advertisements to reach a wider audience. Through media, the message about the product can be heard within minutes. While the viewer’s watch the advertisement, the message gets into their minds and its impact reflects on the society.

In the 21st century, media has reached a cutting edge development in terms of technology and reaches all over the world . visual media is very effective and memorable owing to the use of characters and concepts which can occupy the minds of the audience for a very long time. While the viewers watch the advertisements, the particular products will get fixed in their minds. This is the method how the products and the concept are gain the viewers’ belief and trust.

Thus we see that post feminism ideology is available in Indian advertisements, and they tend to change people’s mindset with every new advertisement launch in the popular visual media.

Ref: https://www.globalmediajournal.com/open-access/ideology-of-postfeminism-portrayal-through-visual-advertisements-in-india.php?aid=82612

 

FEMINISM & POST FEMINISM

The term feminism can be used to describe a political, cultural or economic movement aimed at establishing equal rights and legal protection for women.

Feminism involves political and sociological theories and philosophies concerned with issues of gender difference, as well as a movement that advocates gender equality for women and campaigns for women's rights and interests. Although the terms "feminism" and "feminist" did not gain widespread use until the 1970s, they were already being used in the public parlance much earlier.

The history of feminism can be divided into three waves. The first feminist wave was in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the second was in the 1960s and 1970s, and the third extends from the 1990s to the present. Feminist theory emerged from these feminist movements. It is manifest in a variety of disciplines such as feminist geography, feminist history and feminist literary criticism, etc.

First wave

First-wave feminism refers to an extended period of feminist activity during the nineteenth century and early twentieth century in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Originally it focused on the promotion of equal contract and property rights for women and the opposition to chattel marriage and ownership of married women (and their children) by their husbands. However, by the end of the nineteenth century, activism focused primarily on gaining political power, particularly the right of women's suffrage.

Feminists such as Voltairine de Cleyre and Margaret Sanger were still active in campaigning for women's sexual, reproductive, and economic rights at this time. In 1854, Florence Nightingale established female nurses as adjuncts to the military.

In Britain the Suffragettes and, possibly more effectively, the Suffragists campaigned for the women's vote. In 1918 the Representation of the People Act 1918 was passed granting the vote to women over the age of 30 who owned houses. In 1928 this was extended to all women over twenty-one. In the United States, leaders of this movement included Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony, who each campaigned for the abolition of slavery prior to championing women's right to vote; all were strongly influenced by Quaker thought. American first-wave feminism involved a wide range of women. American first-wave feminism is considered to have ended with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (1919), granting women the right to vote in all states.

The term first wave was coined retrospectively after the term second-wave feminism began to be used to describe a newer feminist movement that focused as much on fighting social and cultural inequalities as political inequalities.

Second wave

Second-wave feminism refers to the period of activity in the early 1960s and lasting through the late 1980s. The scholar Imelda Whelehan suggests that the second wave was a continuation of the earlier phase of feminism involving the suffragettes in the UK and USA.

Second-wave feminism has continued to exist since that time and coexists with what is termed third-wave feminism. The scholar Estelle Freedman compares first and second-wave feminism saying that the first wave focused on rights such as suffrage, whereas the second wave was largely concerned with other issues of equality, such as ending discrimination.

The feminist activist and author Carol Hanisch coined the slogan "The Personal is Political" which became synonymous with the second wave. Second-wave feminists saw women's cultural and political inequalities as inextricably linked and encouraged women to understand aspects of their personal lives as deeply politicized and as reflecting sexist power structures.

Simone de Beauvoir and The Second Sex

The French author and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir wrote novels; monographs on philosophy, politics, and social issues; essays; biographies; and an autobiography. She is now best known for her metaphysical novels, including She Came to Stay and The Mandarins, and for her treatise The Second Sex, a detailed analysis of women's oppression and a foundational tract of contemporary feminism. Written in 1949, its English translation was published in 1953. It sets out a feminist existentialism which prescribes a moral revolution. As an existentialist, she accepted Jean-Paul Sartre's precept existence precedes essence; hence "one is not born a woman, but becomes one." Her analysis focuses on the social construction of Woman as the Other. This de Beauvoir identifies as fundamental to women's oppression. She argues women have historically been considered deviant and abnormal and contends that even Mary Wollstonecraft considered men to be the ideal toward which women should aspire. De Beauvoir argues that for feminism to move forward, this attitude must be set aside.

The Feminine Mystique

Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique (1963) criticized the idea that women could only find fulfillment through childrearing and homemaking. According to Friedan's obituary in the The New York Times, The Feminine Mystique “ignited the contemporary women's movement in 1963 and as a result permanently transformed the social fabric of the United States and countries around the world” and “is widely regarded as one of the most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century.” In the book Friedan hypothesizes that women are victims of a false belief system that requires them to find identity and meaning in their lives through their husbands and children. Such a system causes women to completely lose their identity in that of their family. Friedan specifically locates this system among post-World War II middle-class suburban communities. At the same time, America's post-war economic boom had led to the development of new technologies that were supposed to make household work less difficult, but that often had the result of making women's work less meaningful and valuable.

Third wave

Third-wave feminism began in the early 1990s, arising as a response to perceived failures of the second wave and also as a response to the backlash against initiatives and movements created by the second wave. Third-wave feminism seeks to challenge or avoid what it deems the second wave's essentialist definitions of femininity, which (according to them) over-emphasize the experiences of upper middle-class white women.

A post-structuralist interpretation of gender and sexuality is central to much of the third wave's ideology. Third-wave feminists often focus on "micro-politics" and challenge the second wave's paradigm as to what is, or is not, good for females. The third wave has its origins in the mid-1980s. Feminist leaders rooted in the second wave like Gloria Anzaldua, bell hooks, Chela Sandoval, Cherrie Moraga, Audre Lorde, Maxine Hong Kingston, and many other black feminists, sought to negotiate a space within feminist thought for consideration of race-related subjectivities.

Third-wave feminism also contains internal debates between difference feminists such as the psychologist Carol Gilligan (who believes that there are important differences between the sexes) and those who believe that there are no inherent differences between the sexes and contend that gender roles are due to social conditioning.

Post-feminism

Post-feminism describes a range of viewpoints reacting to feminism. While not being "anti-feminist," post-feminists believe that women have achieved second wave goals while being critical of third wave feminist goals. The term was first used in the 1980s to describe a backlash against second-wave feminism. It is now a label for a wide range of theories that take critical approaches to previous feminist discourses and includes challenges to the second wave's ideas. Other post-feminists say that feminism is no longer relevant to today's society.

One of the earliest uses of the term was in Susan Bolotin's 1982 article "Voices of the Post-Feminist Generation," published in New York Times Magazine. This article was based on a number of interviews with women who largely agreed with the goals of feminism, but did not identify as feminists.

Some contemporary feminists, such as Katha Pollitt or Nadine Strossen, consider feminism to hold simply that "women are people". Views that separate the sexes rather than unite them are considered by these writers to be sexist rather than feminist'.'

In her book Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, Susan Faludi argues that a backlash against second wave feminism in the 1980s has successfully re-defined feminism through its terms. She argues that it constructed the women's liberation movement as the source of many of the problems alleged to be plaguing women in the late 1980s. She also argues that many of these problems are illusory, constructed by the media without reliable evidence. According to her, this type of backlash is a historical trend, recurring when it appears that women have made substantial gains in their efforts to obtain equal rights.

Angela McRobbie argues that adding the prefix post to feminism undermines the strides that feminism has made in achieving equality for everyone, including women. Post-feminism gives the impression that equality has been achieved and that feminists can now focus on something else entirely. McRobbie believes that post-feminism is most clearly seen on so-called feminist media products, such as Bridget Jones's Diary, Sex and the City, and Ally McBeal. Female characters like Bridget Jones and Carrie Bradshaw claim to be liberated and clearly enjoy their sexuality, but what they are constantly searching for is the one man who will make everything worthwhile.

Ref: http://www.gender.cawater-info.net/knowledge_base/rubricator/feminism_e.htm

GLOBAL CULTURAL FLOWS

Global cultural flow is a result of the process of globalization.

The five ‘Scapes’ of Globalization

Globalization refers to the increasing pace and scope of interconnections crisscrossing the globe. Anthropologist Arjun Appadurai has discussed this in terms of five specific “scapes” or flows: ethnoscapes, technoscapes, ideoscapes, financescapes, and mediascapes.

Thinking of globalization in terms of the people, things, and ideas that flow across national boundaries is a productive framework for understanding the shifting social landscapes in which contemporary people are often embedded in their daily lives.

Questions about where people migrate, their reasons for migration, the pace at which they travel, the ways their lives change as a result of their travels, and how their original communities change can all be addressed within this framework. Questions about goods and ideas that travel without the accompaniment of human agents can also be answered using Appadurai’s notion of scapes.

Ethnoscape refers to the flow of people across boundaries. While people such as labor migrants or refugees travel out of necessity or in search of better opportunities for themselves and their families, leisure travelers are also part of this scape.

According to the World Tourism Organization, a specialized branch of the United Nations, tourism is one of the fastest growing commercial sectors and that approximately one in eleven jobs is related to tourism in some way. Tourism typically puts people from developed parts of the world in contact with people in the developing world, which creates both opportunities and challenges for all involved.

Technoscape refers to flows of technology. Example - Apple’s iPhone an example of how the movement of technologies across boundaries can radically affect day-to-day life for people all along the commodity chain. Sales records are surpassed with each release of a new iPhone, with lines of customers spilling out of Apple stores and snaking around the block. Demand for this new product drives a fast and furious pace of production.

The revenue associated with the production and export of technological goods is drastically altering the international distribution of wealth. As the pace of technological innovation increases, so does the flow of technology.

This is an entirely new phenomenon; earlier technologies have also drastically and irrevocably changed the human experience. For example, the large-scale production and distribution of the printing press throughout Europe (and beyond) dramatically changed the ways in which people thought of themselves—as members not only of local communities, but of national communities as well.

Ideoscape refers to the flow of ideas. This can be small-scale, such as an individual posting her or his personal views on Facebook for public consumption, or it can be larger and more systematic.

Missionaries provide a key example. Christian missionaries to the Amazon region made it their explicit goal to spread their religious doctrines. Local people do not necessarily interpret the ideas they are brought in the way missionaries expect. In addition to the fact that all people have agency to accept, reject, or adapt the ideologies that are introduced to or imposed on them.

Financescape refers to the flow of money across political borders. Like the other flows discussed by Appadurai, this phenomenon has been occurring for centuries. The Spanish, for example, conscripted indigenous laborers to mine the silver veins of the Potosí mines of Bolivia. The vast riches extracted from this region were used to pay Spain’s debts in northern Europe. The pace of the global transfer of money has only accelerated and today transactions in the New York Stock Exchange, and other such finance hubs have nearly immediate effects on economies around the world.

Mediascape refers to the flow of media across borders. In earlier historic periods, it could take weeks or even months for entertainment and education content to travel from one location to another. From the telegraph to the telephone, and now the Internet (and myriad other digital communication technologies), media are far more easily and rapidly shared regardless of geographic borders.

For example, Bollywood films are shown in Canadian cinemas, and people from around the world regularly watch mega-events such as the World Cup and the Olympics from wherever they may live.

An example of the working of all the scapes: Clothing industry – it is found that the average American might be wearing clothes made in Honduras, Bangladesh, Cambodia, and China. Something as seemingly simple as a T-shirt can actually involve all five of Appadurai’s scapes. The transnational corporations responsible for the production of these shirts themselves are part of capitalism, an idea which has become part of the international ideoscape. The financescape is altered by a company in the U.S. contracting a production facility in another country where labor costs are cheaper. The equipment needed to create these T-shirts is purchased and delivered to the production facility, thus altering the technoscape. The ethnoscape is affected by individuals migrating from their homes in rural villages to city centers, often disrupting traditional residence patterns in the process. Finally, the mediascape is involved in the marketing of these T-shirts.

Ref: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-culturalanthropology/chapter/globalization/

STEREOTYPES

The definition of a stereotype is any commonly known public belief about a certain social group or a type of individual.

Stereotypes are often confused with prejudices, because, like prejudices, a stereotype is based on a prior assumption. Stereotypes are often created about people of specific cultures or races.

Almost every culture or race has a stereotype.

Stereotypes are not just centered on different races and backgrounds, however. Gender stereotypes also exist. For example, if you say that men are better than women, you're stereotyping all men and all women. If you say that all women like to cook, you are stereotyping women.

Sexual orientation stereotypes are also common. These stereotypes occur when you have negative views on gays, lesbians, and transgender individuals. People who have these negative views are often known as homophobic.

Any time you group races or individuals together and make a judgment about them without knowing them, it is an example of a stereotype. Racial remarks, sexual remarks, and gender remarks are the biggest stereotypes.

Common Stereotypes

Racial Profiling - One of the more common stereotype examples is stereotypes surrounding race. For example, saying that all Blacks are good at sports is a stereotype, because it's grouping the race together to indicate that everyone of that race is a good athlete.

Gender Profiling There are also some common stereotypes of men and women, such as:

• Men are strong and do all the work.
• Men are the "backbone."
• Women aren't as smart as a man.
• Women can't do as good of a job as a man.
• Girls are not good at sports.
• Guys are messy and unclean.
• Men who spend too much time on the computer or read are geeks.

Cultures - Stereotypes also exist about cultures and countries as a whole. Stereotype examples of this sort include the premises that:

• All white Americans are obese, lazy, and dim-witted. Homer Simpson of the TV series The Simpsons is the personification of this stereotype.
• Mexican stereotypes suggest that all Mexicans are lazy and came into America illegally.
• All Arabs and Muslims are terrorists.
• All people who live in England have bad teeth.
• Italian or French people are the best lovers.
• All Blacks outside of the United States are poor.
• All Jews are greedy.
• All Asians are good at math. All Asians like to eat rice and drive slow.
• All Irish people are drunks and eat potatoes.
• All Americans are generally considered to be friendly, generous, and tolerant, but also arrogant, impatient, and domineering.

Groups of Individuals

A different type of stereotype also involves grouping of individuals. Skaters, Goths, Gangsters, are a few examples. For example:

• Goths wear black clothes, black makeup, are depressed and hated by society.
• Punks wear mohawks, spikes, chains, are a menace to society and are always getting in trouble.
• All politicians are philanders and think only of personal gain and benefit.
• Girls are only concerned about physical appearance.
• All blonds are unintelligent.
• All librarians are women who are old, wear glasses, tie a high bun, and have a perpetual frown on their face.
• All teenagers are rebels.
• All children don't enjoy healthy food.
• Only anorexic women can become models.
• The elderly have health issues and behave like children.

Sexual Stereotypes - Sexual stereotypes, on the other hand, suggest that any feminine man is gay and any masculine woman is a lesbian. Those who believe gay stereotypes may also believe that homosexuality is immoral, wrong and an abomination.

 

Stereotyping is not only hurtful, it is also wrong. Even if the stereotype is correct in some cases, constantly putting someone down based on your preconceived perceptions will not encourage them to succeed.

Stereotyping can lead to bullying from a young age. Stereotyping is encouraging bullying behavior that children carry into adulthood.

Stereotyping can also lead people to live lives driven by hate and can cause the victims of those stereotypes to be driven by fear. For example, many gays and lesbians are afraid to admit their sexuality in fear of being judged. It is a lose-lose situation, both for those who are propagating the stereotype and those who are victims.