Quote: (03-03-2012 09:35 PM)Aliblahba Wrote:
I strongly disagree Athlone. The world is changing fast. I cite the Middle East as an example. No one thought 10 years ago Saudi women would be allowed to vote. Now you see many more women over here unveiled. This region will be the last holdout, but it's shifting. Other parts of the world will move at a much more aggressive pace.
This is not disagreement, it is misinterpretation. This entire argument is based upon the assumption that "world change = everyone becomes exactly like Americans". This is the problem.
American women in general (it obviously can vary in different parts of the country) have a host of traits we consider very undesirable. Compared to others, they're relatively masculine, relatively large, relatively aggressive and have a pathological hatred of beta-males that few other women maintain.
As I said before, these traits are the direct result of many economic, demographic, cultural and geographic factors (all of which were VERY unique to the United States) mixing and matching over the course of several centuries.
Other women will watch the end product of all of this and pick up a few new tricks here and there. They might try to dance like Americans, text obsessively/use social media like Americans, adopt a few American phrases and other superficial things. In some places, they'll also vote, unveil, and come closer to more western norms of style/dress.
This does not equate to truly becoming an American. That would require them to actually live here, and become subject to the unique historical factors that have made this nation what it is and its people the way they are (allowing them to create things like Jersey shore in the first place). Without this, all you are going to have is a cheap, superficial and largely unsubstantial imitation that doesn't go much deeper than the skin.
Jersey Shore is not going to be enough to move every other population of women to precisely match American levels of gluttony (obesity), masculinity, agression and thug-worship. These are deeply inbred cultural factors that result from hundreds of years of development, and no subtitled television show can replace that.
Examples of what I mean are everywhere.
Look at Canada today. It is the closest thing to the United States that you can get, both figuratively and literally. No other nation or populace is quite as well integrated culturally, militarily, economically or historically with the USA as Canada is.
And yet, somehow, they're still distinct. The players on the forum have remarked on this time and time again-once you get outside of Toronto, you'll meet women who differ significantly from their American peers (usually favorably, judging from what they've said).
They're more open to cross-cultural relations, not as fat, and not as masculine. Go to French Canada (which is still spitting distance from the United States) and the difference becomes even more stark.
Sure, there are similarities. They dress the same, sound quite similar, watch similar tv shows, and are just as affluent.
However, when you examine them objectively, you are going to find that
they are not American. They mimic us, but are not the same. You can see the same thing in others nations that have historically been closely linked to us (The Philippines, the United Kingdom, Mexico) and yet have still remained cultural distinct.
If Canadians can live right next to us and still maintain such clear distinction (nevermind the Mexicans, who despite being just as close are even more distant in their views on sexuality, femininity, family, etc), what on Earth makes us think that women in East Asia, South America, Europe or Africa are going to get any closer?
There are even examples of other cultures/populations living in America (ex: Mexican Americans) and remaining distinct in many significant cultural ways from other Americans who may have longer family histories here.
Bottomline: There is a hard limit to how American a distant foreigner can become via TV or other media without actually
being American. That is the reality. Imitation =/= being.
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Television is a powerful thing to the ignorant. People believe what they see in the media as the gospel. If women in EE keep watching shows like Jersey Shore, they'll quickly adopt the mindset.
No, they won't, because that mindset is unique to those who created the show and must be instilled in much more substantial ways. People can and will
mimic the mindset. They'll
act like The Situation and try to speak like Snooki. Maybe they'll even dress like them and fist pump in the clubs.
This is imitation. Actually BECOMING American would require them to go much further than that, and overcome
thousands of years of historical development within their own societies in the process. They'd need to completely invert their own views on sexuality, on religion, on race relations, on work, on economics, on liberty, and on a host of other factors to come in line with Americans and properly understand/adopt the American "mindset".
In addition to this, their men will need to agree to become as emasculated as the average American beta male, and behave accordingly (let me know when E. European, Arab, Jamaican, Filipino and African men get on board with this-you'll probably see a blizzard in Barbados first).
As if this were not enough, they'll also need to totally match American levels of wealth and economic development, since American abundance is a major part of this nation's cultural history and manifests itself ubiquitously in our popular culture today. No poor country will be able to accurately copy America.
Bottomline: They'd need to become and think EXACLTY LIKE Americans in every conceivable fashion and on every conceivable topic
without being subjected to any of the actual stimuli that made the United States and its citizens the way they are.
This is not possible. You give American media far too much credit, and foreigners (and their culture) far too little.
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When Helga moves to the U.S., get ruined, then tells all her friends back in Russia how nice it is to own a man, his house, and bank account, why wouldn't they want the same things?
Wanting =/= being.
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In 30 years relationship between the sexes will be ugly.
Not everywhere.