Living for Normality :: Cultural Culture Essays

Living for NormalityMost people want to be principle. The translation of recipe however, depends on the culture of the person making the judgment. furthest too often, normal is defined in America by tone at the actions and beliefs of the average white middle fellowship family. This definition of normal fails to let otherwise cultures to be accepted, creating distance and misunderstanding. One type of culture, which has traditionally been labeled as uncivilized, are those found in Africa. Other much civilized cultures tend to look down on those who belong to African cultures, labeling their customs and ways of life as abnormal. Randall Bass, an Associate Professor of English at Georgetown University, made an interesting argument in his book, Bordertexts Cultural Readings for modern Writer. Bass describes a passage from a local newspaper come on of Louisville, Kentucky. The newspaper coined the phrase, national geographic nudity in describing a movie. Basss concept of the p hrase is shown in the following passage, Somehow the phrase national geographic nudity implies that the natives were non as present or as visible as the other people in the movie. Here Bass is proving the point of cultural differences relating to the definition of normality. While the natives view their nudity as normal, nudity is generally not accepted by any class from America. This difference is a old example of clashing definitions of what cultures accept to be normal. The next step up the ladder of normality is the lower class. Unlike the natives who dont look to fit into the normal set by American middle class, American lower class are constantly looking for ways to improve. PBS ran a rattling interesting special on classes within the United States. In the special, peck Like Us, was a section devoted to a woman named tammy and her family. tam is a typical lower class citizen she lives in a trailer in a small town, trash piled around, and no motorcar to drive. After bein g on welfare for eighteen years, Tammy got a job at a Burger King restaurant 15 miles away. Tammy wants to become better in fact she wants to go back to school. Im hoping to go to college and be a school teacher. That was my goal from the time I was quintuple years old up until now. Even though Tammy wants to dissemble up a class, she still realizes to which group she belongs.