Culture's Mirror

You walk into the lunch room alone. People are scattered everywhere in different groups, all of which you observe carefully. You suddenly realize you do not know one single person in the room. What do you do? Should you sit next to the girl with the long, curly red hair with the crooked smile, or the tall skinny guy with jet black hair, or what about the guy sitting alone in the corner staring at his plate? Maybe you should just sit alone? Whatever your decision, it is very likely a reflection of your culture. It is a reflection of the culture that lives within you; the culture that you have grown up with and learned to accept. But what exactly is this culture I speak of?

Understanding exactlty what culture is, is pretty difficult. There is no clear right or wrong answer when it comes to this field of study. Through examples in our society over the years, however, I will attempt to explain different aspects of culture.

No matter where you are, it is nearly impossible to escape the grasp of culture. We encounter it on a daily basis. From your new hair style, to the clothes you wear, to the people you hang out with, all reflect how culture influences you from day to day. Culture lives within us and is derived from our environment. Our surroundings or objects, in a sense, become us, the subjects.

In Susan Bordo's "Reproduction of Femininity," she explains how culture gets inside women's heads and changes who they are and how they function in society. Bordo explains that women are constantly bombarded with the idea of what a woman should look like and act like. Whether women realize it or not, these images and ideas linger in their minds, often times in the subconscious. It is the subconscious protesting, Bordo believes, that may be the cause of disorders like anorexia. After being bombarded with images of thin women everywhere, it is very hard to simply not be affected. This shows that the culture all around us truly does seep in to our minds and can alter us.

Bordo also points out that time period has a lot to do with how women portray themselves as well. In times of war, the rate of anorexia increased significantly in women. Some needed a sense of control in the midst of the chaos. The best way to do this for some was to attempt to control their body. These happenings in society reflected directly onto the population, again showing how cultures, or events in the outside world, really do affect us.

So whether we like it or not, culture affects everyone. The way we are today is a result of cultural influences we have run into throughout our lives. Regardless of the fact that it may be a subconscious part of us, it is still within us, there for us to embrace everyday.