Not being american and not being from a prominent European country, I don't feel much appropriation of other cultures in the cultural material we produce, maybe because of the power issue you talked about. Of course, there is always stereotype, there are always authors that don't bother to do research, who prefer the easy way out, who use 'foreign culture' characters just for the comic relief. To be truthful to a culture that is not yours is hard, even more if you're not very familiar with it - stereotype is the most natural response to that. The thing is, as you said, the white american culture has power, world-wide power. Because of that, a thing that probably wouldn't reach beyond national level if it was turkish, is going to be known throughout the world if its american.
And that carries a huge amount of responsability. Not only will other cultures start to adopt the american-made appropriations, they will know how the americans see their own culture. And that, as you also said, leads to resentment, because not only you see a inaccurate (and sometimes disrespectful) image of your culture, you know that it will be advertised all over the world and taken for the truth.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2006-06-02 11:39 am (UTC)Not being american and not being from a prominent European country, I don't feel much appropriation of other cultures in the cultural material we produce, maybe because of the power issue you talked about. Of course, there is always stereotype, there are always authors that don't bother to do research, who prefer the easy way out, who use 'foreign culture' characters just for the comic relief. To be truthful to a culture that is not yours is hard, even more if you're not very familiar with it - stereotype is the most natural response to that.
The thing is, as you said, the white american culture has power, world-wide power. Because of that, a thing that probably wouldn't reach beyond national level if it was turkish, is going to be known throughout the world if its american.
And that carries a huge amount of responsability. Not only will other cultures start to adopt the american-made appropriations, they will know how the americans see their own culture. And that, as you also said, leads to resentment, because not only you see a inaccurate (and sometimes disrespectful) image of your culture, you know that it will be advertised all over the world and taken for the truth.