Dion's World

Saturday, October 17, 2009

6th Entry-Culture: Cultural Identity








Article: http://truthseekers.cultureunplugged.com/truth_seekers/2009/09/roses-too.html

In this article, the author talks about how our culture has viewed the females to be and how our culture's perception of woman has changed over time. Culture is the guide for our living. It tells us what we are, what groups do we belong to and how we live our lives. Culture used to tell us that women are second-class citizens, deprived of the rights to speak and decide for themselves. Cultural norms tell us that women are supposed to keep mum even when they are treated unjustly.

However, our culture's perception of women has changed as time goes by. Trenholm mentioned some characteristics of culture, which gave us clues of how or why our culture's perception of women could have changed and what impact does it have on the people and the society. 1. Trenholm said that culture is learned. We have education system to teach us our cultural values and how we should live our lives according to it (be it indirectly or directly). Our education system used to tell us that girls should grow up to be polite young women and they should focus on how to be a perfect wife in the future. However, our education system nowadays tells us that girls should step out of their homes and enjoy the same right as boys to pursue their dreams. Our education system has changed to one that promotes equal opportunity for one to receive a higher education, be the person is a male or a female.

2. Trenholm also said that culture is shared. Our behaviors can be observed or mimicked by others e.g. children. Since young, women observed their mothers as quiet and polite ladies, perfect wives but without much say in the family affairs. They grew up becoming quiet and polite ladies and they aimed their lives to become perfect wives of their husbands.

3. Trenholm mentioned that culture is dynamic. This means that culture changes over time. Our culture used to tell women how they should live and how their fate should be. And that is be well mannered, find a good husband and be a perfect wife or homemaker. However, since culture is dynamic, this has changed. Culture now tells women that they should step out of their homes and fight for their own fate.

In conclusion, these are just some of the things that Trenholm has mentioned about the characteristics of culture. Nevertheless, it gives us an idea of how culture has changed in its perception of women and what impact does it have on the roles of women in our society.

posted by Miss Dion @ 11:19 AM  

12 Comments:

  • At November 8, 2009 at 4:24 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Hi Celine!

    Indeed, our perception on certain issues are formed through our culture belief. In most westernized cultures, being thin is perceived as a good attribute of physical appearance. Whereas, in some part of Thailand, women with long necks are perceived as good looking. This appearance of women may feel weird in other cultures. Thus, this shows that cultures in various parts of the world are different.

     

  • At November 8, 2009 at 4:59 AM , Blogger Nero said...

    Perhaps culture might change how we perceive things however some perceptions might not still be constant as int has been "Inbuilt" into the human civilization if I can say so

     

  • At November 8, 2009 at 5:05 AM , Blogger YR said...

    Indeed, culture plays a really big part in shaping our perception towards certain things.

    Culture is something that we are immeresed in everyday , naturally it shapes our perception ,most of the time subconciously.

    Yes , perception of women shaped by the different cultures have been improved and changed over the year. However , there are still countries where women are still pretty much second-class citizens especially in Middle East countries.

     

  • At November 8, 2009 at 4:52 PM , Anonymous Ling said...

    Hi,
    Culture has been a huge part for us, especially for women. The part that culture changes is more apparent for us in this century. More women are now more prepared to take up a stronger stand on their own roles in their society.

     

  • At November 8, 2009 at 6:33 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Not sure what he means by "culture", but if culture includes religion, educatin, politics, art and family, then he's right, though it doesn't take a genius to make those observations.

    its a circular arguement, if culture is dynamic and culture is learned and culture is shares, then who really propagates or determined what should be the "current" culture?

    while the way society sees women have evolved over the years, with the spread of of feminism, women's rights, activist groups and others, who can make a judgment if the changes are totally for the better?

    more women attaining higher education status leads to more women becoming independent and career-minded, therefore leading to higher divorce rates, less children being born, more acrimonous divorce proceedings, and increase in single-parent family units (of course, assuming in the context of Singapore). it also leads to insecurities in partners, more men marrying non-singaporean women and viceversa and moving overseas, and it even leads to amendments to legislation and increase in litigation (women sueing employers for maternal leave and other benefits for pregnancy, discussing of pre-nup agreements, etc). at least pre-nup agreements are still not recognised by the courts in singapore, if not marriage will purely be a contract and an assignment of rights and obligations with material benefits in mind, rather than what it was meant to be.

    Culture is not the sole and not the most important factor in the role of women in society, though it continues to shape values and ideals, one can hardly quantify or identify or seperate different "cultures" in today's cosmopolitan society.

     

  • At November 9, 2009 at 1:13 AM , Blogger Danielle said...

    Hi girl! I agreed that the status of women nowadays has differed very much from what it used to be in the past. And I believed that this is because women nowadays has more chance to receive a higher education and given more opportunities to voice out their opinions. And in the process of that, our culture changes or progresses because of these added opinions and new voices, don't you think so?

     

  • At November 9, 2009 at 1:19 AM , Anonymous xiangjun said...

    yup i agree that the culture today has really changed alot in the sense that people nowadays are not so conservative and had the mindset that men are superior than women. For the society now, man abd woman are equal.

     

  • At November 9, 2009 at 2:39 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Culture now has really changed alot for women.
    From women staying home to do house chores, looking after children and not being able to receive any Education to now, where women are allowed to receive Education and have their own career. This definitely benefits women as women are now on par with men.

     

  • At November 9, 2009 at 4:43 AM , Anonymous Stella said...

    I agreed that culture is shared and this certainly has a great impact on the young. Because they grew up seeing their "role models" acting in such a way, they will think that they also have to behave in such a way...not many of us will dare or want to go against the social norms. Until a few brave ones speak up and fight for the rights of women, did other women pluck up their courage to fight for their own rights too.

     

  • At November 9, 2009 at 5:33 AM , Anonymous Joelle said...

    I think that it is really impossible for us to ignore what culture says. Thus, even if we do not feel that certain things which culture says is right, is really right, we may end up supporting what culture says.

    For instance, culture in time past says women should stay at home, girls should not be that educated. But is that really right? Do we feel that it is really right? But didn't people still follow this perception for so many years?

     

  • At November 9, 2009 at 6:38 AM , Anonymous Ong Zhu Neng said...

    What has been mentioned in the article and videos are events that have taken place many years ago in the echelons of history. The main point of focus I can probably point out is that women are definitely aware of their rights and that they are not inferior to men. There is motivation for them to fight for the egalitarian treatment that they strongly advocate for between men and women. As a guy, I fully accept that women can and should be of equal standing to females and accept their way of thinking and feminism culture. An example would probably be in the case of a job setting whereby the best possible and suitable candidate for a job post is to be decided upon. In this case, either a male or female can be appointed in any instance and there should be no prejudice. It all depends on how much respect that they are able to command in their capacity and not which gender they belong to. We, as men, have to concede that we may not be perfect at all times and thus have to acknowledge that women can perform certain tasks to produce relatively equal results. However, it should also be noted that there are certain things that females might not be able to handle that males can, such as in the instance of most manual labour, whereby the majority of males are indeed more physically able than females. It all depends on the personality of the person as to which tasks they are able to perform. Females on the whole exhibit more signs of vainity than males, but it does not entirely mean that males are excluded from this category. Certain males may have vainity tendencies and therefore, it is thus pertinent for people not to stereotype the two genders and make baseless judgements based on first-hand perceptions and on the outlook. There are always two sides to a coin. :)

     

  • At November 17, 2009 at 8:58 PM , Blogger Miss Dion said...

    As requested,
    @ Anonymous(Guo Hao?)
    As to who usually determine our current culture, it depends on what type of culture you are talking about. But I believed that in general, our culture is determined by government and the people's way of life. The government because they decides what should be censor and what information we should receive. They come up with campaigns to influence or change the culture that we have. E.g. Stop at two campaign. Singaporeans used to have more than 2 children. However, after the campaign is launched, it is so successful that many years later, Singaporeans still have this mindset to have 2 or less children. But government is not the entire determining factor for culture. E.g. Though the government has introduced "speak good English" campaign for so many years, many Singaporeans still embraces the Singlish culture. Singaporeans are simply too used to using Singlish in their daily conversation. This shows the people's way of life is also a determining part of our culture.

     

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