"Modern Abaya"

The culture and traditions of the Middle East are wildly different than they are in the west. Due to the majority of the Middle East being Muslim, the differences of cultural behaviors and social norms are drastic. Women in the Middle East are held under certain expectations that they’re anticipated to follow. The cultural “norm” of how a Middle Eastern woman dresses and acts is considered to be very conservative. We’re expected to be “covering” ourselves from head to toe when we’re out in public or are around men; that however is partly due to religion. Nevertheless in the Gulf, that is considered part of their tradition, and not just for religious purposes. In the Gulf women are expected to wear the Abaya. The Abaya is a loose black robe that covers the women from their neck down to their toes. The original purpose of the Abaya is to cover up the woman, and be loose enough in order to hide the shape of her body, and not attract attention to her.

In the media, Muslim Arab women are often portrayed as very conservative, veiled, and regularly, if they’re from the Gulf, wearing Abaya’s. However, what are also portrayed in the media are ideas of urbanization and modernization. In the recent years, due to the globalization and modernization theories, traditions and cultures in the Middle East are being thrown out the window. For the purposes of being “modern” and transitioning into urbanization, cultures and traditions that we once followed for essential reasons are being forgotten or drastically changed. The Abaya that was once supposed to serve the purpose of covering a woman up and concealing the shape of her body is now turned into a fashion statement. That may be due to the fact that the women here feel alienated from themselves. Marx’s theory of alienation helps us understand that. It basically states that due to the social structure and social class stratification enforced on us by society, we eventually begin to feel detached from our work, from our life activities, from ourselves, and from the people around us. We can use this theory and apply it to the situation here. Because the women are forced to wear the Abaya and look like every other woman around them, they’re beginning to feel invisible. They can’t express their personalities through fashion; they can’t stand out. This makes them feel alienated from themselves and from society, and I believe that this may be one of the reasons for the invention of the “modern Abaya”.

A variety of designers have turned the Abaya into beautifully designed dresses. I cannot deny that the art and thought put into designing those items of clothing is spectacular, but they’re not Abaya’s. Many new designers have come up with “modern Abaya” collections, a few Arab’s and a few westerners. The students of VCU in Qatar have come up with a project called the “Abaya Project” where they all contribute their beautiful designs of modern Abaya’s.

Here are some examples to demonstrate my explanations of today's modern Abaya.

The following video highlights a Modern Abaya Exhibition held in Katara’s Art Center here in Doha, displaying their beautiful designs.



I do agree that these new designs are very inventive, and can allow a woman to highlight her beauty whilst still being conservative. It allows them to express themselves and present their personalities through fashion. But going back to our original values, cultures and traditions, this is defying the purpose of the Abaya and hence defying our cultures and traditions.

Why are women obsessed with becoming thin?

The power of media boosted with the help of technological developments and has been able to shape the society and public opinion. For the past few years, media has been successful in setting their standards of beauty that the public has to unwillingly conform to. The perfect image portrayed of women in magazines, through the use of image manipulation, contributes to the societal and mental image of a beautiful woman. The problem lies in the fact that such images are usually fabrications and set unrealistic expectations.

A stereotype of skinny bodies, flawless faces, pearly teeth, fair skin tones and many more is being reflected on society. What people perceive and compare to their own appearance is strongly related to what the media advocates. Unfortunately, many people will go to extremes in order to be considered ‘normal’ or simply fit in. The media has multiple means by which they are influencing what the society should imitate. Products that are promoted come with a subliminal message that we ought to buy them in order to fulfill our insecurities and feel better about ourselves. They are alienated by society which usually ignites all those problems.

   

The media has been using subliminal messages to prompt weight loss and advertise products that almost never work. Viewers will still purchase them just so they can meet the beauty standards, which the media has established. Countless people have died as a result of extreme dieting, starving themselves in order to shed the extra pounds. There also have been many incidents of models dying due to anorexia and bulimia, risking their lives just so they can meet the requirements of modeling agencies. This issue is not only associated with models, many girls feel like having an eating disorder is completely normal and required to be able to have the perfect size. Having an eating disorder is being portrayed as normal thanks to celebrities and the way the media interprets it. Likewise it is mirrored on society as we notice many girls becoming victims of bullying because of their appearance.

The obsession with losing weight has also taken its toll on men; they too tend to have low self-esteem and self-image. Whether it was diet pills or extreme diets and workouts, men also have a stereotype that media created.





Media’s influence over public opinion should be used to endorse healthy lifestyles as well as have no specifics when it comes to beauty. Many modeling agencies started up with no special requirements when it came to weight and height. Beauty shouldn’t be limited to a certain type and the society should embrace imperfections and boost positive self-esteem with the help of the media.

   

The question is, Who benefits from creating a certain image for women and beauty that seems to unrealistic?

Because we live in such a capitalist world, where thousands of new products are introduced to the market on a daily basis, advertisements and movies tend to force these things upon society. Movies ares supposed to reflect the society however, they are shaping what everyone should dress, eat, listen to, watch, look, and live like. Those ideologies are transmitted through media outlets in an indirect way, and to our brains they reside and dwell.

I would like to end this entry with a quote from one of the one and only and the eternal goddess, Marilyn Monroe. She also believed that imperfections are beauty.

Once Upon A Subculture

Throughout the years the subculture of hipsters has evolved significantly. There has been resistance from society towards hipsters and what they embody and represent. I associate hipsters with being totally against the mainstream and conventional ideas. The phrase “don’t trust the system,” reminds me of the hipster style since it seems that the subculture strongly value nature, originality and freedom beyond the confinements of society. The hipster subculture is a culture within the larger culture. They have their own set of beliefs, values and interests. The subculture discussed is at variance with the larger culture. It seems to me that hipsters are completely against the materialistic way of life and the obsession with consumerism. However, that has drastically changed as the subculture has been accepted and incorporated into the larger culture.

Recently, hipsters have been made apart of the mainstream and larger culture. Websites like Tumblr has helped incorporate the subculture into the larger society. It has become the norm and popular to dress and have similar beliefs which were originally that of hipsters. Is it ironic that a subculture that is built on a belief that is completely against society become incorporated into the mainstream? Are we all hipsters at heart? Has the incorporation of the hipster lifestyle abolish the hipster subculture? All these questions formulated in my head when the hipster incorporation took place. It was confusing seeing a subculture resisted by the masses becoming a trend. However, further reading suggested that the taking on of a subculture by the popular media is a frequent occurrence.

Hebdige brought up two ways in which this occurrence happened. The subcultural styles are incorporated into the mainstream culture by the commodity form and/or the ideological form. The commodity form is “the conversion of subcultures signs into mass-produced objects.” This implies that corporate companies use these subculture styles to create new trends. The ideological form is “the labeling and re-definition of deviant behavior by dominant groups.” The two forms can be applied to the diffusion of the hipster subculture into the popular media. Since culture is not fixed it can take on many different trends and continuously alter.

Youth in Qatar

One of our first readings, “Arab Youth, the Missing Demographic”, which focused on the large number of Arab youth and their identity struggles, complex relationships to media, and high unemployment rates, was something that I can relate to personally due to my involvement in the founding of The Youth Company. Before I explain what this company is, I also think what I am about to discuss relates closely to ideas of globalization and glocalization (customizations to better suit geographic areas) that we have previously discussed as well as hegemony, social construction, consumer cultures and ethnocentrism.

Almost two years ago a group of four friends and I sat down and decided to come up with a project that would shape and re-define the way the Qatari community views its youth. You may be wondering why I didn’t write about something more lighthearted, like the relations between the Arab dessert Umm Ali and British bread and butter pudding, or my thoughts on the “One Of Us” campaign here in Qatar, well it’s because The Youth Company is something that I feel everybody should know about because it genuinely relates to much of what we discuss in class and is something that we, as youth in this region, should be aware of.

We initially formed the company to be a way for youth from around Qatar to get to know each other and share thoughts about many social issues while working to remove any ethnocentric tendencies and foster notions of cultural relativism, however it quickly branched out and became a way for youth to gain different experiences in order to be more successful in the future. I’ll take a step back to explain briefly. In Qatar during high school, and even during university, it is very hard to acquire a part time job or even an internship, in order to gain experience that will help you in finding a job in the future. Unlike in many western countries, where during middle school you can work in a McDonalds or your dad’s car shop, there are limited activities here unless you model, work for Red Bull, or have very good connections or ‘wasta’ (it’s not what you know but who you know). Although this situation is improving each year, it used to be that in order to get the credits to get into a university, unless you were fortunate enough to play on a sports team or debate team, the most experience you were going to get was lax community and service work.

This is where the idea of The Youth Company (TYC) came from, now after two years of being fully functional I can quote our mission:

“Our youth work is informed by a set of beliefs that include a commitment to equal opportunities, and to young people as partners in learning and decision-making. We believe that the needs, abilities, and aspirations of young people should be recognized, understood, and met within a supportive environment, which encourages them to achieve their goals and make real measurable progress. We endeavour to value the whole person and not focus solely on the problems or difficulties that young people may present.”

This relates to our class discussions and readings as at TYC we have worked with Silatech and referenced the Silatech Index for many of our workshops and research conducted to determine how to best reach certain youth groups. As Qatar has such a multicultural and diverse population of youth, it becomes even more complex for the youth to have a say in society and have their voices heard when it comes to our rights. However, certain hegemonic views that ‘youth are just youth’ and the idea that we don’t accomplish much or contribute to society is greatly misinformed by society at large and unfortunately sometimes it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The dominant group, being the rest of society, deems youth as being lazy and unaccomplished and instead of having youth just accept this as their fate, TYC works towards disbanding notions like this.

Due to society viewing youth in certain negative ways, many youth have moved online to social media to create large communities of active media consumers where youth can share thoughts openly without judging based on gender or ethnicity and without being judged by the rest of society. Examples of this can be seen on Facebook with pages and groups such as “What’s Goin on Qatar”, “Teenagers in Qatar”, and “Run The World Festival”. TYC actively participates with many of these groups, functioning mostly online, and is the creator of the Run The World Festival, which aims to bring together many youth sub-cultures in Qatar and allows them to learn from one another. This can be seen in last year’s RTWFestival where dance groups, singers, skateboarders, and different sports players were invited to perform and socialize at an event (side note: not many people even knew of the skater sub-culture in Qatar although it does exist).

Again relating to the reading, there is a 25% unemployment rate amongst Arab youth, and although that number may be lower in terms of Qatar, unemployment among youth is still something we see a lot of here. Despite having all of this American education and Western ways of living, in terms of globalization and glocalization, when it comes to how youth are perceived in society, it is still a very traditional outlook. The older generations have an older sense of looking at things and there are not many things for youth to do so they begin to look at these youth as miscreants – gangs of young people with too much time on their hands, and so starts the infamous “when I was your age” speech. Although I digress, my main point is that due to globalization, we have a mix of so many different cultures in Qatar’s youth population and a unique lifestyle where tradition meets many global concepts and forms of education, making it hard for us to relate to one another and to be heard and recognized in society. Therefore, companies like TYC work to bridge gaps in our youth community and also give different youth experiences that can help them later in life, which in a way can be viewed as social construction of our own youth culture.

Cheap Short Film Causes Chaos

A few days ago, a short film was released on the Internet and as a result my twitter homepage has been flooded with tweets about it. There are many active twitter users in the Arab world, so it is not a surprise that the video spread as fast as it did. The Arab youth are becoming increasingly aware about the events happening in the Middle East. The various forms of media help facilitate their ability to receive and send out their opinion.

Following the release of this YouTube video, there were furious protests occurring at the US embassy in Egypt and Libya. The youth subculture makes up more than half of the entire Arab population (Pre-publication ARAB ENTERTAINMENT SATTELLITE TELEVISION, page 14). Most of them have a voice and are not afraid to use it. Journalists are reporting on the issue in Australia, England and other parts of the world. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sQPRtS2h7k&feature=share In this short film, the filmmakers are mocking Islam and the Prophet, Mohammed sala allah 3alyhi wa salam, and the Islamic culture. Middle-easterners are stereotyped as having dark skin, as the actors in the film are heavily sprayed with fake tans and make-up. They bring up controversial topics related to Muslims and Christians, portraying Muslims as being beastly and ignorant. The also address sacred Muslim sayings in a mocking sarcastic tone.

From a sociological perspective, extreme ethnocentric thoughts are used to portray Arabs in this film. They mock the cultures and beliefs of Muslims because they are different than their own and they fail to understand them. They use material culture, such as the jalabiya/bisht and the dishadasha that is worn by the Muslim men in the film. Additionally, most of the men in the film have a long beard, which is often seen as a symbol of Islam.

Videos put on YouTube can be seen by everyone in the world. When a film like this is put up on the Internet, people might watch it and get an incorrect image of Muslims and their values and norms. This stereotypical image of Islam could be a result of socially constructed films, articles, and various types of media that socialize people into thinking in a specific way.

Media's Negative Impact

Media has a great impact on culture and behavior. As I was visiting my grandmother’s house a few days back, I came to a realization of the influence of media on our culture on the young generation. The generation has majorly changed over the past ten years. I realized that media shaped the way they act, move and think. How so? Back in our childhood days, part of our tradition and culture was to play in the playground with our brothers and sisters or our neighbors. Our entertainment was never really indoors, and not much technology is involved in our free time. However, these days, we see children playing around with their new technologies such as iPads, iphones, Galaxy S3

. These material culture items got me thinking, has the tradition changed? Do these technologies avoid children to move around and to socialize with others. Another point that crossed my mind is that these new fancy technologies also made the children of this generation anti social. It limited their communications with others.Back in the days, children interacted with other children and played physical games such as football and basketball. On the other hand, children’s games these days are just on a technological device. In a sociological perspective, non-material culture is being affected in terms of behavior and language of this young generation. I realized my younger brother’s behavior and language changed since he started playing the wrestling games online. He became more violent, and so was his language. Some people say that media is a mirror of our culture, but however I do not believe so. It has added competition and pressure to girls especially. They would watch these advertisements and would starve themselves in order to look skinny. Media does not always have to be positive to our culture. It can negatively influence generations into behaving in a certain way. However, it can be debated that we are socially constructed into this living. Media and technology has become almost everything. It made things easier to a certain extent, but also allowed people to be anti social.

Arab Youth on YouTube: fouseyTUBE

YouTube has one of the largest online communities where original content is uploaded every day. It generates discussion about media texts that are posted between people and leads to parodies and replicas of the same content. I tend to think there is a form of hegemony on YouTube as the creators who are paid to post and those who are of large followings. They tend to disseminate their ideas and formats of what a video should be like, and their followers follow suit. Making the format of daily vlogs, a ShaneDawson video, or make-up tutorials the norm on YouTube.

One YouTuber who came to mind when thinking about Arab youth creating content online is Yousef Erakat the mastermind behind his hilarious channel fouseyTUBE. He is one of the few Arabs on YouTube that I find has appealed to quite a large audience with his own original content poking fun of people from the Middle East and their culture.

Some of his most popular videos include: SH*T DRAKE SAYS, MIDDLE EASTERN PARENTS, SHI*T MIDDLE EASTERN GUYS SAY, MIDDLE EASTERN MISTAKES and SH*T MIDDLE EASTERN GIRLS SAY.



Now the Internet meme Sh*t Girls Say is how three of Erakat’s most popular videos came to be. His version of the famous comedy sketch appealed to his audience who are mainly Arab youth. Sure there are others who must have found a liking to the videos, but mostly people who are from the region will get the humor of some of the text. Now, based on the statistics from his videos the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada are almost always the top three countries where the video has been viewed. I hypothesis this is due to the large Arab communities living abroad in addition to the natives of those countries.



After uploading SH*T GUYS SAY and seeing the reaction that he got from it, I’m pretty sure that encouraged him to do the girls’ version. The process that takes place surrounding the message can be explained using a flow chart. The focus is on the message that is in the center. Now, the sender has to come with a way to get that message across to its target receivers. Once the message has been created in the way that suits the senders’ needs it is up to the receiver to interpret the message. The only way that the sender will know if the message was received correctly is by providing a method for feedback. Feedback allows the senders to also be able to better encode their message in the future.

I doubt that Erkat used a flowchart when thinking about his videos. Though I am fairly sure that he sees which of his video formats appeals to most people and continues to grow from there.

Bombers or Billionaires?

When I lived in Canada I witnessed many different kinds of stereotyping. It seems like after 9/11 there was an increase in negative sanctions towards people of darker skin tones. Despite the actual ethnicity of the person, as long as you had a brown complexion you were targeted.

In our last Sociology class we discussed how the American film industry has projected these extreme images of people who live in the Middle East in order to escalate a culture of fear. Although there were always distorted images of Arabs in American movies since the late 20th century, the impact of these images became even more profound on audiences after 9/11.

Although Canada was not affected by 9/11, airports worldwide tightened security measures as a result of the tragic event. In general, elementary and high school kids are mean. But somehow the incident of 9/11 justified their meanness. In the narrow minds of these kids, everyone of a brown skin tone was Pakistani. And they would bully these poor kids, telling them to go back to where they came from, and even asking them if they were related to the Taliban. North American children were highly susceptible to moral panic. Moral panic makes exaggerated media images and messages so much more believable.


Arabs in the film industry are normally portrayed as “bombers, belly dancers and billionaires,” the three B syndrome. Prior to the 9/11 attacks, these images were extremely dominant. Living in Qatar for the past five years only showed one trait to be quite accurate: billionaires. Although there is more to the Arab culture than money, it is quite a distinguished characteristic. If Americans showed other aspects of the Arab culture in their movies, like their food, how they love shisha and how they are actually quite normal, it would result in a major loss to the film industry and not support the American justification for intervening in the Middle East.




The movie The Kingdom, released in 2007, is about a terrorist attack on a U.S. compound in Saudi Arabia and how American special agents go in and investigate. This movie depicts how Islamists are extremists and fanatics and justifies American resolve to be in the Middle East: Arabs are evil, and Americans are heroes. Arabs can be classified as folk devils, particularly for Americans. A folk devil is a term that’s applied to outsiders portrayed as responsible for creating social problems.



The film industry usually reflects American foreign policy. During the Cold War with Russia, many films depicted communists as evil and invoked a sense of fear, again contributing to this culture of fear. However after the Soviet Union collapsed, the U.S. changed its foreign policy to target the Middle East and coincidentally films reflected this change.

House Wives embrace change in their norms

In society today House Wives have been incorporating a relatively long list of characteristics of deviance. Their social status was defined as time came closer to the 21st century. This could be an uprising crisis because not only are women leading the media world, but they might end up being the head of the house. The video below will clearly show how Women could be close to the Social Media and the end of Gender. It is a Ted Talk that brightened my perspective on what women are capable of doing in the future.

Now that we saw how media is almost taken over by women, there is a connection I made with women who were house wives in history and were forced into a lot of labor because those were the norms set by people, and how the house wives of today, who are also working members are driving the social media.
Before Looking at the change in the norms of modern House wives, the history of the norms identified for the house wives are also important. Housework in America during the nineteenth century  was a range of harsh physical labor. To prepare a mean was difficult because it was time and energy consuming, since cooking was performed on a wood or coal burning stove.There were no thermostats to regulate the stove's temperature, which made the women keep a close eye on the fire all day an change the fuel accordingly. She would have to know how to cook unprocessed food like cleaning and killing a live bird/ chicken, green coffee had to be roasted before pounding, and cleaning all the mess the coal and smoke created from the cooking and light was tedious. Only, well-to-do families could afford cleaners, and cooks by paying them a few dollars. 

Although, time has brought us to a new standstill, House wives do not bother collecting coal or wood for fire in order to cook, they have the availability to electric or gas stoves, which works with just a click of a switch. 

Based on some research done on the Feminists' history of housewives, I found out that "Dr Bourke analysed the attitudes of about 5,000 women from 1860 to 1930 when, for the first time in Britain, it became the norm for women to be housewives. Previously most women had worked in factories, shops and farms". This is astounding but there is a reason why women accepted this norm.The change in the occupation, which was to move into the house was imposed on them against their will. As the wages got higher and men could afford it, the wives and daughters were forced to leave their jobs so that the men could make the family depend on him economically. This change came at a time when job opportunities were growing for women and the wages for women were rising faster than men.

Many posters were passed around to make more women embrace the idea of being a house wife, rather than an employed worker, as you can see below.

 Even quotes identify that the male figure and female figure grew very different from each other. This could even define the sociological perspective of such a rapid change.

“Any change in the nature of male and female roles thus automatically affects the home, the economy, the school, and perhaps above all, the definition of who we are as human beings.”
……William Chafe, A History of Our Time (224)

Government and business leaders created campaigns that convinced women that they should give their men their jobs because the men need it more than them since the war is over.  "Television and radio ads told women that they would be much happier if they went back home and had children and gave men their jobs back" were words taken from Chafe's point of view. 

Nevertheless, media has played its role in making a brand new perspective on what norms housewives today should look upon and almost abide by. The media that I am reffering to is the daily English series called Desperate Housewives. 

 
Desperate Housewives is an American television comedy-drama mystery series created by Marc Cherry. In brief it basically depicts six housewives who have been introduced to secrets that could corrupt their current relationships because it deals with affairs with other men, and it shows how some of the wives commit to their duties, and others are engrossed in their husbands money or generally in money, shopping, beauty, and the least care for their children. It shows acts where housewives engage in deviant behaviors that either hidden or exposed to the society in embarrassing ways. it creates a warning sign for people to be aware of their neighbors and keeping their enemies closer than their friends. This is one reason why House wives tend to be more lazy in their house work in the 21st century because they are inspired by television series. Even Indian television serials show two types of Housewives, one that is loyal and the other is a heavy headed house wife who tries to prove that she is better than the other. The name of the show is called Saath Nibhana Saathiya.

These shows effects the way housewives think and act. Technology is another cause to their introduction to more deviant behaviors. Some of the deviant behaviors could be shopping all day, instead of doing house work, lazing around and watching T.V most of their time or taking up a well paid job because women have realized that they are equal to men and can work as much, and doing tasks that do not relate to their norms in their social status. The norms are set by media and partly history. The organism that usually controls or judges the behavior of the house wives norms are the family members and for the most part their Mother in Laws and Husbands.
As this is a deviance, there are certain consequences to it, such as Sanctions defined by sociology. A sanction is an authoritative permission or approval for an action that is separated into four distinct categories. A formal Positive way, where the house wife is rewarded for being a good wife, though less used in cases for an house wife because a formal positive way looks at giving medals, or diplomas  or certificates. In this case, people do not usually give wives medals for being great wives. There is the formal negative way, where a person could receive a death sentence or punishments based on laws, in which case it would not be the case of a house wife to receive such sanctions unless they committed murder or other drastic crimes. Wives could get an informal positive sanction like a smile, hug, kiss or some extra love from her family members. Or, they could get informal negative sanctions where they are withdrawn from affection, isolated or even worst, physically abused which is a domestic violence.

In my experience, I see this as a relatively high crisis in my current life style. Having a maid in the house to do most of the work like cleaning, cooking, washing clothes, etc are so vital to keep a family going on with no stress or tiredness. In the culture I am living in today, a well-to-do family have several maids to run the behind-the-scenes work at home. There is one driver or more, three or more maids in one house and a separate gardener, and maybe a special Nani for each of the children in the house. It is not a huge culture shock for me because I have lived in Qatar my entire life and I proceed with some how a similar lifestyle. if people can afford to have a maid or cleaner, they certainly embrace the opportunity to make their work load less tiresome, giving them more time to relax more and have the chance to be a working member in the family.

Role-models

The term role model in sociology generally means any "person who serves as an example, whose behavior is emulated by others". Who is your role model? Who do you look up to? Is it a scientist? A scholar? Or maybe your own parents?

Having actors as role models has been something that’s been going on for long now,  seeing how the actors play certain character, and the audience might fall for that certain character, but at the same time, not differentiating between the character and the actor/actress. Especially children.

One of the reasons I decided to write about this certain topic is that I remembered a little chatter between me and my friends about Miley Cyrus. How she was only seen as Hannah Montana, a role-model for little girls, and then how she evolved to a totally different example, a bad one. (1-2)

And as for boys, their role models might be from WWE(World wrestling Entertainment), which is an entertainment programs that target males from age 18-34, and also children. But how do you group children with 18-34 years old males? These role models are certainly not good ones.

Why is media portraying these people as people a child should consider a hero? Why are most kids these days not consider scholars, scientists as heroes and role models these days? Is it because the whole world is focused on self-entertainment in this century?

There are many other "role-models" to be listed but I thought that these two stands out the most.

The significance of Ethnicity

The world today identifies an individual by reading their I.D (identification card). However, not all people feel understood by the limited information provided in that piece of plastic. The cultures in our society have developed this sense of insecurity because of their different perspectives. There are three kinds of sociology concepts or theories, though this social issue is an example of a symbolic interaction.

The reason why I chose this topic is because I have experienced a case of nationality misjudgment for a long time, and it has created a scar within my mind, allowing me to feel insecure in society on a daily basis. People approach me and ask me “where I’m from?” There is no harm to answer the question, but when people make assumptions about my race I get paranoid. I am ashamed when people assume I could be from Kerela or Srilanka, which I am not. There is no reason to be demoralized, but the media has portrayed discriminating points of view for these cultures.

Culture is the way of life of a person, and this video discriminates the accent of the people of this country, and some aspects of their life style, which does not apply to everyone. What is intriguing is that the people who are making the video are from that country. Stereotypes portray many cultural downfalls on Youtube. Thus, some people dislike the label of a country that is not appreciated. A third component of a nonmaterial culture is norms, and it is an obvious norm to refuse an assumption of being classified a wrong ethnicity. The social situation that provokes this behavior is grasped from media. People are proud to be of a race that is looked up upon. Media has and will always influence the way we look at a person’s social status.

Ageism in the media

You need look no further than in the fashion and lifestyle magazines and on the TV to see that people of a certain age, especially women, are seriously under-represented. Ageism is showing itself in all of areas of global culture from films, music, advertising, fashion and even in the news. There is no denying that popular culture is rooted in youth and energy and that is reflected in all our media.

Alarmingly, advertising and films tend to promote images of older persons in a negative light – as helpless, bumbling, and forgetful – in a stereotype described jokingly as “senior moments”.

Many Hollywood actresses have drawn attention to the fact that once they have past 40, there are less and less roles for them in movies. Female newsreaders will more often than not be “put out to pasture” as they get older and begin to show signs of aging while their male counterparts continue in the industry despite greying hair and facial lines.

As a result of this, women have been pushed to resort to face and body enhancements to accommodate the relentless demand for all things young and youthful. The extent of this demand has resulted in girls as young as 12 and 13 advertising beauty, perfume and fashion products as representative of the “ideal woman” and one women “would most like to look like”. The media has continued to be a willing participant promoting these impossible ideals.

Double Standards

Double standards are principles that are unfairly applied in different ways to different people who are in similar situations. They can be applied to races, cultures, but most of all, men and women. It is a common misconception that women are the only people who endure double standards, but in reality, both sexes deal with having to be judged or “defined” by double standards.

A common example is marriage. If a man is entering his 30’s and still isn’t married, he is seen as a driven individual focused on his career. Whereas if a woman isn’t married by the time she’s in her 30’s, something must be “wrong” with her because nobody asked for her hand in marriage. Age difference between couples is also judged according to gender. It’s becoming socially acceptable for a man to date or marry a woman 20 years younger than him but a woman is “cold-shouldered” or shunned down upon if she chooses to date a younger man. Men on the other hand could be seen as ‘the bad guys’ in situations where women are seen as victims. For example break ups, if a man ends a relationship he’s seen as a jerk, regardless of what the legitimate reasons might have been. However, if a woman ends the relationship the man ‘must’ have done something wrong for her to end it. Men are also belittled if they decide to take on the role of homemaker while their wives financially support the family, however society has deemed it more than socially acceptable (if not preferred) that women tend to household duties while the men work. Working women who are in relationships with working men, still expect them to pay when they go out or indulge them with presents and flowers, while at the same time, still wanting to be treated as an equal in other aspects of their relationship.

The media is also a very powerful tool in reinforcing double standards. Women are constantly portrayed as beautiful, thin and perfect, an impossible ideal that many young women strive to achieve. Although there are “model-like” ideals for men in the media there’s still a much wider range presented. Male actors can be older, chubbier, bald and not necessarily attractive to sell a product. This confuses young girls in particular because they are constantly told their character is based upon their physical attributes.

The list of double standards men and women undergo is endless. They happen more often than we might think, but the stereotypes and labels we grow up with over the years play a huge role in distracting us from noticing them immediately.

Westernised Culture

Films, music, news and any source of media usually isn't popular unless it is available in the universal language, english! We all have our guilty pleasures and the one that tops my list, is watching television series online. I wait anxiously every week until Tuesday comes so that I can watch my three favorite television series, gossip girl, one tree hill and 90210. The episodes usually air on mondays in America but they become available online on Tuesdays. American television series are considered to be the popular culture between teenagers all over the world and I recently discovered a lot of the popular shows are dubbed in foreign languages.

One Tree hill has been going strong since 2003, even after two crucial actors left the show, the fans remained loyal to the show and ratings were not as damaged as expected. In the older episode there was always voice overs where the characters would say a famous quote from books and it would somehow relate to the events happening in the episode. That was my favorite part of every episode as it encouraged me to start reading more books and start looking for the source of the quote being said.

90210, the new version of it, features the same drama that was in the old episodes of 90210 beverly hills. The show was not entirely recreated, it was simply altered to fit into the new world we live in. The cliche stories of high school and the most ridiculous stories imaginable is what truly defines television series such as this one.

Younger teenagers, no matter what country they are in, have gullible minds and they live and breathe on the drama they watch on television. Their actions and the way they speak become prone to change because of what they watch and idolize.

Reality television shows are even more popular between the younger and the older age groups, particularly the shows on MTV. People somehow feel like they relate to the characters of the show(more like they imagine they do)

Jersey Shore, the most recent obsession, is a reality television show that aired on MTV quite recently. Now I hear people go around quoting random saying from the show. Things like "T-shirt time" and "GTL" (gym, tanning, laundry) are known in different countries. Each person in the show has their own trademark, such as snookie and her poof (hairstyle) or "the situation" and his arrogance.

Thanks to mass media, we are exposed to the different norms and behaviors that occur in the west. What some people fail to realize is that the actions and language, viewed and used in the show might not be accepted culturally in the country they live in.