1. In my culture, family is considered people that are related by blood, marriage, or birth. Family is pretty limited when it comes to this culture and we really do not extend out super far. There are two types of family in my culture, immediate and extended. Immediate is considered to be your parents, spouses, children, and siblings. Extended is considered to be your grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and in-laws.
2. Parents have specific roles and are supposed to be the providers. They have to take care of their children until they are 18 and need to make sure they are safe and free from harm. Husbands and wives are also supposed to take care of each other and provide for each other as well.
3. Children are not expected to stay in the same house they grew up in and are actually usually expected to move out once they turn 18. If a child is going to school or are just temporarily moving back home, it is usually acceptable, but often times they are charged rent or are expected to move out on their own soon.
4. The culture norms regarding dating could go anywhere. Most of the time they are expected to take a person out on a date to a nice restaurant, buy them flowers, and take the home. The men are supposed to pay for the meal and it is looked down upon to go home with them on the first date. This does sometimes happen, but they are often looked at as skanky or cheap if they were to do this.
5. Marriage proposals are similar to dating. There is really only one way to do it and most people expect it to happen that way. It is typical for the man to propose to the woman. He is to get down on one knee and having a shiny ring in a box and is expected to say, “Will You Marry Me?” There is really no other way around it and if it doesn’t happen, people may think it is untraditional.
6. A typical wedding is similar to a marriage proposal in the sense of tradition. Depending on religion, a wedding can be inside a church, inside a big dance hall/auditorium, or outside. The bride always wears white and the groom always wears black. Generally they have a few bridesmaids and a few groomsmen, along with a maid of honor and a best man. They usually have a big dinner, full of toasts and tears, and then they have a dance to follow.
7. In my culture, divorce is becoming more and more popular. It used to be so rare and people only got divorced if they absolutely could not live together, but today, the divorce rate is almost 50%. In the region I live in, divorce is not as popular, but it definitely still happens and is still looked down upon.
8. Each partner is supposed to split everything evenly unless there is a pre-nup signed. They usually split the house and the furniture evenly and if they have kids, one person gets them and the other person gets visitation rights and pays child support.
9. Homosexuality is a big topic that I usually do not like discussing. Our culture still views this very negatively. We are starting to open up more to it and are even allowing homosexual marriages in some states, however, people have personal reasons not to agree to it and I don’t think this will ever change.
10. I am still on the fence about my views on gender roles. I am very traditional and I am very religious so non-traditional gender roles sometimes still bother me. I try to have an open mind and I am becoming very accepting of people, but I can’t help how I feel and I do not think I should change my personal views to adapt to society.
Do you disagree with any of these stereotypes in culture? How does that affect you?
I don't agree with the stereotypical gender roles and that children are supposed to move out once they turn 18. I know of plenty of over-18 people that are students or looking for a job that still live at home, so I think this stereotype is changing with the new generations. Living at home is sometimes a convenience for people, especially students, until they establish themselves and can start their lives better prepared.
ReplyDeleteI also don't agree with that children are supposed to move out at 18, I know a lot of people that live with their parents while in school. I think that it is rediculous if parents charge their own children to live in their house after they turn 18. My parent's would never make me pay to live with them. Parents are their for your support and help the cost of their house payment would be the same whether you lived there or not. There are a couple others I don't necessarily agree with as I am an extremely open minded person and have no issues, with people who are different. People can be whoever they want to be, like what ever sex they want to like, believe in whatever they want to believe in; it doesn't matter to me I am not one to judge.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the other two that children should not move out when they turn 18. There are many children that are not mature enough to live on their own at 40 - let alone 18. I think that children need time to grow into their own while under their parents roof because while growing up, you need to have your parents input to help you know what is wrong and right.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with everyone in that children should not feel pressured to move out upon high school graduation. The latter is especially the case with today's financial woes. Not to mention, gas prices are outragous today compared to even when my older brothers were growing up. So I really think that forcing a kid into the "real world" at only 18 years old is essentially setting them up for failure. With that said, I don't really disagree with any of the other cultural stereotypes. I completely understand about our culture needing to be more "open minded" just like Cheryl pointed out. But I do think that our society is slowly becoming more open minded, just at a very slow pace, which is expected with societal change.
ReplyDeleteI think it is becoming more socially acceptable for children to live at home after they graduate from high school because more and more people are attending some form of higher education after high school as compared to going into the work force. For some people this causes them to move out, if they are going to school far away. For those that go to college close to home it would not make financial sense for them to move out.
ReplyDeleteThis is list of norms is one that I recognize completely. It seems to be a clear example of what happens to a group of people as they are influenced more and more by the people around them. When the definition of beauty is defined by who the hot celebrities are, or when orientations picked because homophobia that exists in a society. It is only when we begin to ask questions about the concepts of where our values and ascribed identities come from can we begin to separate what our culture believes and what we believe. A statement in and of itself that refers a cultural value of my own of individualism. But even here can we separate the meaning of our culture and our own meaning. I love that everything here can be subjective.
ReplyDeleteI think the only one I semi disagree with is the one that once you turn eighteen years old you are supposed to move out. A lot of eighteen year olds are not fully capable of living on their own and when you come fresh out of high school you are new to living on your own and beginning a world for yourself. I think it's a little absurd that it is more so looked down upon eighteen year olds that are not going to college and still living at home. I believe everyone should go to college, but it's not meant for everyone so parents charging their kids rent at eighteen is a little over-board... now if they're twenty-five we could talk...
ReplyDeleteI think the only stereotype I disagree with the is the first one, who do you call apart of your family. My family has always been consisted of immediate family, relatives and close friends. My relatives also think this way, our close friends act like an aunt or an uncle and I grew up thinking that. That may just be my family but it is the only way I know. It didn't effect my at all I just started thinking about how my family (culture) does it differently.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with our culture's perception of gender roles and gender identity. It seems that because of the white male dominance so prevalent in our culture, we assume that there are certain roles ascribed only to men and only to women, and if someone goes against those roles then they are seen as a deviant. The idea that sexual identity is something that is the same in every person has been disproven in so many ways that I find it hard to believe that people still are so close-minded about sexual identity. I suppose that if someone's religion tells them that something is wrong, then the person will believe it, but people need to understand that religion isn't the law, and is in fact based in belief, not truth. So to say that belief ought to determine right over truth is quite unbelievable in itself.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Matthew about gender roles. I took a class two years ago about gender and sexuality and there are many people who believe gender is not just male or female. There is quite a high percentage of babies that are born with an ambiguous gender, and instead of letting them grow older and deciding what role they feel they fulfill, they are just assigned a gender. I think the traditional man makes the money and women does the housework is totally off too. If a woman wants to be a CEO and a man wants to be a stay at home dad, that should be perfectly acceptable. I wish society were more accepting of alternative gender roles and I realize that religion plays a large role in that but why would people put themselves through harsh judgement and discrimination if they didn't genuinely feel that they should be acting in a different way than what we consider normal?
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