Week 4, Response 3

Pg 840 #2

The majority of the pictures are using heterosexual couples as representations of how men and women interact. An advantage of this is that yes, much of men-women communication is between two that are dating, as they try to get to know each other and understand each other. It is important for any relationship to have communication with each other, and often the communication goes array between a man and a woman. I can understand that when cartoonists want to do something men and women interacting they’d choose the most relatable situation of a heterosexual couple. There’s other situations, though, that can highlight these interactions. Perhaps a homosexual couple- how they are alike and different from a heterosexual couple? What communication factors or personality factors make a homosexual couple work? Or possibly men and women who are just friends- coworkers, neighbors, etc. I personally believe there is a rather large difference in how men and women communicate on a friends basis in comparison to a more-than-friends basis. What factors make a man and a woman able to be friends forever, and make a man and a woman not able to make a marriage work? Overall, I understand the trend of these cartoons in just taking into account heterosexual couples and their communication differences, because that is what most have experience with, and most can relate to. I think, however, there are more dimensions in the general subject of male-female communication.

Pg 1078 #1

Until seeing pictures like these, it is really hard to imagine the huge influence American culture has on other countries’ lifestyles. These pictures show big brands like McDonalds, Coka-Cola, and Marlboro expanding overseas- to places like China, Iran, and India. These brands represent huge corporate franchises that are impeding on the traditional cultures of some of these countries. These products and brands show America’s materialistic way. They also do not represent good habits or healthy things- coke, smoking, and McDonalds. Because of this, I’d have to say that I’m not particularly proud of them. Over the summer I traveled to Brazil and stayed with a host family while I volunteered in a public health clinic. The city I was in had a McDonalds, and my host parents would joke that if I was homesick they could take me to the McDonalds and I would feel better. I laughed at this, but it was strange because that’s the place that they most associate with America. It’s kind of embarrassing. It was neat though, that despite the influx of Americanized things, the rich culture and traditional ways of Brazilians is still very prominent. For instance, McDonald’s restaurants in Brazil do not do nearly as much gross income as in other parts of the world. Cooking traditional meals and sitting down at the dinner table still prevails. However, they did think of and speak of America very highly. It seemed that something American meant something of status. For example, it is a trend right now in Brazil (among the lower class) is to name your child an American name. Names after our presidents, like “Lincoln” and “Washington”, and, believe it or not, names like “Disney” and “Lady” I heard were popular too. It is crazy how America has such an enormous presence in other countries.