Culture Affects Communication
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Just as we learn culture through communication, we also use communication to express our culture. Our worldview affects which topics we discuss in personal and professional settings, as well as how we communicate nonverbally. It also affects the way we perceive others’ communication.
Technology and You
Technology has, in essence, made the world smaller. We can go online and be connected with individuals around the globe. Do you believe this easy access to other cultures’ perceptions of beauty and physical attractiveness has informed your own worldview? Why or why not?
In the United States, a popular worldview often equates thinness with feminine beauty; this perception is reflected in the mass media and personal messages we communicate. After tabloids mocked actress and singer Jessica Simpson for her supposed weight gain, she journeyed around the world with two friends to understand diverse notions of beauty. They discovered that people in other cultures have different worldviews and, consequently, different ideas about physical attractiveness. Their experiences in Japan, Thailand, France, Brazil, Uganda, Morocco, and India aired in 2010 as VH1’s series The Price of Beauty (Hinckley, 2010). Simpson and her friends were surprised to find that in Uganda, where larger women are considered desirable, women prepare for marriage in a “fattening hut.” While their findings are merely observations, they exposed young teens to the widely differing views of what is and isn’t attractive and the ways these views are expressed through cultural practices.