Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts
9/4/11
Creepy Communication
The creepy TV show Toddlers & Tiaras would most probably be banned in DK.
Exploiting small kids and their celebrity hungy parents ought to be illigal anyway.
It's chilling to see children - as young as a couple of months old - being tought to
believe their biggest dream is to grow up and look like a prostitute.
Granted, there's a world of difference in culture, education and history between a
priviliged Danish childhood and today's American one.
Mothers of my time
Still, this kind of parenting is a long way from the way my generation of girls was
brought up. The mothers of my time would've fought tooth and nail to give us
different values, choices and ways of expressing our personality.
The worth of an education, of learning to reflect and ajust yourself in your world,
of role models showing you how to dig deeper and understand yourself, is as
fundamental to a young girl's self image as any stories of strong and brave heroines.
Luckily I remember how "me and my girlfriends" made loud protests and walked
out of the cinema when we went to see "Pretty Woman" back in the '90's!
7/17/11
La Différence Culturelle
Any 7-year-old Flemish schoolchild knows 100 times more about cycling
than all Americans combined.
So says American former pro cyclist turned author and television sports
commentator; Bob Roll.
Hats off to Bob! A bit cheeky, then again completely true. And nowhere are the cultural differences more visible than during Le Tour de France. Here we see and hear more of American riders than during all season.
I'm sure "they" are as surprised about "Europeans" when they're asked to let us in on how they deal with a beautiful failure or a tragic time loss, out to puncture their team.
We expect to cry with them, cheer them on and show our deepest respect for their strength & courage. And certainly so if they're beaten up by the road, the race and
the loss.
But then we hear them talk in what sounds like PR terms: "we can do it", "we might be down but we'll get back up", "we'll show them". Huh? Sounds like pretending, like showmen reading from a script.
And not like the heroes we admire for crying, yelling, laughing and fighting on the bike
- for showing us their pain and pride, their suffering and their fighting, bloody and all.
As Keith says:
To me, the biggest thing America had done this century - apart from throwing its weight around - was its music.
than all Americans combined.
So says American former pro cyclist turned author and television sports
commentator; Bob Roll.
I'm sure "they" are as surprised about "Europeans" when they're asked to let us in on how they deal with a beautiful failure or a tragic time loss, out to puncture their team.
We expect to cry with them, cheer them on and show our deepest respect for their strength & courage. And certainly so if they're beaten up by the road, the race and
the loss.
But then we hear them talk in what sounds like PR terms: "we can do it", "we might be down but we'll get back up", "we'll show them". Huh? Sounds like pretending, like showmen reading from a script.
And not like the heroes we admire for crying, yelling, laughing and fighting on the bike
- for showing us their pain and pride, their suffering and their fighting, bloody and all.
As Keith says:
To me, the biggest thing America had done this century - apart from throwing its weight around - was its music.
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