Section I
When it arises to marriage, all cultures have their unique wedding rehearses that they admire and honor. Alterations between the cultures may be minor or great and will progress over time. For each culture may have one or more marriage practices they follow and many motives for this practice or belief. This research paper will discover courtship and marriage practices of the American culture from an etic standpoint and will explore how TV and media can have undesirable effects on young women from an emic perception.
I will embrace the evolution of courtship, dating, and marriages during the centuries. Marriages begin with the unity of two people who stake mutual thoughts, feelings, and faith wanting to mature together in life and family. ‘Since the 1950’s marriage in the United States has changed melodramatically: (Lundberg, Pollak, 2015, pg.
29 paras 1).
By tradition, dates were between males and females and usually initiated by the male. Courting was very guiltless and could last for numerous weeks to years.
Normally, couples would join movies, dinners or church or school occasions. While young couples were sharing in pre-martial sexual relations, most frequently couples would get married right out of high school before fetching in such activity. Men go off to work or war while women become caregivers taking upkeep of the home and family. (Lundberg, Pollak, 2015, pg.30) As time evolved, a considerable change in dating and marriage became apparent. ‘A quiet revolution” in American women’s careers, education, and family provisions began in the 1970s (Lundberg & Pollak, 2015, pg. 30 paras 1).
The youth was gaining freedom and branching out to try different things. The teen was dating variouspartners, working in pre-marital relations, and having children at an early age, so many of these influences came into play when a couple chooses to get married. Throughout this time, having children out of wedlock was raising, creating more and more couples to get married, which finally has stemmed in a higher divorce rate. The 1980’s brought, even more, modification to American culture, rather than couples concentrating on traditional dating and then marriage. There was a rise in cohabitation; couples were moving in and setting up homes without getting married. This had a direct result on the marriage and divorce rate for the period of this time. In recent decades, the significance placed on marriage is lower than in past years. More couples are attentive on careers, education, and less on the idea of getting married and beginning families. Extra couples are becoming more open about their favorites relations and partnerships. Rendering to the textbook, there are four straightforward types of marriage “monogamous, polygynous, polyandrous, and group marriages” (Crapo, 2013, 6.4 Lifecycles).
The most shared form of marriage is a special marriage, which entails of two people being combined together. Polygynous marriage or well known as polygamy is when a male is wedded to more than one lady. This form of marriage is more communal when there are widely more women than men. Polyandrous matrimony is when one woman is married to multiple men. This method of marriage is less common than other forms of marriage. Group marriage is when numerous males are married to many females at the same time. Not all of these types of unions are legal in the United States. Each culture has their visions on how a marriage should come about and hinge on where they live in the domain. The government may force how many individuals can be lawfully joined in a marriage and what kinds of sex arrangements can be legitimately observed as married. In the American culture, monogamous marriage between a man and a woman is the most common kind of marriage, while more and more states are expecting same-sex marriages. The American culture understands marriage as an arrangement between two people whether it is the people that are getting married ordering a union for themselves or the family arranging for them to be married to someone they selected.
Section II
“The compound customs in which American adolescent girls and young women embrace or resist media imagery and creatively use other cultural resources to construct their social identities are not well understood” (Becker, 2004). Television can affect how people live, act, and socialize. Television, of course, can have an undesirable effect on body image as well. “Indeed, young women (and likely young men) absorb at an early age that identity can be probable through visual props and thus handled in a range of ways so that the identity representation is more probable to be directed at “seeming” rather than “being” (Becker, 2004).
When young women see the same form of body images and feature on every channel, movie, commercial, and social media, this produces a false sense of realism. Young women turn out to be in a sense brainwashed into thinking that the images they see are the only acknowledged images in the world. This problematic touches so many young girls and women around the world, who have a self-inflecting uncertainty that they are not pretty or do not fit in with the other girls in their community. Having feelings such as these can cause foremost harm to their mind, body, and spirit. So many damaging things can happen when you feel broken and ugly causing people to find ways to self-harm or even commit suicide. “Consumer culture and media images have a persistent and powerful effect on girls at a serious developmental stage; American girls are socialized to reinforce and signal identity through visual symbols that include visible consumption of prestige goods or a particular body presentation that conforms to cultural aesthetic ideals” (Becker, 2004).
An additional major player in lousy body image and self-harm is being terrorized. When misses or even lads bully others by talking down or making fun of someone who is dissimilar or not confident in their skill, it causes issues of embarrassment and feeling unaccepted. Young women going through puberty turn out to be more sensitive as their hormones are developing, producing an emotional rollercoaster. During these teenage years, girls will become vulnerable to many things trying to live up to the images they see in the media. When dating they often look for approval from their partner and usually through a breakup, they will point this to not being normal and acknowledged. This primes the girl to try to become what they see in the media and match their body type to provide acceptance and confidence.
There are so many instances of how young females try to gain recognition, by dropping weight, going under medical procedures, taking diet medicines or other drugs that pledge to give them results to make them look like their obsessions. When using this extent and not getting the assured outcomes, it causes obstruction and a cycle of trying more and great measure to achieve effects. This can top to additive traits such as drug abuse, exercise, and bulimia. These are all dangerous behaviors that can cause long-lasting harm to their bodies even prominent to death. Young women need to know that hurting yourself to astonish or gain approval is not the answer and sometimes can result in a long-lasting solution to a short-term problem. Professionals permitting them to deal with the problem head on should address low self-esteem needs. Not taking the correct steps to address the matters as young women will remain to cause issue into and throughout adulthood. The images, self-doubt, and endless need for acceptance will never be escaped only causing personal pain and likely problems with future relationships.
Again, being able to talk to someone about your issues will bring an outsider perspective and possible relief from the internal torture.” It may bounce them a sense of aid, clear mind and possibly transmit to someone who may have practiced these problems. My point that I am trying to make is that there is nothing wrong with having these thoughts and feelings about wanting to look good, feel good and be recognized. Nonetheless, it is how you act on them that can produce the problem. As females, we are involved and emotional; we need to be preserved with respect and have acceptance within each other and ourselves. I comprehend a woman wants to look good and stay in shape for the rest of their lives; I am one of those women.
However, it will not be at the expenditure of destroying my body just because someone else does not think it is normal. No woman, young or old, should subject their body to harmful measures and pills to try to fit or be accepted. Women need to be confident and respect the authority they were given. We need to teach and inspire young women to embrace their differences and be ok with who you are. In conclusion, television has given us the chance to explore things we may not have had the opportunity to otherwise. Regrettably, as with the positive, there are adverse effects because we have a habit of believing what we see is a reality. To keep a balance, we need to teach and talk openly with our youth to not permit television to impact and create negative thoughts in our youth. We have to recollect this is entertainment and not reality. We need to form a healthy environment that encourages our youth to make progressive decisions for their self-acceptance by looking in the mirror every day and loving what they see.
References
- Crapo, R., (2013).. Cultural Anthropology, Bridgepoint Education, San Diego, Ca. Becker. A. E. (2004).
- Television, disordered eating, and young women in Fiji: Negotiating body image and identity during the rapid social change. Culture, Medicine & Psychiatry, 28(4), 533-559. Retrieved from the EBSCOhost database.
- Lundberg, S., & Pollak, R. A. (2015). The Evolving Role of Marriage: 1950-2010. Future Of Children, 25(2), 29-50. Miner, H., (1956).
- Body Ritual among the Nacirema. Reprinted by permission of the American Anthropological Association from American Anthropologist 58:3, June 1956. Niehuis, S., Huston, T. L., & Rosenband, R. (2006).
- From courtship into marriage: A new developmental model and methodological critique. Journal Of Family Communication, 6(1), 23-47. doi:10.1207/s15327698jfc0601_3
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