Cultures Don't Shout Demands, They Whisper Suggestions

---

“We seldom realize, for example, that our most private thoughts and emotions are not actually our own. For we think in terms of languages and images which we did not invent, but which were given to us by our society. We copy emotional reactions from our parents, learning from them that excrement is supposed to have a disgusting smell and that vomiting is supposed to be an unpleasant sensation. The dread of death is also learned from their anxieties about sickness and from their attitudes to funerals and corpses. Our social environment has this power just because we do not exist apart from a society. Society is our extended mind and body. Yet the very society from which the individual is inseparable is using its whole irresistible force to persuade the individual that he is indeed separate! Society as we now know it is therefore playing a game with self-contradictory rules.” Alan Watts

---

The word “culture” can have a multitude of definitions and meanings to individuals, yet what is important is analyzing how a specific culture can impact an individual’s life. As Watts suggests in the above quote, we usually never recognize how our culture and society have persuaded our most private thoughts and emotions. While we might find that we are making our choices on an individual level, they are shaped by our cultural norms, practices, and beliefs. While to one person practicing female circumcision may seem quite normal, to another person it would be extreme. Susan Sered helps address the way culture can impact an individual’s life course by addressing society’s view on incarcerated women, primarily minorities.

Unfortunately for Gloria her life has been shaped by the disheartening vicious cycle that many women face due to the power our society/culture has over us. Gloria had been assaulted, homeless, broke, and incarcerated and relied heavily on her abusive boyfriend John. Too often women blame themselves for the abuse, and don’t recognize their hardships are being caused by the actual abuser. Gloria’s situation is often times a script for many other women in similar situations who are abused and have nowhere else to run to. Many women are brought up to be insecure, and oftentimes powerless to men. In many cultures women are oppressed and this issue is more than likely swept under the rug.

In Eckersley’s article he addresses culture being a main influencer of anxiety, isolation, insecurity, hostility, and lack of control over one’s life. While a person’s culture may not shout out demands to how they should live their life, they have been conformed to specific perceptions, expectations, and emotions that may or may not create health hazards. For instance in Gloria’s situation she was continually failed by the system because they did not recognize how enormously her racial, gender, social, and economic inequalities kept her at a constant standstill of gaining a better life. She was suffering from society’s view of “personal responsibility”. Instead of aiming to fix the inequalities and social injustices throughout our culture we have found it much easier to blame the individual. Stating she makes “bad choices” and puts herself in “dangerous situation” only makes the situation worse and creates more distress.

Eckersley states, “Cultures bring order and meaning to our lives. Of all species, we alone require a culture to make life worth living. To give us a sense of purpose, identity, and belongings (256)”. Yet throughout his article and the latter ones culture is seen as a hazard to one’s life. In many ways culture can provide images and ideals that aren’t healthy to an individual’s livelihood. For instance, in “A Cutting Tradition”, the article states there is no medical value in circumcising girls, yet the tradition still continues today in various cultures. If a female didn’t want to follow that tradition would she be ostracized and become a leper to society?

In many ways our daily routines aren’t “our” daily routines. They have been created by the society we live in because they are our cultural norms. While it is continuously cherished to think on an individualistic level, we are inseparable from culture. It is incessantly whispering in our ear suggestions for how to live our lives and sometimes they aren't aiding us for better health and prosperity.