post colonialism review

How western culture views different cultures and references them as the other (the word other means they are not like us they are different and unknown) I am thinking about the many different ways “other” cultures are represented in video games and in film during post colonialism.

The first reference to other cultures I could think of is in the media and how what we know of other people may be twisted and opinionated by the information the press gives us, this is not a modern occurrence in fact it has been around as long as media has.  The phrase history is written by the victors comes to mind.

We have learned through study how the west views the east in a distant manner as if they are not like one of us and anyone that isn’t one of us is exotic and unknown, because of this in a lot of cases the west sums up the east as this paradise where you go on holiday.

Due to the popular demand by tourists the fantasy which is the east is sometimes faked so that the western tourist can see a culture that lives up to the expectations. A good example of this Afghanistan, the reason this country is such a good example is most western people think the whole country is desert while in reality it’s made up of at least 7 different climates, this perception that the country is a single harsh climate comes from western media and in particular the coverage of the war.

In my personal opinion you should not view a culture on something that someone else has told you without evidence, however I except in most of the cases there are facts but they have been isolated and embellished to make them seem better or worse.

Going back to the Afghanistan example, it is true that the country has a big desert however this is all the media shows so unless you have researched into the country and culture this is all you’re going to know at first glance.

gender representation

Gender:

Sex: sex is what you are physically, you are ether male or female however there are some circumstance where the lines between male and female are blurred.

Gender: gender is the way you or a character is perceived by society or culture, it is the way that we feel we have to behave to fit in for example if you are female you are expected to be feminine and weak while if your male you have to be masculine and dominate (stereotypes) however if your male for example you could do something that would be seen as feminine by sociaty and the other way around.

The nature / culture question

Is it nature or is it nurture, nature is physical attributes determined by the way we have evolved, on the other hand nurture is the way we have been taught and understand the world around us.

Masochism:

Though out history man has written history to keep himself above woman and some of the ways he has done this is through religion and art, in modern times being a man is seen allot differently from how it was seen 40 years ago.

Feminism:

Feminism is the other end of the scale the way culture sees ether sex is determined who has power. Feminism questions the way people believe the leading gender.

Gender sex and sexuality:

in this session we learned about laura mulvey and her theories on gender representation within films, i feel that her theories are outdated by modern standards however this could be because this paper was written over 30 years ago so the types of film were dominated by a more male aimed genre.

one thing i found interesting about this lesson was the debates between the two extremes and how different peoples views and culture effect there common sense as common sense its self is just things we have heard over and over again. one of the arguments was that human nature puts males as the more dominate however i feel that both male,female and masculine,feminine should stop trying to snatch power from one another and find a balance.