One of the more pervasive elements in my home culture that I feel is irrationally causing me to have low self-esteem issues, at times, is the perception that one’s body should be forever thin, beautiful, and modeled off of the unrealistic expectations of today’s media. While I am well aware that many of these “ideals” are the conscious and deliberate acts of multi-billion dollar industries that are only after the next dollar, these effects can be seen (and felt) in even the most random areas of society and are resulting in generations of people believing that the body they are blessed with will never achieve, or maintain, perfection. As a free market society, it would be incredibly difficult to alter the pitch methods used to promote products, however, I do believe understanding the “why” behind the ad can help buyers to choose their products for what they actually do (not what the spokesperson pitches) and that individuals need to have a strong foundational base regarding the importance of diversity and acceptance for their divine uniqueness. This, in my opinion, should begin in the home, be echoed in the school environment, and modeled by the community to ensure our children’s positive self-image.
In contrast to our more negative views, other parts of the world, such as Indonesia, Hungary, and Egypt, have much higher levels of satisfaction due to, I believe, a culture where the individual is not disposable, but cherished for who and what they are. As our society has continued to promote the idea that even the family unit is interchangeable for “better fit” options, we have eliminated the surety of each member knowing their “value” to a more competition based fear that we will never be enough…To correct these false beliefs, I feel our culture should model our more positive counterparts and return to the family as the source of strength for identification and not the advertisers skew on the American “dream.”
In a TESOL classroom, there will be many “home culture” perspectives that will have an impact on how we interact with each other, from the lessons to the books, much of the material will be from the American perspective. As many of these differences may not, at first, be readily apparent (and possibly not ever), it is likely that my home culture will result in bias from both the students and myself, which may result in hurt feelings or a longer silent period.
Some insights that I gained about other cultures and my own during the readings this week was how often we will live up to society’s perceived “expectations” instead of personal insight. This was evident from Brother Ivers example of how students performed when asked to give their race prior to assessment versus when they were not and demonstrates how pervasive stereotyping can be. In my classroom, we will focus on the individual, not the perception of the race or culture, to promote acceptance and diversity, not a classification, as defining factors and learn to “see” each over for the wonderful human beings who we truly are.
References:
Jessica. “Stop Working out Because You Hate Your Body.” SpotMeGirl.com, 29 Nov. 2018, spotmegirl.com/fitness/loveyourbody/. (Image)
