Cultural Differences

Reading Strayer’s last chapter, Accelerating Global Interaction, hit close to home in multiple ways. In the chapters opening paragraph, Strayer beings with a quote that sparked my thinking, “I think every Barbie doll is more harmful than an American missile” (Pg. 723), said by an Iranian toy seller. I was caught between agreeing and disagreeing with this idea of Barbie being harmful to that extent, but when you really look at Barbie in a cultural perspective, it makes you wonder how other cultures around the world see Barbie and what they think about the American culture. I’m Mexican-American and I was caught between both cultures and when I played with Barbie all I wanted was to have everything she did; a nice house, pretty hair and clothes, a pet, a nice car, etc. I thought that that is what it meant to be successful and pretty. When I would visit family in Mexico during the summer, I would play with Barbie’s with my cousins and all their dolls looked like them, dark hair, brown eyes, but still displayed the same body type. Their clothes were different and careers as well. When we would play my cousins would tease me by saying that my Barbie was stuck up and all she cared about was money and looking pretty. I was confused on why they thought that; could it be that that is how Americans are perceived? Are we destined to be seen that way because of a plastic Barbie doll? If so, why does Barbie represent all of America and our culture? I kind of disagree with him because I think no one should compare cultures with their own because they are exactly that, different cultures and different ideas. Strayer points out that this toy seller, Masoumeh Rahimi, welcomed a set of dolls by the name Sara and Dara who are brother and sister. These two dolls represent Muslim culture and represented as helping each other through problem solving. Also, to add to this equation, Sara and Dara come complete with both parents, a perfect picture of family support. Now, from what I have learned about the Muslim religion and culture, would it be right to say that these two dolls can be bombers? Does the father have more than one wife? What I’m trying to get at is that no one should judge each other’s cultures because we are all different. The only think we are doing is continuing the cycle of judgments, hatred and misunderstanding.

            Another thing that Strayer hits upon is when he talks about the migrating laborers that have come to the United States. This really hit home because as I have mentioned before, my family comes from Mexico and I have lots of family members from my father’s side of the family who have had to leave their families behind to look for work in the States. Usually, my family doesn’t stay long and when they feel they have saved up enough money working dead end jobs, they return home. It’s a constant thing that they have done over the years just to be able to survive. I have an uncle who is a doctor in Mexico who decided he wanted to practice in the States, but when he got here he had to go back to school and he decided that that was not what he wanted to do so he returned back to Mexico. I have other family members who have made the States their “home” but end up in low paying jobs. I can only be grateful that I’m getting an education and have the ability to one day hold a job without having to face the same issues as my family.