Month: September 2019

Personally I believe that on the empathy continuum I stand in-between ‘Compassion’ and ‘Empathy’. This is because I think that I can react a bit differently depending on the situation. Recently reading an article on how there is an improvement in the lgbtq+ community in India, I was able to show compassion for them. Having lived in India and knowing a couple of people who have faced problems in terms of ‘coming out’ I was able to understand the issue that they were going through and how the fact that there was an improvement is a huge thing in India. Moreover, I have personally delved deeply into this particular topic and so when I read this article I was able to use the idea of outrospection and look at the situation by performing the imaginative act of stepping into another person’s shoes and looking at the situation from their perspective. In this case, the situation being the struggles of being an openly gay person in India. If this was maybe another situation in which I had also experienced similar struggles then I would have shown more empathy rather than compassion as I would have been able to resonate with them better instead of having to ‘imagine’ it.

Can texts ever be truly representative of groups of people? 

When we read a text or watch a movie related to a specific culture or group of people, in many cases we tend to assume what we see as reality. This can lead to possible misconceptions as well as misjudgments.

Personally, I believe that etexts can only represent people to a certain amount of degree and it is only in very few cases where one may truly see a group of people properly represented in a text. There are many scenarios where films, for example: ‘Crazy righ Asians’, attempt to represent a particular group of people but end getting backlash for ‘not representing’ properly. This happens because in many cases the purpose of these films is entertainment and not to actually show a particular culture or group. This idea is further supported in an article: “Crazy Rich Asians has survived impossible representation standards”, where they talk about how we should be focusing on acknowledging the fact that a different culture was represented in the first way rather than the way it was represented.

Saying that there are many instances where one may get an insight, even if it is small, into another culture through texts. This is because texts can offer multiple perspectives on particular issues, topics or even cultures. When we read more than one text we are able to look at the same culture/scenario from different eyes allowing us to make our own judgments and actually deepen our understanding or knowledge of it. In addition to this, texts can reflect and represent forms of cultures. even though they may not represent a culture and every part of it, it can definitely offer insight into a part of it and this allows for us as the audience to understand how a particular individual’s identity may be affected by their culture/

 

 

When a text has different meanings, one is able to see the different perspectives and this allows for a larger audience to resonate with different parts of the text. In addition to that, when a text is said to have different meanings it shows us how it is actually the readers that may have different cultural backgrounds or different preconceptions that are affecting the way they are looking at the text.

National identity, in my opinion, shouldn’t be constricted down to just one fixed value. When someone says that they are proud of having a particular national identity, their view of what holding that identity may be different to someone else. Thus, when two people look at the same flag there is a high possibility that they will resonate with different aspects of the flag as they would have had different experiences in the past causing them to appreciate different parts of the country. But, this doesn’t mean that one of them has a national identity whilst the other doesn’t.

Even if texts have unstable meaning, the significance of reading multiple text is that we are able to see the different views and appreciate the different ways the same text may be interpreted. It allows us to gain greater knowledge about certain topics and expose us to different ideologies.

The first advertisement was meant for Hungary and shows 2 couples, of which one is gay, enjoying a bottle of coke. The second advertisement was intended for countries in the Middle East and shows a family enjoying a meal along with coke as their beverage possibly celebrating a festival.

When seen side by side, we can see how there might be two different advertisements for two different places. For instance, if the advertisement meant for Hungary was used in the Middle East, it could possibly be considered ‘rude’ or ‘inappropriate’ due to the fact that it’s a gay couple. This could be because there is a larger population of Muslim residing in the Middle East and as they have different beliefs when it comes to topics such as homosexuality it may cause a disruption. Similarly, the advertisement meant for the Middle East would not work in Hungary. This is because we can see a large family who is celebrating a festival (possibly EID or another festival that is middle eastern-centric). Such a scene may be very familiar to the Middle East, however very few people would be able to resonate with this scene and this would be confused as to what coke has anything to do with the scene that is depicted. The difference between these two advertisements shows us how companies have to think of cultural values (such as festivals, religion, and beliefs) when it comes to promoting their products to different target audiences.