The show that I decided to watch was It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and the episode “Charlie gets crippled.” In this episode Charlie one of the five main character’s in the show is injured when Dennis runs over Charlie with his car. Then Frank the father of Dennis and Dee decides to take Charlie to the strip club to help cheer him up. Once there he notices all of the attention Charlie is getting so he decides to leave and comes back later “injured.” When trying to take all of the attention away from Charlie. Then in further attempts to one up Dennis, Charlie decides to take his injury to a new level, showing up to the club a Vietnam Veteran. This ends up scaring the girls away and Charlie leaves unhappy since his plans to take advantage of strippers failed.
This was the main plot of the episode although there were additional things going on, such as Dennis and Dee who were also pretending to be handicapped. When reflecting on this episode and its “American” qualities, it shows other people in the world that those in the United States are willing to take advantage of things such as people’s disabilities, anyone’s willingness to trust them, each other, as well as many other very negative things that a person could do. Denis, Dee, Charlie, Mac, and Dennis often find themselves in situations where they come up with a crazy scheme get into a huge amount of trouble then manage to find their ways out.
Even though the gang tends to show a very low side of those in America, there are some out there willing to take advantage of others like this just to get ahead in life. The group keeps each other close although as friends who never really seem to think about the things they do or any of the consequences and usually ends up in more trouble than they really should have been in. Betraying each other or talking each other into stupid situations where they get hurt or end up wanted by the police they are just a group a friends who like many others often have good intentions but end poorly. They all live in Philadelphia, a large U.S. city where there are plenty of things for them to get themselves in and out of when it comes to trouble. However, when I watch this show I do not see it as them showing the lowness of Americans but I see it as a group of friends who own a bar, drink constantly and are who show their lack of education by their very unintelligent decisions made in each episode.
Do you ever find yourself either with or without your friends doing things that could look bad on your culture?
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I think that there have probably been times in my life that I have acted in an inappropriate way towards another culture that could make my culture look bad. I work at a grocery store so there are times when people of different cultures come in and I may treat them in a stereotypical way. I have caught myself doing this before and because of that I really have been trying to not make these judgments about people. I'm sure that because of this, those people then stereotype my culture based upon that.
ReplyDeleteI live in a small town, and one thing that I notive time and again is how difficult it is to stand up to someone that may make a racial, sexual, or cultural remark that I find offensive. I have gotten better at this, but it seems especially difficult when these comments come from someone that you don't know.
ReplyDeleteI worked at a gas station in town for a year, and when you deal with people from a small town, you tend to also struggle with people that have narrow-minded perspectives that objectify women and slander other races. I struggled many times with people that would make prejudiced remarks for no reason whatsoever. This is additionally frustrating because I had moved to this town from Minneapolis, where such language and ideas seemed a thing of the past.
As far as my own actions, I think that having grown up without a cultural identity that I was proud of has made me not really think about acting on behalf of my culture. However, I do try to fight against the stereotypes of my culture, namely the privileges given to white males, as well as the oppression that white males typically hold over other groups. I really want to change the image of the white male, but all of the atrocities done by our ancestors have made doing so quite the uphill battle.
I probably have done things in my life that would make my culture look bad but I can't remember any. I think people are so set in their culture that they don't think people from another culture would even notice or care and then they may make their culture look bad on accident.
ReplyDeleteLike Matthew, I have also struggled with people's negative remarks made towards other genders and cultures. The thing that I did to make it look bad was that I didn't correct them in the matter if I didn't know them. Working as a waitress in a small town throughout high school, there were often times remarks made that I wouldn't have the guts to contend with. Now, on the other hand, I'm much better prepared for it and don't let every little thing slip by anymore.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Meg Haley said. I work in an industry that we have a lot of people from other ethnicities come in. Home improvement is one of those areas that everyone needs to shop at no matter what. I think sometimes I stereotype people if they speak broken English or don't understand concepts very well. I often times try to explain things further to them or lead them in the right direction instead of just pointing/telling, which is very wrong of me, but it's what I am used to and it's hard to change.
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