According to the article, Cultural Imperialism ‘is the process of social influence by which a nation imposes on other countries set beliefs, values, knowledge, and behavioral norms, as well as its overall style of life.’ Grey refers to “The Simpsons” a lot as an example that is a comedy show in which depicts the ‘American life’. “The show’s depiction of America, the American suburb, and American capitalism are a far cry from flag-wavingly chauvinistic, as with its individuals, institutions, and mindsets,” says Grey. This show is watched by several other countries who often look at this show and think of Americans the way the show portrays us as, which is the stereotypical way of majority of people being low class and uneducated people. Gray states in the article that this show can have both a positive and negative view, depending on who the person is that is viewing it and where they live. Grey also makes a comment that I firmly believe which is “American television gives us competing images of America, and we must study more of them if we are to understand how the world engages in imagining America.”
After reading the articles for this week, I came across some examples that also go along with Cultural Imperialism and even more specific that deal with the American life and way of living. One of the most obvious examples is fast food. These are found all over the world and help bring an “American” way of living to each one of those countries. McDonald’s is one of the largest most popular examples of cultural imperialism that involve the influencing way of life America has on other countries. Below is a picture portraying that America was the first to build this fast food chain to where it is today and how it has influenced other countries to open the same.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.