The American Dream is no longer just a domestic one. It is now, more than ever, spreading its influence to foreign media outlets everywhere. Beyond Canada and England, American media including but not limited to television, film, and technology are being absorbed by other countries and into their culture. Specifically, our television shows, which are translated into several other languages, impose our cultural and moral values through dialogue and plots of the characters on foreign cultures.
In Gray’s article, “Imagining America: The Simpsons Go Global” he refers to Beltran’s definition of imperialism as a “process of social influence by which a nation imposes on other countries its set beliefs, values, knowledge and behavioral norms as well as its overall style of life” (1978, p. 184). Meaning other countries are mimicking the American lifestyle, and not for filling a lifestyle unique and diverse to their own country. These examples can be observed most clearly in the television show, The Simpsons. It has been broadcasted in over 70 countries with dubbed versions and foreign subtitles.
In The Simpsons, America is seen to be a place where not a lot of intellect is needed to afford the common middle class necessities. Homer is depicted as a very low IQ’ed citizen that works in a harmful nuclear power plant ignorant to the events occurring around him. Yet, his wife and daughter seem to be the only characters aware of the corrupt mayor and environmental hazards surrounding the Springfield, Illinois
From my own personal experience, I remember reactions from my family in Nicaragua as they were watching American television shows dubbed in Spanish. My younger cousins obsessed about the fashion and beauty the characters portrayed on the ABC family show “Pretty Little Liars.” They asked me, since I am originally from California, whether my life was as privileged, exciting and wonderful as the characters on the show. Their visions about American life were saturated with cliches about how the upper middle class lived and expecting it to be rich with all these commodities such as luxury vehicles, lavish clothing, cute boys, sex, technology and the ease of owning it all. These television shows shine bright light its product placement, yet it lacks to display the hard work most Americans go through just to put a roof over their heads and feed their families. My family believes that if you live in American you don’t need to work for the items you want. They believe our lifestyle is easily obtainable and requires little to no work. But these shows only depict the superrich upper class, which is a minority in America. A daily struggle that is not often discussed in media or at least briefly mentioned and represented by minority characters.
Our television show’s stereotypes and have influenced their minds and Ive seen it on a personal level. Gray demonstrates examples in his article about how European, South African and Asian cultures don’t recognize with the American stereotypes all our media evidently has. Its a mixed combination between these beliefs of Americanization. It appears that the older and more education you’ve had, the more likely you are to hold your traditional values
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