Monday, September 20, 2010
Ethnocentric
In general, I believe that I am fairly open to other ways of different societies. There have been a couple of times that I have been ethnocentric and one of the times was when I went on vacation to Mexico and almost all of the little kids on the beach were clothes less. I thought that this was totally unacceptable and almost barbaric. I later realized that I thought this solely because I was being ethnocentric and that there was nothing wrong with little kids splashing around in the water without clothes for two reasons. First of all they are kids (they are not trying to be unrespectable or embarrassing) and secondly that not everyone can afford a bathing suit so its just nice that they can still enjoy themselves. The reason I thought this was so weird was because all my life I have been told that nudity is bad and that I should always be wearing clothes in public and so I assumed that these rules applied everywhere, but they don't. This could even go back to the Adam and Eve discussion that they had no problem having no clothes on until they became shameful. If I had been raised in Mexico, I wouldn't have thought anything of the nude children, so therefore it is solely me be ethnocentric.
ive never been to mexico but i work in a kids clothing store and its intresting to see the families come in because some just strip their kid down right their and then and have them try on the clothes and others ask to go in the fitting room to try in on. one time their was even a lady who came in and was feeding her kid in the store she has a blanket over her but then another person came in and asked for a feeding room its intresting to see how generations and different families view right and wrong and normal and not
ReplyDeleteI probably would of felt the same way as you. When I was in Mexico a few years ago, i saw a grown woman topless. It def startled me for sec. This woman was probably from Europe, where going topless is nbd. For a sec, I thought Americans had the right sense of judgment. Now that I look back, I think how ethnocentric I was. Personally, I would not go topless. If I was to go live in Europe today, I don't think I'd be able to ever adapt to going topless. I definitely find it intriguing on how the world goes about things.
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