Culture
Culture is defined as the overall ideas, attitudes, and practices of a specific group or community depending on how they deal with situations or their historical history. Culture encompasses customs, religion, food, clothing (what we wear and how we dress), our beliefs and language, how we sit at the table, and much more. The American culture is one of the most fascinating cultures that has ever existed. It includes all of the beliefs and customs of the United States. According to the United States Census Bureau, the United States has around 325 million inhabitants, making it the third most populous country in the world. A child is born after every 8 seconds and similarly, a person dies after every 12 seconds. In this paper, I will be analyzing the connection between the American Culture and its ideals for beauty, negative and positive image of the body and even the rates of disordered exercise.
Population of the United States
The population of the United States is not only made up of the Native Americans but also on immigration from other countries. According to the Census Bureau, the United States must see, an immigrant move into the country within the lapse of every 33 seconds despite the tireless efforts made by the government to close the borders (Thomson., 2017).Due to this, the country is viewed globally to be leading from a cultural diversity standpoint. This can be explained by the fact that its culture has borrowed from all the regions of the world.
Uniqueness of American Culture
Therefore, the American culture is also described to be the 'melting point' this is because different cultures are believed to have contributed a part of what makes the culture right now that is their distinct "flavors" to the culture. Just like any other culture in the world, the American culture is believed to have influenced others cultures in the globe too. Western culture, the most famous, majorly discusses the US and European cultures. This aspect is what makes the American culture so unique.
Ideals of Beauty in American Culture
The word beauty may hold extra meaning beyond what you can think. It may refer to a gorgeous angel that has just fallen from the sky or a beautiful soul. The saying "beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder" seems to refer to the enriched perception, culture of humans and even the nature of what beauty is. What one should realize is that one can be beautiful in one country and not slightly beautiful in another. It is a great challenge to gauge the standard of beauty for the American culture; this is because it is quite intercultural regarding race, ethnicity and also the high number of migrants from around the globe. Hence, pointing a single beauty attribute would be to just cover a small percentage of the population. Thus, the best way to get to summarize the standards of beauty would be to pay our attention to media plus how women are represented in the media.
Influence of Media on Beauty Standards
Over the years, television personas and celebrities seem to define beauty as having bigger assets. Most of them are big fans of plastic surgery industry which makes them look young and flawless. Some 15.6 million cosmetic-related procedures were carried out in the in the United States as reported by the American society of plastic surgeons. (Nixon., 2011). This is considered to be an increase of 3 percent compared to the previous year 2013. These trends have in a way encompassed the American culture since most of the things are learnt from the media. The young American girls may at some point feel pressurized to change their asset to appear like those they view from the screen to acquire some acceptance in the culture.
American Fashion
However, the American style is an interesting one. Clothing styles vary by their respective social status, climate, religion, and even occupation. It has no specific attire like the Oman culture of the Iraq, but it mostly identifies itself with freestyle kind of clothing. Celebrities and the media influence the American fashion a great deal. According to information is contained in a Harvard University paper in 2007, the fashion sale lies around 200 dollars per year.
Body Image in American Culture
Body image may be defined as the perception one holds about themselves either about the thoughts, physical self and feelings arising from such a perception. These feelings can either be positive or negative or even both depending on the individual and the environmental factors. In other words, body image is how you see yourself when you stand before a mirror. The American culture has a high influence on the body image of all the American people. This culture is saturated with digitally retouched photos which may likely negative influence an individual's body image mentally. The more one looks at a perfect image of others in the media and then cross checks at themselves and fails to find those same attributes, the worse one feels about themselves. Apart from the negative impacts of the American culture to the body images of people, there are countless positive impacts resulted by this culture to certain individuals. The American culture appreciates and develops a person's capabilities rather than their appearance this in return helps in building up a positive body image.
Societal Views on Body Image
The American culture gives its people a variety of reference points that can shape their perceptions. Prejudice of size and shape in our culture today has a lot to do with why there are so many cases of intolerance of body diversity (Kean ., 2016). Being thin and muscular has been associated the smart people. Culture makes us believe that being fat is categorized with those who are lazy, ugly and weak. All this positively or negatively influences one's perception of body image.
Eating Disorders and American Culture
The American influence has a great influence on the eating disorders experienced by the western countries. Eating disorders such as the anorexia nervosa are mainly characterized by the clinical disturbances and the various eating behaviors. Many who suffer from this disorder have the feeling of being fat even when emaciated. They often deny the low body weight due to fear of being fat. This Culture has a big influence on this eating disorders found amongst the American people. Studies show that those with eating disorders have mostly been white women compared to the men with eating disorders. The prevalence of this disorder is mostly influenced by the different cultural norms found in the US.
American Cuisine
In the early history, the Europeans and the Native Americans majorly influenced the American cuisine. There are certain foods that can be defined as American, hot dogs, potato chips, hamburgers, macaroni, meatloaf and even meatloaf cheese are the most famous ones. Just like any other culture, the American culture has varying cooking styles and kinds of foods that are unique to a certain region. The famous, "American comfort food" is considered to be a southern-style of cooking which bases on different dishes such as collard greens, fried chicken, cornbread and black-eyed peas.( Kammen., 2012). Tex-Mex which is a blend of Mexican Spanish style of cooking is most popular in Texas and the southwest.
Religious Practices in the United States
However, apart from all the above cultural practices, there are other cultural aspects. The American culture is made of several holidays. Studies show that a lot of holidays are commemorated in the US. They tend to use these holidays to make their favorite cultural dishes and even use them as a chance to unite with their family members.
Religion in the United States
In aspects concerning the religious practices, the United States practices nearly every known religion. This because of the law enhanced in the first amendment stating that every American is entitled to religious freedom. (Conforti., 1995). Information collected by Pew Research Center in early 2017, about 71 percent of all Americans identify themselves as Christians. The research further established that 23 percent of the remaining Americans had no religious affiliation while 6 percent of the rest of the population is made up of non-Christians. religions. Hence, the American culture is described to be one of a kind. It is the only culture in the world that embraces the modern culture. Studies have shown that it is a culture that every American person is proud of identifying him or herself.
References
Campbell, N., & Kean, A. (2016). American cultural studies: an introduction to American culture. Routledge.
Conforti, J. A. (1995). Jonathan Edwards, Religious Tradition, and American Culture. UNC Press Books.
Kammen, M. (2012). American culture, American tastes: Social change and the 20th century. Knopf.
Lawler, M., & Nixon, E. (2011). Body dissatisfaction among adolescent boys and girls: the effects of body mass, peer appearance culture and internalization of appearance ideals. Journal of youth and adolescence, 40(1), 59-71
Thomson, R. G. (2017). Extraordinary bodies: Figuring physical disability in American culture and literature. Columbia University Press.
