Social, Intellectual and Cultural Thresholds

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Social, Intellectual and Cultural Thresholds

• 1914 - PRESENT

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Gender

• Feminism and equal rights
• Early century World War I saw Western women get
  vote
• Status of women changed dramatically after WWII
  in industrialized states
• Women mobilized to support war some actually
  fought in war
• Women demanded full equality with men, access to
  education and employment
• Birth control enables women to control their
  bodies and avoid "biology destiny"
• U.N. Declaration of Womens Rights officially
  grant women international rights
• U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids
  discrimination on basis of race or sex
• In Western Europe, US, Oceania women entered
  politics, board rooms
• Gender equality in Communist Countries?
• Communist states often improved women's legal
  status
• Despite legal reforms, women have not yet gained
  true equality
• In USSR, Eastern Europe many women entered
  medicine, science but second to men
• In China, one-child policy encourages infanticide
  or abandonment of baby girls
• The Developing World Africa, SW Asia
• Decolonization often as much from colonizing
  country as husbands, males
• Domesticity and abuse restricting rights of women
• Women in Arab and Muslim societies twice as
  likely as men to be illiterate
• Most Indian women illiterate (75 perecent in
  1980s) and confined at home

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SOCIAL REFORMS, SOCIAL REVOLUTIONS

• Feminism
• Defined Women should enjoy equal rights in
• Society, law, business, government
• Decisions about their bodies especially abortion,
  birth control
• The Issue
• By 1920s Women have the vote but this is not
  equality
• By 1940s Latin American women generally have the
  vote
• Opposition to feminism came from both left, right
• Left felt women would vote conservative, listen
  to their husbands
• Right felt women would be liberals, vote to
  change society
• Post War Europe saw the rise of feminism
• Simone de Beauvoir society oppresses women,
  creates differences
• 1960s
• Feminism becomes a middle class movement
• Pill, right to work and education helped movement
• NOW National Organization of Women (USA)
• Pressed for legislation to end discrimination
  towards women
• 1973 Roe v. Wade made abortion legal and
  strengthened womens movement
• Presses for equal access to jobs

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Women around the world

• East Asia
• China
• Communists push women into society
• Women are comrades aiding the revolution
• True also of USSR, Eastern Europe to a lesser
  extend also true in Vietnam, North Korea
• In China
• 1960s Cultural Revolution pushed this idea
• 1980s economic liberalization seems to have hurt
  progress
• Japan
• Meiji women entered workforce (2/3 of work
  force) poor conditions
• World War II
• Women enter into all workforces to free up men
  for army
• This is true of every major combatant in World
  War II (US, UK, USSR, Germany)
• US Occupation changed Japanese society beginning
  in 1945
• US insisted on equal rights, womens vote, equal
  pay
• Women enter grassroots politics, consumer groups,
  environmental issues
• Religious States
• Muslim states
• Egypt, Turkey, Morocco, Malaya, Pakistan, Libya
  saw some positive changes

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Broad References

• 19th Century Era of Transportation
• 20th Century Era of Telecommunications
• Newspapers 1890s
• Radios, Movies, Teletypes 1920s
• News magazines, journals 1930s
• Television 1950s
• Personal Computers, Fax 1980s
• Internet, World Wide Web, Email 1990s
• Cell Phones 1990s
• Mechanization of the Home
• Major aspect of consumerism
• Began with electrification of 1910s, 1920s
• Refrigerators, washing machines, vacuum machines
• Home computers, microwaves, advanced
  entertainment
• Service Industries
• Largest sector of Western economies is now
  service related
• Service industries are retail, entertainment,
  sales, technology support

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Early Century

• Post World War I Pessimism
• The "lost generation"
• Term described pessimism of U.S., European
  thinkers after the war
• Postwar poetry, fiction reflected disillusionment
  with western culture
• Scholars--Oswald Spengler, Arnold
  Toynbee--lamented decline of west
• Religious thought reflected uncertainty and
  pessimism
• Karl Barth attacked liberal Christian theology
  embracing idea of progress
• Older concepts of original sin and human
  depravity revived
• Attacks on the ideal of progress
• Science tarnished by the technological horrors of
  World War I
• Most western societies granted suffrage to all
  men and women
• Many intellectuals disillusioned with democracy
• Conservatives decried "the rule of inferiors
• Intellectual Revolutions
• Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, 1906
• Space and time relative to the person measuring
  them
• Implication reality or truth merely a set of
  mental constructions
• Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, 1927
• Impossible to state position, velocity of a
  subatomic particle at same time

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After WW II mostly American

• Domestic containment
• U.S. leaders held families to be best defense
  against communism
• Women discouraged from working, should stay home
  and raise kids
• Senator McCarthy led attack against suspected
  communists in United States
• Increasing pressure to conform, retreat to home
  and family
• Female liberation movement a reaction to postwar
  domesticity
• Working women unhappy with new cult of
  domesticity
• Writers Simone de Beauvoir (The Second Sex) and
  Betty Friedan (The Feminine Mystique) reflected
  women's dissatisfaction
• Some feminists used Marxist language, argued for
  "women's liberation"
• Black nationalism in United States, Caribbean,
  and emerging states of Africa
• Influenced by Jamaicans, singer Bob Marley,
  nationalist Marcus Garvey
• Martin Luther King Jr. inspired by Gandhi's
  nonviolent methods
• The U.S. civil rights movement emerged from cold
  war
• USSR critical of United States for treatment of
  African-Americans
• African-Americans organized in protest of
  southern segregation
• 1954, U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregated
  education was unconstitutional
• Rosa Parks started boycott of Montgomery buses,
  led by M. L. King, 1955
• Cold war consumerism
• Socialist countries could not match United States
  in material wealth, consumer goods

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Cross Cultural Exchanges

• Global Barbie
• Western consumerism becoming a global phenomenon
• Sara versus Barbie in Iran
• Barbie seen as a threat to Islamic values, symbol
  of cultural imperialism
• Iranian dolls, Sara and her brother Dara (an
  Islamic cleric), are modest alternatives
• Barbie in Japan
• Image of Barbie unsettling, Mattel created a
  younger doll for Japanese market
• Whereas Iranians reject image of Barbie, Japanese
  adjust Barbie to their aesthetic
• Consumption and cultural interaction
• Global culture of consumption
• Satisfies wants and desires rather than needs or
  necessities
• Homogenization of global culture blue jeans,
  Coca-Cola, McDonalds
• Western icons often replace local businesses and
  indigenous cultures
• Brand names also identify local products, for
  example, Swiss Rolex, Perrier, Armani
• Pan-American culture competes with United States
• Eva Peon (Evita) has become a pop icon in
  Argentina and beyond
• Latin American societies blended foreign and
  indigenous cultural practices
• The age of access
• Globalization minimizes social, economic, and
  political isolation

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POP CULTURE

• Leisure time allowed for development of mass
  entertainment
• Technology led to syncretic blend of world
  artistic traditions
• Globalizing Art and Culture
• Fine art vs. pop(ular) art
• Distinction blurred
• National distinctions largely gone
• Interconnections, exchanges without war
• Music
• Probably greatest aspect of Globalization
• Syncretic World Beat Classical, African, ethnic
  influences led to Jazz, Blues, Rock
• Popularity of Beatles, ABBA, Ladysmith Black
  Mazembo around world
• Movies
• Technological wonder born of marriage between
  photography, art, music
• Hollywood and Bollywood dominate production of
  world movies
• Sports
• Outgrowth of British interest in competitive
  sports, 1895 Olympic revival
• 1920s/1950s Baseball, basketball spreads
  wherever Americans live, stationed
• 1930s Popularity of soccer spreads from Europe
  to Latin America
• Today perhaps the primary world wide
  entertainment 2 billion watch Olympics

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Internet Connections
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McDonalds in Tokyo
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