Culture and Psychology

I've been studying culture lately and learning about how it affects how we act, speak, and even subconsciously behave. But is it more than that... Does where we live or the culture we are raised in affect how we feel about ourselves? Our self-esteem?

In the western world, there are cultural expectations of how someone should look. I found an article on eating disorders. Apparently, until the 1990s there were relatively low cases outside of the western developed world. Since then thanks to the Internet, media, and the increase of social media it is spreading. In this article from the Borgen Magazine, it says;

"In Pakistan, one study found that girls in Pakistan who had a larger exposure to Western media and television were at greater risk of developing an eating disorder. While many of the women admitted to being dissatisfied with their bodies, only 20% were actually above the normal weight. Many of these women said that their body dissatisfaction was inspired by the bodies of Indian and white actresses they admired in television and media. They also referred to the Miss Universe pageants.

The influence of the internet, movies, and social media are reaching all over the world and creating an unrealistic expectation of 'perfection' changing cultural norms.

I was thinking about what makes people who they are. I came across a Ted Talk video from a lady called Lizzie Velasquez. If you have a few minutes it really is worth watching. She asks the question "What defines you?" We can all make excuses for how we feel or how we act. But deep down we need to find out who we are and why. 

Where we live, who our family is, what our culture, religion, gender, all affect our lives but do these things define us?

Let's try and look past what our cultures tell us is acceptable, beautiful, or of worth and start to really look at each other. We aren't that different really.

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