Understanding Different Cultures

In "Sex and the City 2", the quartet of 'sophisticated' New York fashionistas go on an all-expenses paid trip to Abu Dhabi and while there they get to experience a brand new culture that not everyone gets a chance to experience. While I'm sure the writer and director saw this as an opportunity to introduce their audience to a new culture through the medium of film, the execution of said introduction left a great deal to be desired. Seeing how shoddily the subject of learning about Middle Eastern culture was treated, I was surprised if for no other reason than the degree of ignorance these four women were shown to have.

Now while I agree that not everyone will have an opportunity to learn about new cultures or even be familiar with them, I beg to differ as to the point the film appears to be making whereby these four women are shown to be so clueless about even the basic aspects of Muslim culture; especially in this day and age. While I could expect such ignorance and idiocy (and there's really no other word for it) from a country bumpkin who has never left their home city before going on such a trip, I refuse to believe that these women, who come from a culturally diverse city like New York, could believably be that stupid and ignorant.

But giving them the benefit of the doubt (and allowing for the sake of telling a story with these particular four women), is it really necessary to portray Americans (and specifically women) in such a negative light? I mean all the cliches that you could possibly have with regards to Americans exposed to new culture seem to apply to this film. What are some of these cliches? Well how about speaking louder and slower to someone in another country? It never ceases to amaze me that human nature works in such a mysterious way. If you think about it, there have probably been innumerable times where you've seen someone, in an effort to be fully understood by someone who doesn't speak their language, speaks in a slow and loud voice.

Or how about acting high and mighty about how all our (and by that I mean American) culture's aspects are better (or preferable) to another's? In this case, the four girls have a very heated and prolonged discussion about how restrictive aspects of Muslim culture are. Perhaps so, but rather than trying to understand the reasons or the rationale behind it (maybe not to agree but at least to understand) the four of them behave as if they are right to continue their ways regardless of their surroundings which includes dressing like streetwalkers and behaving as such (at times).

In seeing the film I was truly disappointed to see that in a time when understanding Muslim culture (as opposed to insulting both directly and indirectly) would be a good thing, this film however continued to perpetuate the false belief that many outside of America have about us and that is that we don't respect or want to understand Muslim culture or any other non-American culture that is out there. Thinking on it I began to wonder if this was just my bias against the film or perhaps that this was a trend. In thinking about it I began to realize that perhaps there truly weren't any films that sought to explore new cultures with respect and understanding. Then while listening to my iPod the other day I realized that that wasn't the case and I found the perfect example film; "The Karate Kid II".

Now while not a great film, this film shows how the main character accompanies his friend and teacher on a trip to Okinawa and in the process learns about Japanese culture and customs. He doesn't know everything and doesn't necessarily agree with everything he sees or experiences but at least the main character makes an effort to learn. While teaching the Japanese about our culture the teach him something about theirs as well. This is true cultural exchange and shows what we can learn if we open our minds to it. Now that they are remaking "The Karate Kid" (to be released this week), I am hopeful that they take the example of the original and try to teach the audience about a new culture rather than simply showing the false belief that all Americans never find anything good to take away from learning from another culture.