Re: SHAME AND SEXUAL ABUSE

["sherioz" <sherioz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Title: Message

Lisa Fontes raises an important point regarding culture.

To me, that sounds like a cultural difference in the shame response. Not just families, but members of entire ethnic minority communities often feel ashamed when one of their members (O.J. Simpson, Woody Allen) is caught involved in a scandal--feeling like it shames the entire community. Members of the majority group are seen as perpetrating INDIVIDUAL acts that are not seen as reflecting on everyone from that group.

I am wondering if defining "cultural" depends on where you are.  Are we talking about minority versus majority cultures or about cultural groups per se.  For example, would we expect Arabs and Chinese in the States to respond differently than Arabs in an Arab country or Chinese in China?  How does generation-since-immigration make a difference?  What is stronger - the original culture from country of origin or fact of being a minority culture? 

 

And can we separate the tendency of minority communities often feeling ashamed when one of their members (O.J. Simpson, Woody Allen) is caught involved in a scandal--feeling like it shames the entire community. from the tendency of the majority culture to homogenize the minority culture and associate an act of the individual with an act of the entire minority group (eg., Moslems)? 

 

So are we talking about cultural differences or a sociological phenomenon? I think it is important to distinguish the two when doing research.

Sheri Oz