Yesterday I was walking back to my car and remembered a scene from a movie, in which a businessman has a cold. He is meeting with businessmen from Japan and refuses an offer of a shaken hand, citing "germs" as his reason. He then launches into a frantic, incoherent protest (really incoherent I think from memory, intent guessed from context) that he did not mean it like that, that he does not think Japanese people are diseased and please do not walk away from this deal.
It put me in mind of other portrayals of cross-cultural interactions in fiction, particularly in speculative fiction. It seems to me there is a pattern of portraying other cultures as demanding rigid adherence to their culture and rituals from outsiders. Generally in these stories the heroes (westerners/white people nearly without exception) must bow to such demands because other cultures are depicted as being unaccommodating of difference yet the heroes need something in the scene(s) in question and cannot risk angering them.
I noticed long ago and was bothered by the tendency to use parts of other cultures - real or imagined - as opportunities for jokes, yet only just now noticed that it is accompanied by a tendency to portray other cultures as intolerant of other ways of life, which the heroes must humour.
This entry is tricky to phrase. I do not want it to seem as though I am saying people must cater to the culture of interlopers, forgoing their own to accommodate others. What is bothering me is seeing Other cultures portrayed as taking advantage of opportunities to make the mainstream hero characters follow their way of life, needing to be placated with such actions and demanding accommodation from members of the mainstream while giving none in return.
What bothers me is not exactly anything I have described, but that the consistency of this portrayal seems rather xenophobic, that through the lens of these fictions groups other than the presumed audience are shown as having power and anger to be feared and forcing unwanted cultural concessions on the majority.
Perhaps I should not have said intolerant. It is seldom for an outsider to threaten the culture of the heroes even by so much as calling it into question - I do not think the your way/our way 'enlightening' exchanges count for that. It is more, this thing I am groping for how to say, that Western/white/U.S./whatever culture is portrayed as being forced to accommodate and other cultures as demanding accommodation, needing to be placated and, well, not being as understanding of difference or enlightened on such matters.
I do not feel confident at having articulated this well - it seemed so clear yesterday - hopefully discussion will help clarify thoughts.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
