What is Culture?

Today I had a Professional Development workshop and we were asked to define the culture of our school...

Well in order to define the culture of a school, we first have to define what culture is: I wrote down the following notes:

"What is culture?

• people
• holidays
• places
• moral values (beliefs)
• celebrations
• rituals
• handling crisis 
• family? or just a connection or oppression? 

And of course I couldn't think of anything else for about 20 minutes. What is culture? (Wikipedia had several definitions if you'd like to check it out.) Is it a group of people who have shared beliefs? The easy answer is yes, one is part of a culture because of how one thinks, or what one thinks is right and moral. Then I started thinking about the "gay culture." And first I had to decide what is the gay culture. And there are very few things that link us together. Unlike a Native American tribe we have no ritualistic dance (although dancing is a stereotype in the "gay culture"). Unlike Jewish people, we have no linking religion that we all share (although Diva's again are that stereotype). We don't have holidays (Maybe a pride march is the closest we get). We don't have a location that we all come from (for instance Lesbos Island). So what keeps us together.

Sex. Oppression. Crisis. That's what I came down to.

The gay culture is a counter culture, while it can easily be found in any other group of people, we are all connected by our lack of fitting into the norm of heterosexual acts (although Bisexual people and Str8, men on the DL and other exceptions are the rule). As a gay man, I have an automatic familial connection to some one who is gay! I route for them in movies (hell if there's a gay character in a bad movie, it automatically makes is a good movie). We are connected by our sex and that's it.

Because that is our strongest connection to our culture, we unite under times of oppression and crisis when our rights to express our culture are denied. When Mathew Sheppard died because he liked to have sex with men, we united. This crisis took great story telling and helped create a stronger awareness of the crisis the gay culture faces all the time.

These crises are because of oppression! We are oppressed because we are gay. Because we are "counter" the heteronormative  culture we are deemed less. We have our rights stripped away and are looked upon as second class citizens because of who we have sex with!

When discussing culture today, my colleagues talked about shared values and a history of likeness and traditions and foods and dance and stories. Not once did they mention sex. Not once did they mention oppression. They looked at the positive aspects of culture, and I can't seem to stop thinking that culture is just one of those social constructs put into place by the old, rich, white men to help give them a sense of superiority and reasons to oppress those who are different.

What is culture? Culture is a social construct used to connect people. So they will be able to check off a little box on some survey. (Photo credit is actually me!)

Dear Kirk Cameron

In response to my friends blog I have decided to write an open letter to Kirk Cameron.

You might want to check this out first, for context of this post:



Dear Kirk Cameron,

Back in 1990, when I was 6 and you were on Growing Pains I had a weird crush on you and Tracey Gold. I wanted to be a part of the Seaver family. It was a great show that was exciting to watch and always could offer a laugh.

Time goes on, and TV shows disappear and you and Tracey moved from the limelight of my 6 year old eyes into the recesses of syndication.

19 years later, and I've discovered that you are crazy as a loon! Here is a list of my several problems with your video:

1. I'm an agnostic. I have been since YEARS before college! My top 100 university professors did not teach me how to be agnostic. My high school teachers didn't teach me to be agnostic. The Catholic Church taught me to be agnostic. I spent 14 years of my life trying to believe the "word of the lord." But it just didn't make sense to me. How could there be fossil evidence of dinosaurs when the Bible said the world started with Adam and Eve? How could Jesus have been the son of god (yes that is lower case) when god is incorporeal? And hundreds of other questions that didn't make sense: Most importantly, how could the church hate like it does, when Jesus loved everyone.

If we take for a fact that everything in the Bible is true, than Jesus was a miracle worker, he kept company with prostitutes and beggar and lepers. Basically the slums of the people of the time. He preached love, tolerance and acceptance of these people, not total disregard for who they are. He taught everyone to love all of god's creations. Not HATE! (Like you and the Christian right are doing). How could a religion based on the teachings of this "saint" be promoting bigotry and intolerance? That's when I left Catholicism.

When I understood that I was gay, and that god no longer accepted me, I realized that religion wasn't a place where I would find solace and acceptance, just hate and ignorance.

2. I believe there is a higher being, for some of the same reason that you mention. There is no scientific proof that on what actually created the universe (whether some sneezed and we're the by-product on it, or god needed to be created and in the process the big bang happened, but until we have a reason for the big bang, I have to agree that something started the whole thing). But I do hold the believe that that is where it ended. God isn't part of my life, he doesn't control my choices, he isn't holding a scale to weigh my heart against my sins. He's just not around. Where's the proof?

3.  I'm a teacher. I teacher Kindergarten. I allow my students to read whatever they want. I allow them to talk about whatever they want. And as long as they are talking pure and unhurtful words, I allow them to say whatever they want. When they ask if I believe in God, or if I go to church I answer truthfully, and say "Yes, I believe in a god." And "No, I don't go to church. Do you?" And if they ask religious questions I always defer with "This is a question to ask your parents." I don't push an agenda on them, I just help them be tolerant of EVERYONE!! (not just who the religious right think we should be tolerant of).

4. You are a loon! And you and the religious right need to rethink your scare campaigner. Us on the left won't put up with it for long. Even you said that Atheism and Agnosticism are on the rise. You loose more and more people when you preach hate and intolerance (btw, how many modern scientists would agree with your statements, it's easy to pick names from the distant past to give credit to your argument. How many of those same people believed the Earth was flat!!!!!).

It's time to understand that the Bible is not the word of god, but a few men's stories.

"You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye." Matthew 7:5


Thom

P.S. STOP BEING A LOON