Performing Arts Chapter 4 Four Cocultures Living Multicultural World Overview Folb Whos Got The Room

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Chapter Four

Co-cultures: Living in a Multicultural World

Overview

Folb, E. A. “Who’s Got the Room at the Top? Issues of Dominance and Nondominance in Intercultural

Communication” (pp. 154-161).

This essay begins with a discussion of the concept of intracultural communication and then

describes how societies and cultures are maintained through the indoctrination of each new

Braithwaite, D., & Braithwaite, C. “‘Which Is My Good Leg?’: Cultural Communication of

Persons with Disabilities” (pp. 162-173).

This essay examines how persons with disabilities view their communicative relationships with

nondisabled persons. The authors discuss a three step process of redefinition that happens to

Pearson, J. “Gender and Communication: Sex Is More Than a Three-Letter Word” (pp. 174–182).

The author of this essay explores how gender affects communication. To do so, she begins by

investigating the relationship between sex, gender, and communication, the process through

Ribeau, S., Baldwin, J., & Hecht, M. “An African American Communication Perspective” (pp. 182-189).

The focus of this essay is the effectiveness of communication between African Americans and

Eadie, W. “In Plain Sight: Gay and Lesbian Communication and Culture” (pp. 254-267).

The communicative behaviors of gay and lesbian co-cultures are introduced in this essay. After

– Chapter Four –

Outline

I. WHO’S GOT THE ROOM AT THE TOP? ISSUES OF DOMINANCE AND NONDOMINANCE

IN INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION (Folb)

a. The concept of intracultural communication

i. “‘The type of communication that takes place between members of the same

dominant culture, but with slightly differing values’” (p. 154, quoted from

Sitaram & Cogdell, 1976, p. 28)

b. A frame of reference for intracultural communciation

i. Society and culture

2. But “whose culture is passed on? Whose social order is maintained?

Whose beliefs and values are deemed appropriate?” (p. 156)

ii. Hierarchy, power, and dominance

1. High status may be assigned to people with special skills, wealth, etc.

3. Most powerful people go to great lengths to remain powerful

c. A nomenclature for intracultural communication

i. The concept of nondominance

1. Nondominant groups are “those constellations of people who have not

2. Nondominant groups are invisible within society

4. “Passing” versus “coming out of the closet”

5. Social roles are linked to status, class, and caste

ii. Geopolitics

1. The United States as a geopolitical configuration

2. The history of expansion and missionary-like work has contributed to the

social hierarchies and status of nondominant groups in the United States

today.

II. ‘WHICH IS MY GOOD LEG?’: CULTURAL COMMUNICATION OF PERSONS WITH

DISABILITIES (Braithwaite & Braithwaite)

a. Understanding communication of persons with disabilities as cultural communication

i. Miscommunications and feelings of embarrassment, awkwardness, and anger can

occur in interactions between people with disabilities and people without

disabilities interact.

b. Disability and cultural communication

i. People with disabilities can develop ways of communicating that are different

from people without disabilities.

c. Challenges for communicators who are disabled

i. Disability (Def.) “…describes those limitations that a person can overcome or

compensate for by some means” (p. 163)

ii. Five key “life function” challenges that can be affected by disability:

2. Employment

4. Social relationship

5. Communication

iii. A disability becomes a handicap when “…the physical or social environment

interacts with it to impede a person in some aspect of his or her life” (p.164)

d. When society is willing and/or able to create adaptations, people with disabilities are able

to lead increasingly independent lives which is important to both self-esteem and health

Challenges to relationships of people with disabilities:

i. Unlike employment, mobility, and self-care, social relationships and

ii. New relationship challenges are greater for people who are disabled

iii. Stereotypes of people with disabilities and disabled culture

iv. Most people with disabilities are aware of the feelings and fears many

nondisabled people have and develop communication strategies to help them

interact in these situations

e. Changing the focus of researchers

i. Most study nondisabled persons’ reactions to those with disabilities

ii. Many researchers talk about people with disabilities instead of with them

f. Process of redefinition

i. Redefining the self as part of the disabled culture

1. A balancing act between cultures

2. Individual adjustment

a. Stigma isolation

i. Experience of suddenly becoming disabled

ii. Impact on social relations

b. Stigma recognition

c. Stigma incorporation

i. Persons with disabilities begin to integrate being

disabled into their identity definition of self

ii. Stigma incorporation has been labeled as “regaining

wellness”

ii. Redefining Disability

2. Nobody is really independent (e.g., built house, grew food, etc.)

4. TABs (temporarily able-bodied)

5. A cane is a portable railing

iii. Redefining disability within nondisabled culture

1. People with disabilities do recognize themselves as part of a culture, and

understanding communication and relationships from this perspective

sheds new light on the communication challenges that exist

g. Conclusion

i. Intercultural researchers should design research and training that could help

people make the transition from majority to minority an easier one

ii. Practical prescriptions—Do’s and Don’ts for communicating with people with

disabilities

III. GENDER AND COMMUNICATION: SEX IS MORE THAN A THREE-LETTER WORD

(Pearson)

a. How are sex, gender, and communication related?

i. The term gender rather than sex

ii. The Bern sex role inventory

iii. Communication creates gender

1. Three stages of development: The preparatory stage, the play stage, and

1. “Masculine and feminine individuals use different languages, and they

put their words together differently” (p. 176)

2. Differences in communication between masculine and feminine

subcultures

a. Feminine individuals more animated, more relaxed, less

argumentative, more relational (rather than goal-oriented), more

empathetic, caring, nurturing, and more likely to disclose

personal information about themselves than masculine or

androgynous individuals

b. What problems exist?

1. We are likely to make errors in assumptions about men and women due

to several errors in person perception

a. Implicit personality theory

b. Stereotypes

ii. Perceptions of behavior are confused with actual behavior

1. The same behavior may be judged positively for one gender group, but

negatively in another

2. Gender research has also encouraged a masculine bias

a. The social settings of gender investigations are typically in male-

dominated contexts, such as businesses

c. How can we solve the problems of communication and gender?

1. “…we need to understand the role of the masculine culture and how it

shapes both our perceptions and our behaviors” (p. 181)

d. Summary

IV. AN AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNICATION PERSPECTIVE (Ribeau, Baldwin, & Hecht)

a. Underlying assumptions

i. Culture

ii. Ethnicity

b. Communication effectiveness

c. Intragroup communication issues

i. African Americans were most satisfied with conversations where both partners

d. Intergroup communication issues

i. Negative stereotyping

1. Direct stereotyping

ii. Acceptance

iii. Personal expressiveness

1. Some African Americans felt that unexpressive European Americans

iv. Authenticity

2. Yet many African American males engaged in self-presentation, in

1. The feeling that messages are successfully conveyed

vi. Goal attainment

1. Conversations in which goals were attained were considered more

2. African Americans who might use more assertive language in other

contexts used a different linguistic style when interacting with European

Americans

e. Communication improvement strategies

i. Asserting one’s point of view

ii. Positive self-perception

iii. Be open and friendly

v. Interaction management

vii. Inform/educate

viii. Express genuineness

1. Be yourself

ix. Confront

1. Ways for African Americans to think about a situation

xi. Treat others as individuals and equals

1. Leave race, color, or stereotypes out of the conversation and get to know

the other person

xii. Language management

1. Avoid slang and articulate clearly

f. Conclusion

V. IN PLAIN SIGHT: GAY AND LESBIAN COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE (Eadie)

a. When the personal is political

i. The not-so–hidden outsiders

2. “Gaydar” debunked

3. If men act feminine or women act masculine, they are more likely to be

1. Four classic stereotypes

a. Gay males are effeminate

2. Societal views (1917-2004)

a. Four stages of societal views of gay men

3. Heterosexism

a. Heterosexuals are normal, homosexuals are deviant (not just

different)

iii. Overcoming stereotypes

2. Media viewing

3. Dangers of being openly gay higher for those under 21

iv. The process of coming out

1. Six stages nonheterosexual individuals go through as they develop their

identities

v. Communication and identity formation

vi. Coming out as event

2. When the other members are ready to hear what this individual has to say

4. Families of choice vs. families of origin

vii. Achieving intimacy

1. Fear of being discovered, fear of what others will think, or fear of losing

one’s job can keep people in hiding and afraid of their own sexuality

viii. Building community

2. Once in the community, gays and lesbians are likely to become involved

in social organizations

3. The community has been galvanized by the drive to legalize gay

marriage

b. Communication and the tensions of being gay

i. Be hidden or be flamboyant

ii. Camp as gay sensibility

1. “Camp helps gay and lesbians find an alternative way of being in the

2. Drag

iii. It’s about sex, but not only sex

iv. Making public communication safe

2. Extended eye gaze

3. Conversations in which interlocutors say something socially acceptable

v. Negotiating sexual attraction

2. Bisexuality

vi. Negotiating intimacy

2. May not follow same definitions of cheating as heterosexual partners

3. Storkey (2001) reports that men typically have difficulty achieving

5. The fact that same-sex couples have no legal standing in many parts of

the United States also means that couples either have to keep their

finances separate or have legal documents drafted spelling out the

arrangements, all the while knowing that the validity of the documents

might be challenged

c. Some Closing Thoughts

– Chapter Four –

Discussion Ideas

Concepts & Questions from “Who’s Got the Room at the Top? Issues of Dominance and Nondominance

in Intercultural Communication” (Folb, pp. 154-161):

1. What is Folb referring to when she notes, “If a phenomenon is important, it is perceived, and,

being perceived, it is labeled”? Tie your response to the major thesis of Folb’s essay.

2. How do you define the term “intracultural communication”?

3. Why does Folb believe that the concepts of hierarchy and dominance are directly linked to

matters of intracultural communication?

4. Do you believe that issues of hierarchy are as prevalent today as they were more than forty years

ago when Folb wrote her essay?

5. What are some of the most important “teachings” of your culture that helped shape your norms,

values, and methods of communication?

Concepts & Questions from “‘Which Is My Good Leg?’: Cultural Communication of Persons with

Disabilities” (Braithwaite & Braithwaite, pp. 162-173):

1. How does becoming disabled lead to changes in a person’s communication patterns?

2. What are some of the cultural problems inherent in communication between nondisabled people

and people with disabilities?

4. Give examples of what the Braithwaites mean when they say that “the distinctive verbal and

nonverbal communication used by persons with disabilities creates a sense of cultural identity

that constitutes a unique social reality”?

5. How would you distinguish between disability and handicap?

6. Why is nonverbal communication a factor when nondisabled people and people with disabilities

engage in communication?

Concepts & Questions from “Gender and Communication: Sex Is More Than a Three–Letter Word”

(Pearson, pp. 174-182):

1. How are the terms “sex” and “gender” used differently by Pearson? Why is an understanding of

the terms important to an analysis of gender communication?

4. More than thirty years ago Pearson wrote, “Our world and the roles of women and men in it are

undergoing rapid change, but our interactions do not acknowledge these changes.” Do you

believe her assertion is still valid today?

5. According to Pearson, what are the four errors women and men make during interaction? Do you

agree with her conclusions?

8. Why do you believe Pearson used the phrase, “sex is more than a three-letter word”?

Concepts & Questions from “An African American Communication Perspective” (Ribeau, Baldin, &

Hecht, pp. 182-189):

1. How do Ribeau, Baldwin, and Hecht differentiate between culture and ethnicity?

2. How would you define “effective behavior”?

4. Can you think of some examples of “indirect stereotyping”?

5. What are Ribeau, Baldwin, and Hecht referring to when they write about “personal

expressiveness”?

6. Have you ever experienced “power dynamics” when communicating with someone of a culture

different from your own?

Concepts & Questions from “In Plain Sight: Gay and Lesbian Communication and Culture” (Eadie, pp.

190-203):

1. Why would some readers be eager to read Eadie’s article but others would prefer to avoid it?

2. Does Eadie’s personal history affect your attitudes toward the lesbian and gay culture? How?

3. How does revealing one’s lesbian or gay sexuality become a political statement? What specific

behaviors might be interpreted as a political statement?

5. What are the six interactive stages through which nonheterosexual individuals pass as they

develop their identity?

6. How does Eadie describe the process by which gays and lesbians deal with the tensions

associated with being open about sexuality?

9. What are some of the unique gay communication patterns Eadie describes? How do these forms

of communication serve the gay culture?

10. What are some of the “societal expectations” that men and women are expected to adhere to in

the “straight” community?

– Chapter Four –

Exercises

Exercise 4.1: George Orwell, 1984

1. Ask students to engage in a class discussion on the following Orwellian quote: “All men are

created equal—some are just more equal than others.”

a. Begin by inviting students to look closely at the terms in the sentence. Who is not included?

What does “equal” mean? What does it mean to be “created equal”?

b. Next, ask students to consider U.S. society. Who are the “some” that are more equal in the

United States? Why are these people more equal than others? What do they have, what

privileges do they have that others don’t? Who are those that are not “as equal” as those who

are “more equal”? What prevents them from being as equal as the others?

Exercise 4.2: Political Correctness or Necessary Changes?

This exercise incorporates themes from all the articles in Chapter 4. It asks students to consider the

popular phrase “political correctness” and determine for themselves whether it is a movement that

suppresses free speech or whether it is, in part, really about changes in our language and perception of

other cultures. Changes in how we talk about and refer to people often influence how we perceive those

people. Take the evolution of the word crippled to refer to those individuals who use wheelchairs and

walk with the aid of crutches. Over the past few decades, the word crippled went from handicapped to

disabled to physically challenged. If you look at the progression of these terms and the more tolerant and

inclusive social and legal changes that have affected physically challenged individuals, you can see a

gradual positive development in how members of this group perceive themselves and are perceived by the

Change inevitably brings about many different kinds of tension and disagreement in a society. Decisions

must be made about whether to make changes, how to go about making changes, who will make the

changes, who will be affected, etc. Changes in our language, school curricula, and teaching strategies are

just a few examples of the transitions taking place in the United States today as a result of a heightened

awareness of diversity.

Engage students in a dialogue about “political correctness” and what it means to them. We would suggest

that you have students discuss several of the questions below in small groups and then have each group

report the results of their discussion to the class. You may also wish to have students write on the general

question, “What is political correctness?” the day before having a class discussion. This kind of exercise

Some questions to consider in small groups and as a larger class:

1. List some earlier terms used to identify women, gays, lesbians, and the disabled. Then list the

more recent politically correct terms.

2. Define what you think the phrase “political correctness” means.

6. Do you feel that there is pressure to be “politically correct”? Or is being “politically correct”

really just about being sensitive to and respectful of all members of U.S. society?

7. What is there to be gained in our society by using language that refers more precisely to the

cultural backgrounds of individuals? Conversely, what are the problems with using exact terms to

refer to different groups of people? Consider this scenario: You are participating in a classroom

8. How can we know how to refer to and address members of certain cultural groups?

9. Does it really matter what we call people? Can those people who are U.S. citizens just be called

simply “Americans”? Why or why not?

Exercise 4.3: Privilege in U.S. Society

This exercise asks students to examine U.S. society and determine which groups enjoy certain privileges

to which many other groups do not have access. It is common among those who have the “room at the

top” to assume that other individuals have equal access to society’s opportunities, rights, and services, not

realizing that people’s personal worlds are made up of experiences that can be very culture-specific and

One way to introduce this exercise on privilege in U.S. society to students is to begin with an example of

Euro-American privilege. “White privilege” is a phrase used to identify advantages that many European

Americans have that are often not available to people of color. A serious and disturbing example of white

privilege is the tendency for African American men to be stopped for questioning by the police in upscale

neighborhoods where they may be perceived as suspicious or “out of place.” Euro-American males

The questions below focus on issues of privilege and culture. Some will be very difficult for students

because they will require information regarding cultural groups about which they may know very little.

Most likely, the more diverse your class is, the more varied and informative will be the discussion. Ask

students to consider many of the different cultural characteristics of U.S. society when answering the

questions, for example, laws, societal norms, traditions, stereotypes, prejudices, etc. Students should first

discuss these questions in small groups. Afterward engage the class in a discussion by having each group

report on its responses. Watch for assumptions being made as the discussion progresses. That is, are

statements being made that assume students’ experiences and perceptions are shared by other U.S.

residents?

Questions for Exercise 4.3

1. What societal privileges do you think European Americans have greater access to than other

cultural groups? Are there any privileges that non-European Americans have that European

Americans do not?

2. What societal privileges do you think heterosexuals enjoy that gay men and women do not?

3. What societal privileges do men enjoy that women do not?

4. What societal privileges do women enjoy that men do not?

5. What societal privileges do able-bodied individuals enjoy that disabled individuals do not?

6. What societal privileges do same-race couples enjoy that different-race couples do not?

7. What societal privileges do opposite-sex couples enjoy that same-sex couples do not?

Exercise 4.4: Interactions among the Disabled and Able-bodied

It is not uncommon for some people to feel uncomfortable around physically challenged individuals.

Braithwaite and Braithwaite describe in their article the kind of communication that often occurs when an

able-bodied and a physically challenged person interact: greater physical distance, less eye contact, and

Another feeling of uncertainty that might arise for an able-bodied person is how much assistance should

they offer, or should they wait until a physically challenged person asks for assistance. When hearing

people interact with members of the deaf culture, Jankowski (1991) says it is common for hearing people

to believe that “they can explain things better because of the ‘communication barrier’ and will proceed

with the conversation as though the deaf person were not there” (p. 149).

This exercise asks able-bodied students to consider their own feelings about and communicative behavior

during interactions with disabled individuals. Ask students to read the following “Dear Abby” letter and

Dear Abby:

You have championed many causes for the physically challenged, and I thank you for all you

have done. Now, will you please do us one more favor? Please advise waiters, waitresses, flight

attendants, and everyone else who serves the public, of the following:

Because a person happens to be in a wheelchair with leg braces—or appears to be partially

paralyzed due to polio, cerebral palsy, a stroke, or some unknown cause—please do not assume

that he or she can neither think nor speak. I was badly clobbered by polio many years ago, but

Dear Abby. (1993, June 24). The Seattle Times, p. 8.

Some questions for discussion:

1. Why do people often communicate with disabled persons in the manner described by “Can

Communicate in Marietta”?

2. What messages do they send to the disabled person when they communicate in this way?

3. Have you ever felt uncomfortable communicating with someone who was in a wheelchair or in

– Chapter Four –

Popular Film Suggestions

• The Boys in the Band (1970). Adnum describes this movie as a “two hour alcoholic talk-party—

an overpopulated, gay Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf—it uncovers gay men at their sizzling

emotional and intellectual cores—before suburbanality drove theatricality into the ground, and

gym workouts and GI haircuts became the assimilative, cowardly norm.”

• Forrest Gump (1994). This film illustrates the triumph of life over adversity in both its portrayals

of the lead character, Forrest Gump, whose “slowness” (low I.Q.) marks him as different, and of

Lieutenant Dan Taylor whose life Gump saves in Vietnam—the lieutenant loses his legs and

takes a while to appreciate the life he has been given.

• Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994, 104 min.). Two drag-queens (Anthony/Mitzi and

Adam/Felicia) and a transsexual (Bernadette) contract to perform a drag show at a resort in Alice

Springs, a resort town in the remote Australian desert. They head west from Sydney aboard their

lavender bus, Priscilla. En route, it is discovered that the woman they’ve contracted with is

Anthony’s wife. Their bus breaks down, and is repaired by Bob, who travels on with them.