Kaylie Evans

Shackles of American Homogenization

America: the queen of this age. The spark that encourages us to plug in our televisions and sit
back to sip a Coke. America: the wasteland of Barbie-faced body ideals and Facebook. The
cornucopia of fast-food chains and big corporations that pump into our skies the smoke of a lost
society.
Today virtually every country on the planet is becoming homogenized and influenced by these
Western ideals.
The world we live in today is rapidly changing. Due to advances in technology, our world is
more connected than ever before. The general umbrella term for this interconnection of the globe
through the Internet and other technologies is known as globalization. Globalization incorporates
the complex series of economic, social, political, and technological changes seen today as our
world advances.
The power of technology is honorably incredible; however, it is ushering us into an era centered
on the qualities of Western culture and is costing us cultural diversity.
Looking on a global scale, globalization is largely the spread of Americanization. This is often
considered as American cultural imperialism. Traveling around the world, you see American big-
name corporations like McDonalds and popular brands like Nike and Apple flourishing. As
Kolawole A Owolabi states, Common people, idealistic youths, industrial and artistic
communities and scientists all look to America for the blueprint to design progress and to
maintain order and freedom.
The media is one of the impellers of this rise and spread of American culture. The World Wide
Web and industrialization of the world allows us to share knowledge quicker. Around every
corner, through magazine ads, television, billboards, internet sites, we are fed American ideals of
beauty, lifestyle, and culture. Americanization is dominating the world, and as Western ideals are
preferred, the media helps project this preference. The media aims to tell us how we should look,
act, and think.
As stated by Global Envision, The guys in Hollywood have made us to adore the tough cigar-
smoking guys in the Casinos, the thin shapely long legged women, and to dream about rags-to-
riches stories that are a common tag line of the movies. The media helps to convey how the
American culture is what all countries should conform with. As our world continues to
industrialize and the more we are consumed by the Internet world, we are subject to these
messages.
Additionally, globalization has led to the spread of capitalism around the world. Since the end of
the Cold War, when the USSR lost to its antithesis capitalism, the world has been changing and
evolving to accept this new age of liberalism and capitalism. Globalization means the spread of
free-market capitalism to virtually every country in the world, Thomas Friedman states in The
Lexus and the Olive Tree.
To keep afloat in the world today, it is almost essential for countries to be part of this system.
However, there are negatives to this spread, as Mick Brook elaborates:
Multinationals do prefer to pollute the environment if that costs them less, and
they can play countries off against each other as a destination for investment by
demanding lower taxes or scrapping of labour protection laws.
We are losing identity, but contributing to a culture that focuses on monetary development and
obtaining the idea of perfection and success.
We find ourselves in a graveyard of dead cultures, with Western culture being the sole survivor.
The process of globalization is a catalyst for the rise of a world centered primarily on American
cultural values.
This cultural imperialism and Americanization of the world has us bound in shackles. In order to
survive in the world today, many countries must conform.
We huddle around our televisions watching the endless commercials and breathing in the tainted
perfume of deep-fried foods. Our iPhones become our link to the world, and we obtain more
Internet friends than human pals. This is what it means to be American, and of course every
other face on the planet should follow this superior lifestyle. Right?
America is a home for freedom and opportunity, but we should allow for other cultures to thrive
on their own. The cultural diversity of places around the globe is beautiful. However, as Sarah
Merrouche quotes, ''Today's culture is not the culture associated with a place, it is the culture of a
time'' (Von Barlowen, 2000: 46). Our cultures are being put into a blender, and the American
way is dominating. As we progress, the culture is no longer defined by a place, but proves to be
the culture of a time.
This cultural imperialism ensures a changed future, which hopefully will be more than a perfect
copy of America. Sara Merrouche writes:
While cultural imperialism is certainly real and demands to be addressed, one
possible way to come to terms with it is to learn how to open up to the world
and keep oneself, at the same time, immunized against the 'microbes' of
globalization.
We are more than just the pretty faces we see on the television, or the English language we
speak, or the jeans and t-shirts we wear. We are more than just capitalists and Coke-drinkers and
Facebook and Instagram users. We are more than just a copy of America, but rather a globe with
an abundance of different cultures and identities. Arent we?





Word Count: 880
Works Cited
"Americanization or Globalization?" Global Envision Latest Stories. Global Envision, 02 Oct.
2006. Web. 27 Feb. 2014. <http://www.globalenvision.org/library/33/1273/>.
Brooks, Mick. "Globalisation and Imperialism." In Defence of Marxism. N.p., 11 Apr. 2006.
Web. 6 Feb. 2014. <http://www.marxist.com/globalisation-imperialism-
economy110406.htm>.
Friedman, Thomas L. "Chapter 1: Tourist with an Attitude." The Lexus and the Olive Tree. N.p.:
n.p., n.d. 1-9. Print.
Owolabi, Kolawole A. "Globalization, Americanization, and Western Imperialism." Journal of
Social Development in Africa 16.2 (2001): 71-92. Web. 31 Jan. 2014.
<http://archive.lib.msu.edu/DMC/African%20Journals/pdfs/social%20development/vol16
no2/jsda016002005.pdf>.