Using Movies as a Medium for Cultural Understanding.

Growing up most people usually watched movies as a form of escapism.This rings true especially for people situated in the regions of the Global South,  one of the many ways you can escape from the harsh realities of life is to spend a bit of your hard earned money at the cinema.Recently the emergence of social networking sites and new mediums of entertainment such as Netflix and Youtube there have been various movies online, which are conveniently available for your viewing. In this era of Globalization there is a certain anxiousness about cultures that are different from the ones we grew up in. To better understand a culture many people turn to foreign cinema as a way of becoming acquainted with that particular culture. Many would argue that this is a step to cultural understanding and mutual respect, as opposed to the earlier ethnocentric sentiments about American movies that many people had. Another issue with using movies to become better acquainted with a different culture is watching such films to cement any previous prejudices you have had other cultures. This is significant when dealing with sensitive issues such as the plight of Women in Islamic countries. With the various movies that have been been put out in the past few years highlighting these issues, many of its viewers leave the movie with sentiments that are far from understanding the topic.An abundant of these social networking sites are filled with reviews that reek of racist and bigoted comments, towards that culture they claim they are trying to understand. Irshad Manji suggests that its important for Americans and Westerners to come out and speak out against Islam and the treatment of Women in those nations. She states that being a relativist equates to being a coward and pluralism is the only way to come to mutual understanding. The many people that form the demographic of Manji's readers are far from pluralistic and are often right wing members who use people like Manji as a way to get their bigoted views about Islam across.