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Routledge is a global publisher of academic books, journals and online resources in the humanities and social sciences.
More commonly referred to as complementary medicine (also as additional medicine, integrative medicine, and natural health), this includes myriad medical practices and perceptions that have expert systems knowledge and technique and often require periods of training, whether formal or informal. The United States National Institute of Health defines alternative medicine “as those treatments and healthcare practices not taught widely in medical schools, not generally used in hospitals, and not usually reimbursed by medical insurance companies.” In one way or another, alternative medicine is defined in opposition to what is referred to as the “dominant” system in the United States— biomedicine. Nonetheless, recent surveys in the United States show that Americans appear to be favoring “alternative” medicines in greater proportion to “biomedical” practitioners and healthcare.
Common complementary health choices include osteopathy, chiropractic, acupuncture, ayurveda, bio-feedback, homeopathy, naturopathy and traditional Chinese medicine.
Many people also would see several massage techniques (body work, manual healing methods), herbal medicines, aromatherapy spiritual healing, bio-electromagnetic application, diet/nutrition/lifestyle changes, various mind/ body interventions and perhaps all varieties of folk medicine as alternative medicines. The distinguishing feature of alternative medicine is a holistic conceptual framework that sees all aspects of the body (anatomy nervous system, vascular systems, musculature, and so forth) as an integrated system or structure, itself interrelated with the body’s physical, social and cultural environments, or in some cases with spiritual aspects of a person and of health.
Alternative health approaches are said to consider the “whole person,” whereas biomedicine is a medical approach that seeks specific etiologies for specific diseases.
Similarly, alternative healthcare approaches are also thought to place an equal importance on the illness experience as well as the physical pathology of the disease. Biomedicine is said to be concerned only with abnormalities in the structure and function of body organs and systems, while alternative medicines include the lived experience of physical and physiological abnormalities when diagnosing disease and considering therapeutic interventions.
The coexistence of alternative healthcare with biomedicine illustrates a dynamic “medical pluralism” in the United States. This medical pluralism represents a desire on the part of the American public for approaches to healthcare other than biomedicine, efforts towards the professionalization of several complementary medicines, and the historical impact of the complex relations of healthcare provisions with social structure (class, gender, race). In spite of the dominance of biomedicine, medical pluralism is the norm, historically anchored in a milieu of healthcare fads, technological developments, social movements and changing opinion regarding the efficacy of biomedicine. The revitalization of midwifery and home births in recent decades is an example of the coming together of these various elements that inform a changing desire for alternative medicines. The professionalization of alternative medicines indexes a medical system in the United States organized within a capitalist economy and offered to the American public as “consumer medicine.” With professionalization, alternative medicines become insurance options.
Social class, ethnic groups and the greater numbers of migrants and immigrant groups, and gender issues related to health and healthcare are all important factors in a dynamic medical pluralism in the United States. Finally, as with folk medicine, discontentment with modern life, dominated by technological advances, fragmented by alienation and the dissolution of community life, has encouraged some to seek alternative medicines because they are believed to be natural therapies that have descended from primordial traditions and practices.
Industry:Culture
Most American bedrooms, as typified by “bedroom packages” offered by furniture retailers and hotel rooms, include a bed, night table(s) and a dresser. Within this general framework, Murphy beds, futons, canopy beds and twin beds each ascribe different identities to their users. Bedrooms also differ in size, importance and meaning: “master” bedrooms, usually larger spaces identified as the parents’ room in nuclear families, may include adjacent dressing rooms or bathrooms, a king- or queen-size bed, picture windows and amenities such as walk-in closets and large mirrors. This bedroom is often a center for planning, control and entertainment, as well as sleeping, dressing and sex: hence, televisions, telephones and even computers are often treated as normal features.
Yet, the bedroom is especially fraught with cultural associations as the main place for sexual activity This has given rise to such slang as “bedroom eyes” (seductive) and “good in the bedroom” (sexually adept).
Historically, the bedroom has been considered among the most private realms of the home, associated with private behavior as well as seclusion. Hence, the parental bedroom has been represented in mass media as the locus of important and clear-headed decisionmaking.
Some housing project rules require that it can be locked from the inside. In suburbs, especially middle-class suburbs, children expect their own bedrooms, equipment (phones) and rights to privacy. “Guest bedrooms” are also a feature of more affluent homes, although these may be multipurpose rooms equipped with a bed and minimal necessities. Servants’ bedrooms are rare: even in pre-war homes and apartments these were often used for extra children’s space, as offices or to accommodate additional family members (hence “mother-in-law apartment” for a bedroom located over a garage).
The number of bedrooms in a house or apartment is an expression of both wealth and status. In urban contexts, the studio apartment, in which the bedroom is undifferentiated from other domestic spaces, is considered appropriate for young adults and the lower classes, whereas, for example, Aaron Spelling’s 123-room mansion represents his excessive wealth and opulence. Realtors cite the number of bedrooms as the first classification and selling point for homes.
In architectural discourse, the bedroom has been the locus of a critique on traditionally held mores about the American nuclear family This critique is seen in the work of architects such as Peter Eisenman (House VI, Connecticut, 1972) and Philip Johnson (Johnson House, Connecticut, 1946).
An extension of this public/private split emerges in the idea of “bedroom communities”—suburbs around economic centers where domestic life is concentrated.
Nonetheless, the division is not inviolate—the bedroom as the locus of voyeurism has been a theme in such films as Sliver (1993), and is exemplified in the rise of “web-cams.” Bedrooms also figure prominently in displays of celebrity wealth in fashion and social magazines. Public bedrooms, however, may become sites of controversy: presidential bedrooms in the White House, particularly the Lincoln bedroom, have become a metaphorical site of political scandal and illicit sexual activity in the cases of Presidents Kennedy and Clinton.
Industry:Culture
Most competitive and renumerative network viewing hours between 20:00 and 23:00.
Here, networks place their most popular shows (and evening line-ups) in order to attract desired demographics and sponsor revenues; this is the home of television sitcoms, dramas (westerns, crime, lawyers, doctors, soaps) and, increasingly in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, of news magazines and “reality” shows. Manipulation of prime time is especially notable during the three yearly sweeps months when audience data are more systematically collected and compared. The impact of cable has altered the stakes and viewership of prime time, yet it still constitutes an exclusive battlefield for programmers, producers and actors.
Industry:Culture
Most journalists prior to the twentieth century did not distinguish as clearly as modern American journalists seem to between “fact” and “opinion.” Thus, Addison and Defoe in Britain or Benjamin Franklin in the United States wrote stories that modern readers would probably take for “columns.” As the drive for objectivity became more important, however, a distinct sort of journalist began to appear in the pages of American newspapers. The origin of so-called newspaper columnists lies some time in the nineteenth century when literary-inclined journalists began writing regular stories for newspapers. Some, like Ambrose Bierce, favored social or political satire; others, such as Lafcadio Hearn, produced humorous or colorful sketches of urban life. Although these writers were regularly featured in their papers, their writing was still not sharply distinguishable from the general news stories that surrounded them.
Columns developed a more important institutional role in the twentieth century as distinctions between “editorial” content—opinionated analysis of current events—and “news”—empirical descriptions—became more keenly drawn. Readers retained a desire for a more opinionated take on events: some guidance about not only what happened, but what the event in question meant. This resulted in more individual opinion columns.
Columnists’ articles have generally appeared on the editorial pages, although they have expanded to sports and features. Gossip and trade news are special subgenres. Unlike editorials, columns are signed, meaning that they express the opinion only of the writer, not the newspaper as a whole. Columnists are often reporters of some standing and expertise or have had reputations in other fields, like Eleanor Roosevelt or Hillary Clinton. The writing in such columns is often more colorful and fiery than regular news, sometimes more analytical, but always more clearly subjective.
Famous newspaper columnists have included Walter Lippman, Walter Winchell, H.L. Mencken and Will Rogers. More recently, writers such as Molly Ivins and George Will have become popular enough among readers that their columns are syndicated.
Some columnists develop reputations in one particular field. Dave Barry, for example, is known as a humor columnist; Red Smith was primarily a sports columnist.
Industry:Culture
Most popular histories of the relations between Canada and the United States sooner or later mention the fact that the two countries have shared the longest undefended border in the world for some 100 years. This is generally taken to evidence some sort of natural state of amity. A more reasonable explanation is that, with the two states differing so dramatically in military power, and Canada relying so heavily on the overwhelming economic and political might of its southern neighbor, the notion of military conflict would be redundant in the one instance and absurd in the other.
In earlier times, when Canada was still a British colony and the power relations between the two countries were more nearly equal, relations were not nearly as gentle.
Less than thirty years after the American Revolution, Canada and the United States fought their first and only war, the War of 1812. This ended in a stalemate and seems to have suggested to both that any similar behavior in the future would be unproductive.
Tensions over land disputes near the border would continue throughout the 1800s, but would never again result in armed engagement (Mahant and Mount 1984). In the early twenty-first century as well as the twentieth century especially following the Second World War when American international dominance became general, formal relations between the two states have been quite close. Nonetheless, occasional disputes flare up.
The Johnson administration disliked Canadian criticisms of US actions in Vietnam, and, since the early 1960s, Canada’s relatively friendly relations with Castro’s Cuba have provoked some US opposition (Mahunt and Mount 1999). But the only true problem that Canada now presents to the American political elite is Quebec separatism and the instability it might bring. Even here, as the separatistes under Jacques Parizeau and Lucien Bouchard have developed ever friendlier relations with Washing ton, the issue has become less acute (Lamont 1994; Lemco 1994).
A general fear has existed within English Canada over American cultural influence almost since the beginning of its Confederation in 1867. In the past thirty years, this resulted in protectionist moves against American movies, television, popular music and magazines, which in turn provoked irritation in promoters of the US entertainment industry. Generally though, popular culture manages to move back and forth across the border without much friction. If American culture is a massive influence on Canadian hearts and minds, individual Canadian artists—including Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, David Cronenberg, Atom Egoyan, Pamela Anderson and Mike Myer—insert themselves into American popular culture with relative ease. That there is little to distinguish these Canadians from their American counterparts has only tended to confirm the assumption among many in the US that the two countries now share essentially the same society divided by a formal border and little else. This assumption, however, when articulated— and whatever its veridical status—infuriates Canadians.
Industry:Culture
Most professional sports have fostered continued institutional racism, although overt segregation generally ended after the Second World War. However, with former players who are African American beginning to achieve management and ownership positions on teams, there are signs of change occurring. Black advancement has paved the way for Latinos and Asians, but issues of immigration and stereotyping also affect their levels of participation.
During the first half of the twentieth century nearly all sports were segregated, boxing being the most important exception. In this sport, Jack Johnson won the world heavyweight title, receiving considerable vilification from white Americans for doing so and beginning the search for the “great white hope” in that sport, which continued when the sport became dominated by African Americans. Joe Louis was greeted with more favor from whites, in part because he represented the nation against Hitler’s champion, and whites began to classify black boxers as either “good” or “bad” Negroes. The former includes Louis and Joe Frazier, and the latter men such as Muhammad Ali (who both converted to Islam and refused to fight in the Vietnam War) and Mike Tyson. The stereotyping implicit in these characterizations provides just one example of the way forms of discrimination continued even when a sport appeared to be integrated.
The other two sports that opened doors to blacks relatively early were track and field and basketball. In the former, the importance of the Olympic Games and of colleges and universities which counted a few African Americans among their students meant that a few great athletes could make their mark and bring about a demand for other black athletes. Jesse Owens winning four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics made a lasting impression on track and field. Once colleges and universities were forced to integrate more fully in the 1950s and 1960s, they quickly began to encourage more black athletes to join their sports programs.
In the case of basketball, also, some black athletes played for white varsity teams outside the segregated South, but only rarely did they start for the team or gain pivotal roles on the court. The major change occurred with the success of the Harlem Renaissance, a team made up primarily of West Indian immigrants and Philadelphia, PA players. The Rens’ victories over the (then New York) Celtics during the 1930s heralded the beginning of integrated basketball, though Southern universities still resisted for decades.
But the great landmark in the fight against segregation occurred in baseball with the signing of Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers organization. Baseball, at the time the “American game,” had excluded blacks from the 1890s, and had bitterly resisted integration during the 1920s and 1930s, even when it was clear that many of the best players in the country were playing in the Negro Leagues. Jackie Robinson played his first game in a Dodgers’ uniform in 1947 and was so successful that he was followed by other leading players from the Negro Leagues, which subsequently disbanded. A number of teams like the Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Red Sox resisted the pressure to hire black players and often taunted those African Americans playing for opposing teams. But by the early 1960s integration was well established throughout the National League.
Baseball also opened up to Latino players from Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and, in the 1990s, to a few Japanese ballplayers.
However, a shift in racism occurred very rapidly from segregation to structural inequalities and racial stereotyping. In many sports like golf and tennis, for example, a certain degree of wealth was required before a person could reach the highest level of the game. For many years after integration was firmly established this limited the number of black players reaching the highest levels. In many cases, country clubs would practice forms of discrimination, especially against Jews and blacks, leading to players being excluded from membership and competitions. African Americans like Charlie Sifford in golf, and Arthur Ashe or Althea Gibson in tennis, were the exceptions helping to pave the way for current players like Tiger Woods and the Williams sisters. Michael Chang has been the one Asian American star. His career has been followed perhaps more closely in Asia than America.
Other kinds of stereotyping have been very common. In many sports certain positions are considered “thinking” positions—guards in basketball, quarterbacks in football, pitchers in baseball, for example—and these have tended to be associated with whites.
This has led to obvious structural inequalities with the more elite, visible positions dominated by white players. For many years, it was impossible for a black college quarterback to get onto an NFL team except as a wide receiver or running back. This has begun to change with the success of quarterbacks like Doug Williams, Randall Cunningham and Warren Moon, but the changes have been slow in coming, and teams have often showed such players less loyalty than their white counterparts.
Moreover, the assumption that black players rely on athleticism rather than intelligence has meant that relatively few have been able to break into coaching after their playing careers have ended. When Al Campanis commented on ABC’s Nightline commemoration of Jackie Robinson that blacks were good athletes but would not be good managers, he stated what was the unspoken rule in baseball at the time. The storm of protest following this broadcast actually began the shift away from this practice. Changes have occurred as African Americans begin to gain visibility in all positions and as coaches. But even successful coaches, like Dennis Green at the Minnesota Vikings (in football), feel that they receive more criticism from their fans and management than they would if they were white. The high turnover of African American coaches suggests that they are correct.
There are also racial assumptions regarding the way different games are played.
Commentators and journalists will often assume that African Americans bring “street” traditions and natural athleticism to games, and that they need coaching and discipline from white coaches to shape their games and make them most effective. CBS football analyst, Jimmy “the Greek” Snyder, even suggested that this was a result of anatomical differences between the races. The assumption that blacks are natural while whites disciplined means that a bad streak of performances for a white player will lead to calls for patience and nurturing, while a bad streak for a black player will lead to a belief that the player has lost his or her gift, followed by demands that the player be traded.
Moreover, such racial stereotypes give white coaches undue license to treat their players in demeaning ways in the name of discipline, without reprimand from management or college authorities. This has led to friction on occasion—all-star basketball player, Latrell Sprewell, assaulted his coach after such treatment. Meanwhile, black coaches, on the rare occasions when they are appointed, have sometimes been unfairly criticized for identifying too much with their players.
Certain sports remain dominated by whites. Some remain so because of the legacy of past racial stereotypes—like the assumption that blacks do not make good swimmers.
Others derive from regional and class differences. Seldom have their been any black icehockey players, even though the market has now extended to the whole country.
Dominique Dawes has been a pioneer for African Americans in women’s gymnastics.
Soccer, a game largely associated with the suburbs and immigrants, may see boosted interest among African Americans following the success of Briana Scurry in the Women’s World Cup of 1999. Asian Americans, stereotyped as non-athletes, have a low profile, except in women’s figure skating.
Basketball remains the team sport most associated with blacks, but white players are at a premium. Teams in certain markets will often endeavor to encourage a white player of limited abilities to come to their team in the hope that the largely white crowds will identify with the player. Such players will also generally receive disproportionately large salaries. However, the success of players like Magic Johnson, Julius Erving and, above all, Michael Jordan has diminished this tendency. It remains to be seen whether these players have the same success after the game in coaching and ownership (Johnson’s move into agency and Erving’s association with the Orlando Magic suggest that there is some movement at this level).
Industry:Culture
Motorcycles have occupied an important place in American popular culture for more than fifty years. Whether used for sport, recreation, police or military purposes or simple transportation, they have come to symbolize a number of America’s most cherished and controversial values. Freedom, violence, risk-taking, masculinity and mobility are all part of the motorcycle’s powerful reputation and mystique. Its prominence in the songs, novels and films of the twentieth century testifies to its overwhelming contribution to America’s cultural landscape.
The motorcycle was an integral part of the 1950s “bad-boy” or rebel persona. Those who rode motorcycles were on the margins of polite, middle-class American society The 1954 film The Wild One, for example, offered Marlon Brando as the leader of a motorcycle gang called the “The Black Rebels” who travel from town to town, drag racing and drinking at local bars. When Johnny is unjustly accused of murder in a small California town, the conservative community seeks him for vigilante justice. The film was banned in several US cinemas and was not permitted in the United Kingdom for fourteen years after its release. Many feared that unruly people would riot in theaters.
In 1969’s Easy Rider, Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda put a new rebel on the seat of a motorcycle: the hippie. By placing his heroes on motorcycles as they traveled across America, Hopper reinterpreted the road-movie genre while emphasizing the notion that motorcycles were uniquely suited to the vagabond lifestyle.
Robert Pirsig’s book, Zen and the Art of Motorcyde Maintenance (1974), is also a part of this tradition. The largely philosophical novel centers on the extended motorcycle tour of a father and his son. Pirsig’s message in this American classic is that people should care for themselves (psychologically more than physically) in the same manner that a conscientious person maintains his or her motorcycle. Pirsig stresses importance of human’s symbiotic relationship with teehnology, represented by the motorcycle.
In this vein, the motorcycle also has served as the adhesive for notorious groups. The Hell’s Angels were a rough gang of motorcycle enthusiasts famous for their leather jackets, their appetite for drugs and alcohol and a penchant for violence. The Angels were an intimidating force during the 1960s (evident in their role in Tom Wolfe’s book about Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, 1968). The mere sound of their approach (the collective roar of their engines) invoked fear in the hearts of outsiders. Accordingly, the Rolling Stones hired them as security for the band’s 1969 debacle of a free concert at Altamont Speedway. During the show, some spectators sustained injuries and a few died, although the Hell’s Angels’ role in the deaths at Altamont has been a point of contention. Many commentators trace disillusionment with 1960s counterculture to this day Harley-Davidson motorcycles, or “Hogs,” are the objects of unparalleled cult enthusiasm. These American-made machines are almost universally considered the most beautiful and well-built motorcycles in the world. Proud owners ride them hundreds of miles to conventions where they bask in the presence of those who share their love for these machines. Still, the American monopoly on quality motorcycle manufacturing has come under fire. While BMW has almost always been known to produce well-made bikes, the Japanese have made the largest impact on motorcycle culture in the United States with faster engines and sleeker body designs. Though many consumers prefer the more performance-oriented Japanese models, HarleyDavidson enthusiasts always seem satisfied with the aesthetics and endurance possessed by their famous cycles.
Harley-Davidson memorabilia and collectibles and senior owners also evoke the taming of the motorcycle, in which mass media as well as consumerism have had critical roles. For example, the popular 1950s retrospective television sitcom Happy Days (ABC, 1974–84) featured Arthur Fonzarelli—Fonzie—as the motorcycleriding auto mechanic who defined “cool.” While Fonzie’s reputation for toughness and daring certainly fitted the “bad-boy” image, he was a watered-down version of the motorcycle riders of the 1950s. His relationship with the thoroughly middle-class Cunningham family gave Fonzie a respectability which earlier characters had lacked.
Yet motorcycles also challenge the edges of sport and society One of the most appealing aspects of the motorcycle in America has always been its suitability for deathdefying feats of courage. America’s most famous thrill-seeker, Evel Knievel, has performed his famous leaps almost exclusively on motorcycles. Moreover, motor-cross racing is one of the many maturing X-sports and is successful precisely because it is fast and dangerous. This is what people originally loved and feared about motorcycles. Today these machines are as popular as ever and, though with much less gender specificity they continue to represent and reinterpret, sometimes in a more commodified mode, many of the same values that they did in the 1950s.
Industry:Culture
Movement of operations out of the main plant/ production process to subsidiary companies and contractors who offer flexible workforces and cheaper and more efficient delivery (especially when outsourcing becomes global). A profitmaking strategy within the corporate world since the 1970s, both smaller and larger corporations farm out communications, computer/systems management and even planning rather than doing them in-house. Governments have used outsourcing to meet new service needs since the 1960s, including mundane tasks like waste collection and towing, as well as administrative functions like printing and even social services including ambulances or drug treatment. Its human costs in career and corporate community underscore the transformation of the US economy towards services and consumption.
Industry:Culture
Movement whose goals range from environmental concerns to extension of individual and human rights to non-human species.
Industry:Culture
Multinational chemical company merging in 1999 with chemical giant Union Carbide for total worldwide sales of $24 billion. Dow and its affiliates have been tarred with accusations of environmental damage and US disregard for human life worldwide— Dow’s association with napalm in the Vietnam era made it a popular target for campus protestors. Dow Corning, a corporation created by Dow and Corning Glass in 1943 to develop silicon polymers, has also been savaged by suits and debates over the health risks of silicon gel breast implants.
Industry:Culture
