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1 Importance of Culture in Movies Emma Crawford Southern New Hampshire University ATH-111 : Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

2 Importance of Culture in Movies The film My Big Fat Greek Wedding (Zwick, 2002) follows a 30 year old Greek woman who falls in love with a non-Greek and, as she reconciles with her cultural identity and ancestry, tries to win her family's acceptance. The audience is introduced to a confrontation between the American and Greek cultures in the film. During the duration of the film, Toula is a Greek woman who works in a family-owned restaurant and lives at home with her parents. Her family feels sorry for her because she is single and unmarried. It is expected among Toula's family that she will marry a Greek man in order to grow the already enormous family. Toula is still looking for a Greek man to marry, but the family is concerned that she is not already married (Zwick, 2002). But while she is at work, Toula meets a man named Ian, who is the non-Greek man that falls in love with the female lead. In this movie, there are spots of culture differences as well as anthropological concepts such as ethnocentrism, assimilation, as well as the role of gender. If anybody has seen the movie in its full extent, most probably remember the bundt cake scene, where Toula and Ian’s families meet. Leading up to this scene, there are multiple occasions where there are cultural differences that are shown. But in this particular scene, these two cultures join together. Toula's mother, Maria, had never seen a bundt cake before because part of the culture that was kept when immigrating to the United States is the Greek food. Also, another difference in the culture is the aspect of eating meat. While in American culture it is normal to eat meat, it is also common to find people who are vegetarian (like the Miller family) or who are vegan. In the movie, Ian states that he is vegetarian, and the family cannot fathom why he would be vegetarian. But one of Toula’s aunts says it is okay and that she will make lamb, not fully grasping vegetarianism.As a part of Greek culture which is shown in the movie, it is unexpected when someone doesn’t eat meat. In this scene, the Miller parents are also reluctant

3 to drink alcoholic beverages although, in a family party like this, it is typical for the Portokalos to drink with the family. During the film, there are several areas where some of the anthropological concepts can be applied to scenes to help understand factors in the movie. One of the first concepts that can be seen is ethnocentrism which is The belief that one's own culture's norms, values, and customs are superior compared to those of other civilizations (MindEdge Inc., 2016). The Portokalos family takes great pleasure in their Greek ancestry. Every English word, according to Toula's father, has a Greek root. They feel that this is the only way a family should be, and their whole family exclusively gets married to Greek men and women. Toula's family starts telling her to break up with Ian as soon as she meets him because he is an American. Also, during the film, Gus Portokalos says that there are only two types of people in the world - people who are Greek and then the rest of people are those who wish that they were Greek (Zwick, 2002). But the topic of ethnocentrism is not the only anthropological concept that can be seen within the film. While the large family that Toula is a part of is filled with pride because they come from Greece, there is also the anthropological concept of assimilation. The process through which singular people or groups of persons from a particular culture are absorbed into and transformed by another is known as assimilation. Though not usually, this process entails the assimilation of several cultures by a dominating culture (MindEdge Inc., 2016). The family of Toula left Greece and immigrated; they maintain their cultural practices while residing in America, but they also pick up American habits and behaviors. Ian, Toula's future spouse, keeps his American habits and manners while embracing their Greek way of life. As a result of Toula's family and the demands placed on her, endogamy is one of the most enduring and evident themes shown. Additionally, the expectations placed on Toula lead

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4 me to my next point, which is gender roles. Throughout the film, her family repeatedly reiterates to her what it means to be a Greek Orthodox woman (Zwick, 2002). According to the class textbook, gender, as used in cultural anthropology, is the social aspect that represents an individual's biological identity as well as the roles and cultural values that each society ascribes to those identities. The total number of recognized genders varies depending on the culture and is not always constant (MindEdge Inc., 2016). She asks her father, "Don't you want me to do something with my life?" to which he responds, "Yes, get married and have kids" (Zwick, 2002). It is evident from the outset of the film what her expectations as a Greek woman are. At this point, it's evident that their culture is very patriarchal because the father holds that women should marry, have children, and stay at home to raise them while males pursue higher education and other pursuits. In an informal interview, I chose to interview Ian Miller, the main love interest in the film My Big Fat Greek Wedding . This main character was chosen for the fictitious interview since Ian Miller is assimilating himself into a new culture that he was not exposed to prior to meeting Tula and joining the Portokalos family. During the interview, I would ask the following questions : 1. How would you describe the similarities and differences between your family and Toula’s? 2. Why didn’t you and Toula just elope instead of going through the full process of “becoming Greek” to have a wedding in Toula’s Greek Orthodox Church? 3. Were you ever nervous when it came to understanding Greek culture? 4. Do you expect your daughter to follow the typical Greek woman stereotypes as described by Toula (marry a Greek man, have a bunch of babies, and feed everybody)?

5 5. Does the intercultural communication between your family and Toula’s affect your relationship or how you understood each other's culture? These queries are posed in an effort to learn more about how Ian Miller's character modified his outlook after immersing himself in a foreign society. Ian had to undergo a number of procedures, including Greek Orthodox Church baptism, in order to become a member of Toula's family. This was necessary in order for them to be married in the same church as Toula and her relatives. Additionally, by asking questions like the ones listed above, we are able to observe how Ian performed the role of a good partner and gained insight into a culture that he may not have otherwise encountered. In addition to exploring the challenges posed by their different cultural upbringings, the movie celebrates the importance of family and the enduring power of love. The touching and funny parts of this film have won it a lot of praise. A movie like this makes me think about connections that I might have to knowing family members that are immigrants themselves. I notice this in my family because some of my ancestors immigrated to the US in the late 1930s and are of Italian descent. My great grandparents adopted elements of American culture while retaining some elements of their Italian culture when they immigrated to the United States. In my family, we still celebrate some of those cultural customs, such as serving seafood for Christmas dinner. There are also some similarities and differences that I see with my family and the Portokalos family that is represented in the movie, starting off with the fact that my family is also large. Last August, I had a family reunion just with my dad’s side where there were seventy five people and not everybody was at the reunion. But unlike the Portokalos, the family is spread across the country; my immediate family lives in New Hampshire but I have family in states such as Maryland, California, and Montana. As a part of my culture, it’s normal for members of

6 a family to live far apart from each other, but the entire family of the Portokalos lives in or near the city of Chicago. Everybody in my family loves cooking and having it bring people together, similar to how it is with the Portokalos family. Overall, watching a film like this one in line with an anthropology class has allowed me to learn and then apply my learning. Through this project, it has also taught me about how culture influences the human experience. By contrasting and comparing two subcultures, this film made it easier for me to comprehend how culture affects us. This is because I could relate to Ian in some ways but I could also relate to Toula and her family as well. Various characters responded to cultural differences with astonishment, incredulity, or admiration. It aids in our comprehension of the significant influence that culture has on the decisions we make and the beliefs we permit ourselves to hold. Considering these characters' experiences makes it clearer to me that enculturation is the process by which we acquire our cultural standards, behaviors, and beliefs. Growing up, we are conditioned to believe that the way we do things in a way that we perceive as the "right" way and the way it has always been done. On the other hand, we are faced with the manner in which subcultures and cultural groups create customs, norms, and practices when viewing another culture from the outside. When we as viewers realize this, we have to face the reality that not all of the interactions we have on a regular basis are "correct" or timeless, but rather products of culture.

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7 References MindEdge Inc. (2016). Introduction to Cultural Anthropology . MindEdge, Inc., ISBN 978-0-9770626-4-5 Zwick, J. (Director). (2002). My Big Fat Greek Wedding [Film]. IFC Films, Hollywood Productions.

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