Although Gran Torino by Clint Eastwood (2008) was not supposed to address the issue of culture and rendered the topic of interpersonal relationships instead, the movie contains a rather peculiar scene, in which conflict occurs between a group of young African American people, a white American man and a young Hmong American woman (Eastwood, 2008, 00:31:37–00:32:37). While containing a range of references to a variety of different intercultural and gender-related conflicts, the scene makes two issues, i.e., the American Hmong – African American and the masculine-feminine ones, shine through.
From the perspective of the taxonomy suggested by Hofstede, the issue can be viewed as a culture clash between the representatives of different ethnicities. The specified issue can be referred to the principle of egalitarianism suggested by Hofstede – or, to be specific, to the lack thereof. However, it is also quite peculiar that the scene in question allows viewing the issue of the culture clash on so many different levels; specifically, the fact that the conflict occurs not only between an American and African Americans but also the above-mentioned Black people and the representative of the Hmong culture deserves to be mentioned. The latter case deserves to be the focus of the analysis, as it represents a rather peculiar case of a conflict based on the acculturation process.
While the relationships between the members of the Hmong community and families presuppose that women should be subdued and obedient to men, the promotion of democratic values and equity principles among the Hmong immigrants setting in the United States has led to Hmong women reconsidering their identity. Female empowerment, therefore, has become a distinct tendency in the American Hmong community.
Although patriarchy is still an essential part in the relationship between a Hmong man and a Hmong woman, especially when they are engaged or married, Hmong women are used to communicating with male representatives of other nations quite independently in the United States. Therefore, Sue Lor, the Hmong woman in question (Eastwood, 2008), responds rather sharply to the gang of African Americans; the conflict ensues.
However, a different taxonomy suggests that the problem should be viewed as a conflict between masculinity and femininity. Indeed, instead of acknowledging the attempt of the young Hmong woman to be independent and streetwise, the African Americans tried attacking her, which means that their concept of masculinity did not bear the idea of a woman being strong, quick on her feet and independent. Suggested by Hofstede (Lustig & Koester, 2009, p. 110), the specified theory claims that certain cultures value the adherence to the behavioural patterns that are viewed as feminine and masculine to a different degree.
Indeed, the culture clash that occurred in the above-mentioned scene from Gran Torino, though first spawned by a racial issue, quickly turned into a gender problem after Sue Lor intervened. As it has been stressed above, Sue could not accept the attitude, which the African Americans treated her with, due to the feminist tendencies among the American Hmong. Globe suggests a similar approach to the issue of gender misunderstanding by representing the concept of gender egalitarianism (Lustig & Koester, 2009, p. 115); applying the above-mentioned concept to the situation in question, one will be able to spot an obvious shift in the concept of gender equality and the evident attempts at reconstructing gender bias.
Reference List
Eastwood, C. (Executive Producer). (2008). Gran Torino. [DVD]. Burbank, CA: Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.
Lustig, M. W. & Koester, J. (2009). Cultural patterns and communication: Taxonomies. In Intercultural competence: Interpersonal communication across cultures (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.