intercultural stories - not interacial

[DaneCopenhagen]

I would like to see stories about intercultural relationships - you always hear stories with people with different colors of skin, but I would love to read stories also containing differences of culture - Italian versus South American - Middel Eastern versus Scandinavian and along that line - for the experienced writer I think that could be very interesting to write about since there are many differences concerning sexual preferentials, way of making love, the way we see sex - and what is sexy. In som cultures a big booty is very sexy in others small boobs are sexy.... so I think this could lead to many new twists of the common issue of sex - let me hear what you think, al you lovely Lit-folks out there an feel fre to PM me also - love Dane

 

[JMaxwell69]

I like the idea. So far the only thing I've written of that nature involved a made up tribal culture of quite amorous people. I was entitled "Bonobos of Humanity".

I'm particularly intriqued by the interaction of cultures that tend to be sexually uptight (e.g. Puritans, Muslims, and certain other Christian sects) with those that are more "free-loveish" I think that makes an interesting tension.

It may prove easier to write intriguingly about more sexually-conservative groups.

 

[al_Ussa]

Err... ummm... "interracial" and "intercultural" tend to mean the same thing, since both race and culture are essentially social constructs in the first place. Many of those examples you listed would probably fall under the heading of "interracial."

Generally speaking, culture refers to shared learned behavior. Meaning that people of many different "skin colors" might share the same culture. Over here in America, for example, there is a general American culture that permeates a lot of different levels of society. This means that a white guy from New York, a Latina from Texas, a black guy from Atlanta, an American Indian from Oklahoma, and Japanese-American from Hawai'i are all going to share many of the same cultural cues and reference points simply by virtue of being raised in America.

So yes, while a black woman and a white man from the same social, economic and cultural background here in the US MIGHT be considered "interracial" it wouldn't necessarily be intercultural. Conversely, an white American woman and say a Spaniard, Pole or Greek could very well be considered intercultural. Of going further afield a white Australian or South African man.

But then you also start getting into the issue of exactly what IS culture and how broad are you defining it. For the people who like to talk about an overwhelming "western culture," you might be surprised to learn that many of the things viewed as important by white Anglo-American Protestants are irrelevant to many white Europeans, let alone Israelis, Argentinians, Japanese, Australians or whoever else you want to consider "western."

For instance, I am a Muslim and in fact some of my writing reflects this. I was fortunate enough to travel and be exposed to both Arab and Asian culture. But that doesn't necessarily mean that everything I do is informed by my religion or ethnic identity either. If I were to meet a black African Sunni from Mali, an Omani Arab Ibadi, or even a Shi'ite Azerbaijani, it doesn't mean that there wouldn't be huge differences between us. And thats not even getting into the really out-there groups like the Ahmadiyya or even "Nation of Islam" both of which many Muslims don't recognize as legitimate.

Now having said all of this, both my biases and experiences have informed a great deal of my writing. And I have tried to play this up when I feel it would make a good story. Its just that without a particular category for such things they can be relatively hard to find:

Where does the story about an American-born Indian man having sex with an Indo-Guyanese woman fit in? Its not race its a question of culture and diaspora.

What about a young and idealistic Palestinian rebel falling in love with the Israeli Jewish doctor who saves his life? Both might be Semitic sure but you are talking different religions and history.

 

[DaneCopenhagen]

Hi Maxwell and al Ussa - you both raise very interesting questions conc. cultural and ethnic differences and similarities - being born in sorroundings outside your own ethnic or cultural sphere and how that effects your views on sexuality, morality and I would like to explore that.

I am a European man - born within my own culture and among fellow europeans and married to a European woman, but I have had sex with a French maroccan lady with a muslim background and a Chinese girl, who was actually a buddhist, and it was both very different experiences and the way the two women handled sex was totally different, so I got interested in exploring this a bit more, so hopefully more comments will follow.