Culture

Boston.--It is morning when people begin to line up at the daily tell-all talk shows. At 11 a.m. cheating fiances are on Sally Jessy Raphael. Ostracized pregnant teens are on Montel Williams. Self-described male-chauvinist sons are on Ricki Lake.A bit later, a mother, her teen-aged son and the girlfriend he admittedly abused all air their wounds to Maury Povich. Single mothers who can't get dates appear with Jane Whitney.By afternoon, a woman is telling Phil Donahue that she falsely accused her mother of sexual abuse.

JACKSON, Miss. -- On opening night of the USA International Ballet Competition, dancers from 23 nations dressed in Capezio warm-up suits rather than their usual tights and tutus and marched across the stage waving the flags of their native countries. Their bodies are as toned as an Olympic athlete's, their ballet slippers have long been broken in and they come from around the world with dreams of promenading their way toward a gold medal or perhaps a spot in a prestigious dance troupe.

Rebecca Nagle and Hannah Brancato aren't interested in spilling Victoria's Secret. But the Baltimore-based artists and feminists do want the lingerie giant — and other cultural forces — to tell a different story about sex. Disturbed by societal messages about rape and consent, the pair have projected the words "Rape Is Rape" on the U.S. Capitol, joined in an art exhibit about sexual assault and created a line of underwear with messages emphasizing...

When I heard that another earthquake had rocked the land near where I had lived and taught in Japan, my heart sank. I could not help but think of all of my kind colleagues, students and friends in that small village. While I am now removed from that portion of the world and that part of my life, my appreciation of the Japanese and their ways remains at my core. Throughout my year of living in a Japanese village on the coast of Toyama, I was referred to daily as a gaijin , or alien.

A man with salt-and-pepper hair stood recently in front of the Enoch Pratt Free Library , glaring at an oversized poster promoting a reading Monday night by the cultural critic Touré from his new book, "Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness?" "Post-blackness?" muttered the African-American man, spitting out the word as though it had curdled in his mouth. "Ain't no such thing. " It wasn't at all clear whether the man on the street would be attending Touré's talk, though the author hopes he does.

Steven Xavier Lee says that museums rooted in European culture have tended not to acknowledge the importance and extent of African, African-American, Latin American, Native American and West Indian cultures.Mr. Lee's dream -- obsession might be a better word -- is a museum in Baltimore that would reflect the fine art and history of such cultures.He is executive director of a fledgling institution called the Heritage Museum, and he has interesting arguments along with beautiful paintings, sculptures, photographs, prints and ceramic work stowed away and the knowledge of where to find more.

There's a culture war, as Pat Buchanan wisely predicted, but people have difficulty determining which side they are on.A traditionalist view is that culture helps to define nationality. Therefore, it is the business of the state to promote and shape, if not dictate or define it.Many nations came to be through cultural revival. Late-blooming European nationalisms began largely as language movements. The Irish Republic and France stand out as democracies that make promotion of the national culture the central business of the state.

There is something sad in hearing an old man say, when asked to describe the creation legends of his people, "We used to think we came from the stars . . . [but] I'm not sure now," because of exposure to the stories of Allah and Jesus.Such is the ambiguous nature of change as it comes to the mountainous island of Irian Jaya, north of Australia, whose native people have only recently been "discovered" by Western culture. For the next two weeks, one of the world's least known cultures is the subject of "Soundprint," the radio documentary program produced locally at WJHU-FM 88.1 (at 6 p.m. Saturday, repeating at 6 p.m. the following Friday)

Can culture be sold? And if so, is it lost?AWith the acquisition of MCA Inc. by Matsushita earlier last week, and similar foreign purchases in recent years of U.S. publishing houses, record companies, paintings and even distinctive buildings, America faces the prospect of its most vivid images no longer being American. And this will likely continue so long as a persistent trade deficit pushes dollars abroad that return in exchange for desirable U.S. properties.On one level, culture -- admittedly a loose, messy term -- is no different than plastic, paper or wheat.

WE ROMANTICIZE and idealize the 1950s. How else to treat that deplorable decade? The era of Father Knows Best and Ozzie and Harriet was also that of McCarthyism, of Jim Crow, of unspeakable kitsch in food, fashion, architecture and design. Music, too, was Guy Lombardo and Lawrence Welk until sweetly corrupting rock 'n' roll finally liberated mainstream audiences. How many of us would want The Simpsons canceled in favor of a resurrected Leave it to Beaver? For women during the '50s, careers didn't have glass ceilings; they had ceilings of high-tensile steel.