Cultural Relativism Among American Women

Cultural Relativism is in many aspects what one group of people finds acceptable may not be accepted by another. For example, the styles of clothing that are popular and considered acceptable among American women is not the same standard of what is acceptable to women whose cultural origins are of Middle East. The case of the Hmong man kidnapping and raping an American woman is one that would be considered of extreme cultural relativism. To be completely honest upon first glance I was appalled and automatically decided that yes this man is indeed guilty and needs to be charged adequately. However, with that being said from a sociological stand point I also know what I value to be morally correct is not viewed in the same context from the view point of other cultures. I want to touch on both sides of this particular case because in order to create a non-biased viewpoint there are a few things I need to keep in mind. …show more content…
At the same time I have to ask myself if I were to pick up and move to Southeast Asia in hopes of starting a new life I myself would conduct research on what is found to be Culturally relative in that particular area. Which poses yet another question. What was the mental capacity of the man whom committed this crime? Keep in mind that within the United States in order to be convicted of a crime an individual must possess both the Mens Rea (Latin word for mental state) to commit the crime, yet also have Actus Reus (meaning the perpetrator committed the