Malcolm Gladwell in, The Power of Context: Bernie Goetz and the Rise and Fall of New York, dictates that the Power of Context is the strength of one’s own environment or existing conditions and circumstances that can heavily influence human behavior. Moreover, Leslie Bell, in Twenty-Something Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom, argues that women are given so much freedom in today’s world yet they use that freedom for educational and professional purposes resulting in their lack of intimacy and contingent relationships. This argument rests on a belief that Gladwell’s Power of Context is not compatible with her ideology; a belief which she does not outright admit to, but is implied through the text. However, Leslie Bell’s notion that a
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Cultural influence, specifically seen through the media, portrays an advertisement of what love “should” look like. This subsequently impacts women negatively in the sense that they compare their realistic lives to the idealistic lives of the characters on screen or even in literature. Bell is correct to the extent that culture influences women to picture their own lives as one on television, however, the Power of Context comes into play because these are the surrounding small details in a woman’s environment that shape her perception on love and sex. She affirms, “Instead of feeling free, twenty-something women are weighed down by vying cultural notions about the kind of sex and relationships they should be having in their twenties” (Bell 26). However, Gladwell argues that these influences can be inverted, “Power of context…[is] based on the premise that an epidemic can be reversed, can be tipped, by tinkering with the smallest details of the immediate environment” (155). This “epidemic,” can then be understood as the influence of culture on the sex and love lives of woman. However, despite the effects of this epidemic, women are still free. Their judgment may be clouded by the media, but they continue to behave like individuals should; thinking and acting according to their own beliefs that may be governed somewhat, but not completely by the cultural forces around them. In fact, when women compare themselves to characters the media may portray, they may inadvertently create an idea of how things should be, but this in turn allows for more expression of freedom. Woman then realize through experiences and
Cultural influence, specifically seen through the media, portrays an advertisement of what love “should” look like. This subsequently impacts women negatively in the sense that they compare their realistic lives to the idealistic lives of the characters on screen or even in literature. Bell is correct to the extent that culture influences women to picture their own lives as one on television, however, the Power of Context comes into play because these are the surrounding small details in a woman’s environment that shape her perception on love and sex. She affirms, “Instead of feeling free, twenty-something women are weighed down by vying cultural notions about the kind of sex and relationships they should be having in their twenties” (Bell 26). However, Gladwell argues that these influences can be inverted, “Power of context…[is] based on the premise that an epidemic can be reversed, can be tipped, by tinkering with the smallest details of the immediate environment” (155). This “epidemic,” can then be understood as the influence of culture on the sex and love lives of woman. However, despite the effects of this epidemic, women are still free. Their judgment may be clouded by the media, but they continue to behave like individuals should; thinking and acting according to their own beliefs that may be governed somewhat, but not completely by the cultural forces around them. In fact, when women compare themselves to characters the media may portray, they may inadvertently create an idea of how things should be, but this in turn allows for more expression of freedom. Woman then realize through experiences and