Duh

Apparently the government has just realized that pop culture is better propaganda than actual propaganda for America. To which I have one thing to say: Duh.
I have friends who had never been in America during Halloween and Thanksgiving, and they asked me if people really dressed up (yes) and if they really ate turkey (yes.) They based their questions on what they had seen in tv and movies. I have a Norwegian friend who has virtually no accent because she watches so much American tv. I'm pretty sure that most of those friends honestly see America as mostly what our pop culture shows us as.
But I’ve also seen this as a bad thing. I know girls who come to America thinking they can live like Carrie Bradshaw, shopping all the time and getting romanced by guys, and they’re totally disappointed when they see how most people’s lives are not like that. (They also usually are surprised to see how dirty most of New York’s streets are.) They also sometimes they have a blind allegiance to what they think is American, which can mean some of our least impressive attributes. (They often think we’re far more materialistic than what I hope most people are like, but sometimes they themselves are happy enough to buy into the culture.) Even sadder, they see America as more homogenized than it really is, when there are lots of smaller groups and some are antagonistic to one another. Also, right now, a lot of foreigners I know dress like hipsters because this is “in,” and although I agree with them it is, I know far more Americans who aren’t hipsters than are.

The Upright Man

This morning, I watched a documentary about Thomas Sankara called Thomas Sankara: The Upright Man. Sankara was the President of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987. He was raised by a pious Catholic family. As a young man, he joined the military, where he rose through the ranks. In the early 80s, his best friend, Blaise Compaore, staged a coup and put Sankara in charge. After the revolution began to fail, Blaise staged another coup and had Sankara killed.
Sankara was, among other things, pro-women. He wanted to give every woman in Burkina Faso a job. During his regime, men began taking on some of the household duties. He also appointed women to top government roles. I did a little extra research, and found out that he even outlawed female circumcision. As a feminist, I couldn't help but like some of this stuff.
Although he wasn't a perfect leader, I like that he wasn't afraid to tell the truth, and fight those who were oppressing Africans. I feel like he is a great leader, the kind who I wish someone would do a biopic on. It seems like every time they cover an African leader, it's someone horrible. Sankara wasn't perfect either, but sometimes I wonder if the few biopics covering African leaders make Americans think that all African leadership is incompetent or evil.
The other thing that surprised me was how attractive I found Sankara. The pictures I found online of him don't quite do him justice. As I was watching the documentary, I was struck by what an attractive man he was. I don't usually think of political leaders as attractive (other than maybe Obama), but Sankara definitely was.