What a Girl Wants：maintaining self—identity

Abstract：What a Girl Wants is the story about the daughter and the father. This paper firstly discusses the content of this movie， including review and messages conveyed by the movie; secondly analyzes the plots of What a Girl Wants from an ICC perspective; finally summarizes the whole paper， further deepening audiencess comprehension for this movie.

Key words：What a Girl Wants; ICC Perspective; self-identity; cultural difference

1. Preface

With the arrival of the globalization age， the whole world has become a village， where “villagers” from different cultures are closely connected than ever. Therefore intercultural communication has been an indispensable part even a way of life for us. Consciously or unconsciously we are conducting intercultural communication by various ways.  And seeing movies is one of the most relax and convenient ways. Just as Professor Hu Wenzhong says， “Understanding movies is a complicated course of intercultural communication as well”. What a Girl Wants is an American film which displays the difference of Americans and British people. Here I would like to share my understanding of it from an ICC perspective.

2. About the Movie

2.1 Review of the movie

Daphne is a free-spirited American girl， who has been lived with her mother since she was born. At the age of 17， she wants to know about her father， most importantly， to find out who she is. So she jets from New York to London to make the acquaintance of the father， who turns out to a prominent political figure heavily involved in social customs as well. With her American vitality and different way of attitude to life， she caused a lot of trouble. She must attempt to fit in with the social requirements demanded of her. Once she changed to be more like a British young girl， conservative， elegant and graceful. Then at the ball held for her， she finally realized that was enough. She prefers to be the real her， maintaining her identity. Then she flies back to New York. .Of course we wait a happy ending. She gets what she wants. Most importantly she maintains her self-identity and hence she deserves what she gets.

2.2 Messages Conveyed by the Movie

The most important lesson conveyed by the movie is individualism. Both the daughter and the father Henry Dash wood finally choose to maintain their identity， which is an important aspect of individualism. Another message of the movie is that it says life is full of second chances if you are not afraid to take them， which shows another dominant American character—progress and change.

3. Analysis of the Movie from ICC Perspective

Geert Hofstede developed four dimensions： collectivism-individualism， uncertainty avoidance， power distance， masculinity and femininity re to know about different cultures. The single most important pattern of the United States is individualism. In Geert Hofstedes dimensions， one important aspect of reflection of being individualistic is that people acquire their identities based in their individuality. As I mentioned above， the main message of the movie is that be yourself， not to change for anyone to maintain the self-identity. Daphne decides to fly to New York to find her father， “getting to know someone because they share the same DAN isnt the answer. Its about getting to know myself.” For her knowing her identity is of great significance and deserves her courage to venture out to another know country to know the unknown person. When she finally found out that she had to “change” to fin in with the social requirements demanded of her， she would rather to leave her father than change herself， her identity. According to Hofstedes findings， both Americans and British people values individualism， ranking 1 and 3 separately in the 40 countries and regions on individualism and collectivism.

The Kluckhonhs and Strodtbeck supply us with five value orientations for analyzing cultural patterns. I would like to use two of them to analyze the movie， that is， sense of time or time orientation and activity orientation.  Daphnes father is a British Lord， who once demanded Daphne to change her character to fit in the requirements of the British society. He did so because he believes in his familys “glorious” tradition to sacrifice for the political party. His behavior reflected Great Britain is somewhat past-oriented cultures， which believe strongly in the significance of history， established religions and tradition. Great Britain， because of its extensive devotion to tradition， continues to resist change as it attempts to cling to the past.

Compared with her father， Daphne， an American girl demonstrates her cultures future orientation， emphasizing the future and expects it to be grander and nicer than the present. And future is where happiness is to be found. Americans vies of the future makes them optimistic.

4. Conclusion

The movie What a Girl Wants displays us a girls journey to pursue and maintain her self identity， which is based on individualism. And individualism is one of the important dominant culture patterns. Measured by Geert Hofsteds four orientations and the Kluckhohns and Strodtbecks value orientation， Daphne and her father show the individualism. Daphne is of future orientation while her father is past –oriented. Daphne is also doing orientation. Although the movie highlight the cultural differences between the U.S and Britain and makes that a source of comedy. In fact， the differences are magnified in the movie. In real life and on the findings according to Hofstedes survey， Americans and British people are much more similar in their cultural patterns than how the movie shows it.

【参考文献】

[1] Larry A. Samovar， Richard E. Porter， and Lisa A. Stefani. Communication Between Cultures[M]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press， 2000.

【作者简介】

郑晓莉（1979—），女，渭南师范学院外国语言文学系讲师，主要研究方向：翻译。