I recently came up with an article that promoted an "innovative" park, buzzwords aside, it seems like a great project that is ongoing in Istambul, Turkey.
In the article, you will probably see a girl wearing a tshirt that says 'too hot to handle'. This is also an indication that American culture penetrating Turkish veins on north Anatolia.
I really don't think this is 'American culture penetrating Turkish veins'. I mean, I'm sure there's plenty of American culture invading Europe and Asia all across the continent, but this isn't it. It's just a mass-market t-shirt that made its way to a young Turkish girl. These are sold en masse everywhere, including in used clothing stores.
The very idea of a "market" which is a "mass-market" and a "t-shirt" as a clothing item, which then become together a "mass-market t-shirt" (meaning globalised production chains, exploitative corporate governance, fast fashion, conspicuous consumption, etc) is already in itself an example of permeating "American culture".
American culture isn't 'mass-market' though, mass-market clothes exist everywhere and so does exploitative governance, consumption, etc. The fact that some of that clothing makes it over to remote regions doesn't mean they're suddenly going to be permeated with 'American culture', they aren't cavemen discovering fire. It's just an item of clothing, albeit one that somehow found its way into their particular place of residence. Turkish bazaars are chock-full of these, maybe her dad went to one in a big city and brought this to her to wear. Does that mean she's somehow aware of capitalism, mass production, or American culture?
> Does that mean she's somehow aware of capitalism, mass production, or American culture?
Yes.
You seem to disconnect in your thought the very fact that these production models are American culture. The indigenous operation of markets before imperialism would basically use different production models and produce different goods.
The very thing you're describing is a consequence of American cultural hegemony.
Edit: Of course culture never occurs in a vacuum and transculturation goes both ways. Also I'm not denying advantages or affirming disadvantages of the current state of transculturation between cultures. I'm simply pointing out that we (US-influenced western etc etc) are so deeply into it that we don't even perceive it as "ours" and simply perceive it as "the way things are"
You can see older photos from places like Pakistan or Beirut during war with folks wearing t-shirts with various English signs. Heck, I've met folks in remote India with same that couldn't say more than 'hi', or not even that. If they are made in China in millions for 0.2$ a piece and sold everywhere, it doesn't say anything about any US culture penetration
In some parts of the world (Africa, I've been told) they get unsold stocks of United States shirts cheap and don't know or care what the logo is on the shirt.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistled_language