Culture is often characterized through such examples as art, language, or social customs, but researchers who study the influence of culture on individuals have found that that influence can go much deeper, affecting not only the way an individual behaves in social environments, but also the way they experience the world internally. Ethnographies that focused specifically on the emotional concepts members of a culture use to define their experiences suggest that our understanding of supposedly basic and universal emotions might be much more subjective and culturally dependent than previously thought. In recent years, a number of psychological studies have suggested that our concepts of emotion come only from primitive physiological arousal, and any more complex experiences and definitions are entirely culturally and socially constructed. This literature review critically evaluates, compares, and contrasts research on the study of emotions from several disciplinary perspectives to explore to what extent emotional experiences are universal, and whether different methods of studying emotions in culture can inform each other. This literature review examines work by researchers from fields including anthropology, psychology, linguistics, and communication. Recent psychological research on the neurological origin of emotions could have profound implications on how ethnographers understand, study, and discuss emotional concepts in cultures. Combining this psychological approach with future ethnographic studies of emotional concepts in cultures has the potential to deepen our understanding of how emotions are constructed and how they vary in different cultures. More broadly, such a collaboration could shed light on the extent to which culture constructs humans’ internal reality and experiences.

In Hollywood, an industry that is proclaiming “Time’s Up!” there is a burgeoning movement to change both the ways women are treated in film, and the ways their safety is prioritized.  The initiative focuses on sexual harassment in the workplace, specifically, the entertainment industry.  There has been a recent initiative by women in the industry in response to what’s known as the “Weinstein effect,” a recent trend of men in Hollywood being revealed to be sexual harassers and rapists.  They call their initiative “Time’s Up.”  The movement combats rape culture, a concept that names the act of sexual harassment being normalized.  In my literature review I ask: how and why does rape culture permeate the American film industry? First, the research delves into the history of film production, and how various time periods saw paradigm shifts of women's involvement in the process of filmmaking.  The research also examines how women were portrayed during these shifts, and connections between the two.  To understand influences film had during these times, I examined human rights movements that parallel changes in film.  The literature review also explores the economic aspects of filmmaking.  Specifically, how it influences what films are produced, how they’re advertised.  Additionally, legal matters, such as contracts that mandate silence, are also looked into as reasons for lack of response to perpetuators of harassment and assault. The last part of the literature review examines the latest paradigm shift.  The research evaluates the outing of powerful men in the film industry as perpetuators of sexual violence, and the proceeding action that has been taken since.  Women’s involvement in production, as well film themes in the past ten years is analyzed for comparative studies. To conclude, the movements such as Time’s Up is studied to explore further action that is being taken.