Class Dismissed

Television has a big impact on how we see the different classes in our society. In the video "class dismissed", these different views on class level are discussed. Television has many ways of twisting our views of the working and middle class in everday life, to make these classes seem less or more glamorous than they really are.
One of the points touched upon in the video was that class matters, even if we may not think so. It was said that many people reject the fact that they are working class, so they don't have a sense of class conciousness. I've never run into someone like that, at least not that I'm aware of. Most people who are in the working class know what class they are in, but are willing to work hard to try and get to a better situation for them. When people do not have a sense of class conciousness, this can cause conflict within classes. I imagine it would lead to unevenness within social classes. Even though, within our social classes, we are all generally equal, some may still think they are higher up than others. It would only make sense that this would create competition within the social classes, which in turn can be good for society, so people are motivated to move up within their class or to a different class. Of course, like the video also said, there will always be a working class as long as we have the system of capitalism.
The video also talked about the American Dream Machine. The American dream machine is, in a sense, having the perfect home and being in the middle/upper class. Many times, this american dream machine is associated with certain products and things around the home. Therefore, when people can afford these items, they believe that they can become part of that middle/upper class. However, this doesn't make sense if you think about it. Just because you have certain products, doesn't mean that you are middle or upper class, it just means you have those products.
Over the years, different races have also made their way to television and have become very much a part of everyday television. When black T.V. shows first aired, most of them were about black families living in the ghettos or in the projects. As time went on, they became more everday families, like the Cosby Show. Over the years, it has shown that African Americans are hard working people, and depicts them as the ones that will rise to the top from nothing in our society. African American based shows began airing after the Civil Rights era. During this time, many white people were still bitter towards black people. Because of this, the shows depicted blacks as people who didn't have the privelege of living in a nice neighborhood with a good home and a good environment to grow up in. As blacks became more accepted throughout society over the years, they were seen more as equals and people realized that they could make it on their own, just like any other race.
In the 1950's and 60's, the role women played in T.V. shows was usually the stay at home mom, or the house wife. Usually the husband or father worked in a working class environment, yet the families always had a nice house and lived in a good neighborhood. In most T.V. shows, the jobs or women or the pay is unclear, and we automatically assume they have a good job because of how their lives are depicted. In reality, many women have working class jobs in factories or offices. The women we see in real life for the most part are not who most are on T.V.
T.V. can twist our views of how the working and middle class are portrayed. Most of the time, the way it is depicted on T.V. is not how it is in real life.

Adultolesence

The transition from adolescence into adulthood, also know as early adulthood, or adultolesence. When we think of someone who has not completely transitioned into adulthood, we think of an adult who still plays video games and lives in their parent's basement at 30 years old. Despite the fact that this may be an amusing image to most people, circumstances like this are actually happening in our world today. Our nation is seeing more adultolesences today than ever before. Why is this? Most would say it's because the people who are still living with their parent's at that age are just lazy and don't want to move on with their life. Sometimes this is the case, however, it is not always because they are lazy. The articles we read on the other blog show that many times people are not living on their own and supporting themselves because they do not have the economic means to do so. It's true that in the 1950's and 1960's more people became independent at an earlier age, but it was also easier to become independent during these years. If one compares the economy of the 1950's to the economy of today and how many more expenses someone has to pay now, I think they would be surprised to find out how much more expensive it is. Not only are these people responsible for paying off their college loans, but they are also responsible for all the expenses of living in their own place, such as the rent or mortgage, electricity, heating, water, etc. Most of the time, we don't have a high paying job when we first start out either, making paying off all these expenses that much harder. For this reason, many rely on mom and dad to support them for however long it takes them to get their feet on the ground securely.
The article says that there are 4 million people between the ages of 25 and 34 still living in their parent's house. This large number of people can't be just because their lazy and don't want to get a job and support themselves. Some do have financial problems that need to be worked out, and living at their parent's house until they work out those financial problems, staying at their parent's house takes a lot of extra bills off their hands like rent and all the water, heating, gas bills, etc. Perhaps the problem isn't the adultolescence, but rather the world in which we live in today.

Men and Women In Conversation

Between men and women, there are certain ways each gender was taught to talk. Because men and women are socialized different ways, it's almost as if sometimes there is a language barrier between us. There are different ways these language barriers occur. In the packets we read, they give examples such as apologies, criticism, discussion, praise and complaints. With apologies, when women apologize, most of the time it is to keep both them and the person their speaking to on equal footing, so that they will both share the blame. This does not necessarily mean that they are actually sorry about something, but more that we won't seem superior to another. For men, however, it is not said as much. This is because when men apologize for something, they see it as a sign of inferiority, that they are giving into someone else.
Complaints are another language barrier that is created between men and women. Women tend to use complaints as something to talk about. They complain about something, and then expect the person their talking to to reciprocate with a complaint of their own. For example, if someone is complaining about their job or their boss, the woman might respond with a complaint similar to the other woman's about her work. This is just a conversation tactic. Men, however, see complaints entirely differently. Men look at complaints as a request to help someone solve the problem. So if a woman is complaining to her husband and he begins to tell her how to solve the problem and she gets angry, it's not because she didn't like his advice, it's because she wasn't looking for a way to solve the problem. She just wanted to complain and have a conversation about it.
Discussion is another language barrier between men and women. Studies show that men are more likely to turn a discussion into a debate and state their ideas in very strong terms. Women, however, take this debating as a personal attack, and may make them doubt how much they actually know about the topic. Usually discussions for women are on mutual ground. So if a woman brings up a recent news topic for discussion, and states what she knows on it, she may feel doubtful of what she actually knows when a man begins to tell what he thinks was actually true, and debate with her.
Despite the fact that these are not the only language barriers between men and women, they are some of the more prominent ones. This does not mean that one way of speaking is better than the other, it just means we need to learn how the other gender generally talks and learn to accept it to certain terms.

Media Then and Now

These two movie actresses: Judy Garland (Wizard of Oz, Easter Parade) and Reese Witherspoon (Legally Blonde, Walk the Line) are from two completely different eras of movie making. True, there are many similarities between their photographs, but there are also a number of differences just in how their bodies are shaped and how they stand. For example, in Judy Garland's photo, her dress is more concealing, which was much more common for the era that what we see today. Her hair is also very neatly put into place, and almost looks like barbie doll hair or fake hair. Judy Garland also looks just slightly skinnier than Reese, but I believe this is because of the dress she is wearing. Reese Witherspoon's photo is a little different than Judy's. Her dress is much more low-cut and revealing than Judy's. The dress also looks more form fitting on Reese than Judy's dress did on hers. Reese's hair is not very put into place like Judy's is either. Reese's hair is made to look wind blown, or as though someone had just photographed her in the middle of the day, not like she was in a studio. Not only do their bodies and clothes look different, but their posture is also different. Judy's posture is more leaned forward, almost concealing some of her curves, while Reese stands up very straight, almost sticking out her curves.

These differences in these women's photos are because of the era they are working in and how they grew up. For Judy, in the 1950's, women were not supposed to dresses that were revealing or racy. A woman's body was more secret than it is now, women in he 1950's did not generally show cleavage or lots of their legs. However, today these things are more acceptable. Girls can wear dresses that are low cut and very short. It was said above that Judy looks a bit thinner than Reese. If this is true, and it doesn't just look like it from what they are wearing, this is probably because women in the 1950's had better nutrition than we do now. Obesity is a huge issue for us as Americans today, but the history of obesity shows that it has not always been an issue. People living in Judy Garland's era probably did not have all the junk food that a lot of people today eat, which made them healthier in the long run.

These two pictures just show how much the media has changed and how our society has changed in the last 50 years. It is acceptable to wear racy clothes now, where as it certainly would not have been accepted in the 1950's. Our society has to choose whether heading in the direction we are is a good thing or a bad thing.

Media and Gender Roles

When you think about women in magazine ads or other advertisements, how do you think of them? Are they sophisticated, professional, or hardworking women? Most of the time, women are not advertised in this way. Many ads picture women in little clothing, and are usually not professional looking at all. The way our society has constructed this view of women is damaging the view that young girls have of themselves. These ads devalue women in some ways, making them look like pieces of art we can use for whatever we want in advertising. However, this doesn't just happen with women, there are many different ways that the media can alter our view of where certain genders and races stand in society. When a little girl and boy are featured in a picture together, the boy is always taller, and tends to look tough, while the girl is shorter and is generally smiling or looking innocent. When it comes to race, many times the media makes it seem as if white is superior to black, and other races.
This type of advertisement is degrading to women, and can cause damaging thoughts to young girls as they grow up. Every advertisement with a female model in it is flawless, and we are made to think that the way the model looks is the way that everyone should look, otherwise we are ugly. This is not true, but the media twists it to make us think like this. What many don't know, however, is how much work goes into making these pictures look perfect. These models don't actually look how they do in the picture. The media is the reason why so many women perfect their bodies through plastice surgery and other types of unnatural enhancements. They see the models and pictures in the media and believe that since they don't look like that, they need to fix their bodies to look like the picture. When young girls see these pictures and don't think of themselves as that, they may feel ugly. These girls will try to make themselves "prettier and more appealing" by buying clothes that are more revealing or look "sexier". If they don't feel as pretty as these models look in the media, they may also have lower self esteem because they feel ugly or inferior.
Men, on the other hand, are not usually targeted in this way as much in the media. Although the media does feature men in magazines and advertisements, they are not targeted as much as women. Men are usually featured as tough, masculine, and superior to women. If they are pictured with a woman, they may be trying to seduce the woman, or take control of her, in which the woman looks like she is falling for it. Again, this devalues women and makes them seem inferior. It seems as though the media is stuck in the past, as though they think it is still a time when men did all the work and women were there to clean the house and look beautiful for their husband.
I think that there are better ways to advertise women than half naked or as being seduced by a man, or as these beautifully fake models. The media is tarnishing self-image, twisting it so that we think we need to better ourselves through other methods, instead of just accepting who we are. You don't see very many advertisements with women looking professional or hard at work at their job. In today's advertising, women are generally depicted as the people in our society that stand still, be quiet, and look pretty. Although this is not true for every advertisement, it is true for a lot of them. If advertisement changed their view of women versus men, I think a lot of other people's views of gender roles would also change.

Feral Children

In class yesterday, we watched a video on Feral children, that is, children that grew up without human contact. The video theorized that after a certain age, children are not able to aquire many skills that regular humans have been taught and obtained. There was a story of a girl named Jeanie. She had been kept in darkness without any human contact for quite some time, and when the authorities finally found her, she was about 13 years old. Many specialists worked with her to try and help her learn all of the skills that most people are taught as babies. Jeanie made a lot of progress, but at a certain point was unable to obtain anymore information. Humans learn most of the basic things, such as walking upright, social manners, and talking, as a baby. When one is not taught these skills by a parent or adult, they fall behind, and may be lacking in these skills. In other cases like we saw in the video, children turned to animals that were living by them and actually picked up their behavior and began acting like the animals they were with. If you are thrown out into the street as a child and are raised and nurtured by dogs, then you will act like a dog, even if you are born a human. In the article we read, it said that we are one of the only species that will take on characteristics of another if we are subjected to them or raised and nurtured by them. We would take on the characteristics of a dog if we are nutured by them for a long time, but a cat would not.
I don't find it surprising at all that we can so easily learn to take on the mannerisms of another species or that it's so easy for us to drastically fall behind if we are not taught as an infant how to be a human. Generally, we spend about 18 to 20 years of our lives with our parents, being taught, in a sense, how to be a human. When some of those 18 to 20 years are taken away, we lose a lot of time to learn human skills. If those years that are taken away from human parents are replaced by another species, it only makes sense that we will pick up their characteristics and behavior. Yesterday's video and today's article really made me think about how fragile the human mind really is and how easy it is to alter what we think and change the way we live completely just by changing who it is we are raised by.

Sociological Research

There are many different ways to gather sociological information. During class, the types of research we discussed were surveys, observations, and sampling.
Surveying a group of people is exactly what you think it might be. Surveying allows you to find out what is popular or unpopular within a society by actually giving a certain amount of people questions to answer about a certain topic. The people you are going to survey are the population. We usually see this quite often with high school and middle school projects. In order to get information for a project, some students might make a survey and ask others to fill it out and answer the questions in order to get the information they need. Within surveying, there is sampling. Sampling is taking a number of people from your population to work with on the topic your studying. There is also random sampling, in which the people you choose from your population are completely random, there is no specified order. For example, in order to find out who you might want to survey within Barrington High School, one might use a random number generator and get I.D. numbers and then find those kids with the I.D. numbers and survey them.
Another type of sociological research is observation. In this method, the researcher is only observing, they are not intervening with the population and talking to them. This is a good way to research if you have a large population, such as a whole city. For example, we might research which drink is most popular at a coffee shop by seeing which mixtures run out the fastest and need to be refilled. This specifically is called unobtrusive observation, in which the people do not know they are being researched. This way, your research is not influenced by people knowing whether or not they are being observed.
I believe that the best way to research a population is by unobtrusive population. I find that sometimes when people know they are being researched or surveyed, their answers to different questions may change. Of course, surveying gives you more direct results, because it comes straight from the people you're researching. However, whichever way someone chooses to interview someone, these methods have been discussed and have been proven to be effective.

Norms and the Normative Order

In each society, there are different things that are considered normal in society and should be followed. These different things or rules are called norms. They are different for every society, and especially for America, have changed over the years. The Normative order gives the people within a society an idea of how to behave and, in a general sense, live their lives so as not to get into trouble. When someone breaks the rules, there are sanctions, or consequences, that one must recognize.
One of the norms that have been adjusted over the years in America is dresscode. Looking back in history, one will notice that they dressed vastly different from how we do today. In the 1700's, the women all dressed in floor length dresses and were covered very well. They always looked formal. The men always looked formal too, usually wearing a dress coat with tails and dress shoes. If someone today were to wear this out and about, they would get some odd looks from people. When we looked at the Barrington High School dress code of 1969, our class found that the dress code was completely different from how it is today. Girls were not allowed to wear pants, tight fitting clothes, or spaghetti straps to school, only skirts. Harsh or bold makeup was not allowed, and neither were extreme hairstyles. Boys were not allowed to wear plain white t-shirts, as they were considered underwear, nor were they allowed to wear any shirt with the name of a non-campus group. Today, to see a guy wearing a hollister shirt or a girl wearing blue jeans is completely normal. Our dress code consists of short skirts, tank tops, t-shirts, flip-flops, tight jeans, or shorts. From looking at the dress code in 1969, we can clearly see that norms are adjusted from generation to generation, creating change in the society.
Though some norms have changed drastically, some have not changed quite as much. For example, many of our table manners that were applied during the 1960's still apply today. In class, we talked about how eating with your elbows on the table is considered rude. This rule is dated back all the way to the middle ages in Europe, when the people all wore clothes with long sleeves. If you put your elbows on the table, your sleeves would get in your food, which is messy and rude. So, the rule was created that having your elbows on the table during dinner is rude, and in most cases is still enforced today. Another table manner might be putting your napkin in your lap before you begin eating. Although I'm not exactly sure how far back this rule dates, you'll notice even in movies that were made in the 1960's, everyone put their napkins on their laps before they ate. This rule, in general, has not changed either.
So, norms are what tells the people in a society how to behave, and usually change through the years. When someone does not follow the norm, there are sanctions, or punishments, for their actions that go against the normative order. It's all been engraved into everyone's heads what is right or wrong for our society, but living in another society, there are different norms. Every society is different in this way, and because of this we sometimes have conflict. Maybe if we all learned to accept each other's differences in our own normative order, the world might get along a little better.

American Values

American Values: It is, in a sense, what makes up American people. The article we read for homework described 13 major American values that make up our culture. I believe that most of the values do describe Americans as a whole. I completely agreed with the author's point that we as Americans are very concerned with time. If we are not "filling" time, or "spending" time, then we are "wasting" time. People living in America are penalized if they are not on time, being late is considered rude. Especially in professional instances. If you are late for a job interview or a meeting, thats a bad mark against you at your job.
I also agreed with the fact that Americans are always looking towards the next biggest thing, and always looking for change. Americans have always been the ever-changing country. Most countries have traditions and rituals they look to, and they follow the things that never change. I believe that America's tradition is to continually find new technologies and ways to change our country. It has been like that almost since the United States were created. Some other cultures around the world may find it wierd that we don't really have the "traditional values" they think of, and may be surprised or upset that we are constantly changing our society, however we might also find it wierd or different that they have values that have been accepted and followed for hundreds of years. Some may forget that our country is younger than most, and that we are a very diverse country, so we have diverse values through the different ethnic groups living here. As the American society, we are always looking for the next best thing, or how to better ourselves and the place we live in.
The author of the article also gives a good point about how materialistic America is. The list of things the author named off that almost every American owned didn't really surprise me. I would actually find it a bit odd if someone didnt' own a calculator, a washing machine, or a refrigerator, just because it's so common to see them in homes, and its very uncommon not to see them. However, in third world countries such as Sudan, they do not have the luxuries like calculators, washing machines, or refrigerators. I believe that as Americans, we take our material possessions for granted, not realizing how dependent we are on some of them until they appliance breaks or is taken away.
Although the author made some very good points about our values, I think he missed one major value that most Americans hold: appearance. Most Americans believe that if you look stylish, trendy, or business-like you are more likely to get farther in life. That is why, for example, we dress professionally for job interviews. If we didn't think looking business-like would help us get the job, why don't we just come in jeans and a t-shirt? We also believe looking nice and having good hygiene gets others to notice us in a crowd. This may be why girls dress very nice to out to dinner with her friends or go on a date, they think that if they look better than others they will be noticed more. In some cases, this may be true, but in others it may not be true. Some other cultures have the same general idea about appearance, but I think that America can be one of the worst places to be judged by what you are wearing or how you look.
Overall, I think the article we read in class explained very well what most Americans value and hold dear to them. I think that these are very specific to the country, and thats why a lot of other cultures find ours odd, or may even dislike our country because of our culture.

Ethnocentrism Vs. Cultural Relativism

In class, we've been studying the comparison between ethnocentrism and cultural relativism. Ethnocentrism is defined as looking at someone else's culture in comparison to your own culture, and comparing it to that of your own. Cultural Relativism is defined as understanding cultures from their own perspective, not necessarily as a comparison to your own culture.
Culture is very important to everyone living in society, it more or less makes up our lives. Without culture, everyone would live and act the same way. How people look at different cultures, however, can differ between people. For example, someone in America who thinks by ethnocentrism might look at an African or Asian culture and think their culture and customs are wierd or abnormal, because they are not like the culture in America. In this way, they are looking at another culture in terms of their own, and comparing it to their own lifestyle. Someone who uses cultural relativism would look at a culture not from their own perspective, but try and look at the culture from the own people's view. For example, an American looking at Indian culture might study it and try to understand why they practice the things they do, without relating it to their own culture. The person studying it might not see it as wierd or abnormal, but something unique and its own.
When our class read the article about the Nacirema, most of the students took and ethnocentric position, comparing their culture to that of an American one. I think that most people in the world today look at different cultures and lifestyles this way, because we are so used to our own culture, that when we see different customs and lifestyles, we see it as abnormal. Sometimes this is a good thing, other times it is not. Ethnocentrism could be used in a negative way, that could cause fighting over different cultures and ways of life. I think cultural relativity is a better way to discuss culture than that of ethnocentrism, because it allows the people discussing it to be more open to the different cultures around them; not decide someone else's culture is wierd because it's not like theirs.

Sociological Construction of Reality

Today in class our lesson was about the sociological construction of reality. Our class assignment was to read "Eating Your Friend Is the Hardest: The Survivors of the F-227. This disturbing story is about a rugby team whose plane crashes in the Andes Mountains, leaving them the desperate situation of how to find food. Their only solution to this problem is to eat the flesh of the already dead bodies.

Although this story is a disturbing one, what the survivors went through makes it coherent to see that eating the flesh of the other dead passengers was necessary to survive. They most likely would not have survived if they had not practiced the cannibalism, especially after the search had been called off. At first, many of the remaining passengers were completely against this option, saying that it was ethically and morally wrong. Though cannibalism is normally wrong on most levels, as well as not civilized or accepted in society, in order to survive, these passengers needed nourishment, and the only way they could get it so they could continue their search for help, was by using the dead bodies.

This story really makes the reader take a second look at why we believe certain things in society are wrong, such as practicing cannbalism. Most groups of people throughout the world consider cannibalism uncivilized and is not accepted. Just like it is not acceptable to steal from a store. Most times, there is not an excuse considered acceptable to bypass these deeds one has done. However, just like in the case of the survivors of the plane crash, there are excuses that can, and sometimes, are necessary to be made. The plane crash survivors compared the eating of human flesh to communion; saying that it was using another body to keep themselves alive. Stealing from a store or someone's house, one might say that they needed food to survive, and to support their family, but did not have money. Again, this may not convince the store clerk, but the person committing the crime may feel it was necessary to committ the act.
As for the survivors of the plane crash, they may not have been accepting of the idea of cannbalism at first, but eventually their hunger and need to survive won out over their morals and what was considered civilized to the rest of the society. When they finally reached home, they went to church and confessed to their sins, to which the priests told them it was necessary and it was just a body, there was no soul, so it was not a sin. In the face of certain situations, people will overlook what is naturally considered morally and ethically wrong.

Sociological Imagination-Cars

In Sociology we have just started studying the sociological imagination. In class, we talked about cell phones and the impact they have on society and the rest of the world. So, I chose a different type of technology to analyze: cars.

Since the 1900's, cars have been a huge part of everyday life for most people not just in the United States, but around the world. Cars are used every day for the convenience of transportation. Instead of walking, jogging, or biking somewhere, we have adapted to using the cars as well as other vehicles as our main transportation system. Most anyone in society is affected by the use of cars today, from parents to college professors to teenagers. Most of the time, we benefit from having a car or a type of transportation to get us somewhere more quickly. Other times though, it can be harmful to society. The way cars are built right now, most give off many pollutants when they run, because they are run on gasoline. Many times, this quick type of transportation will make our society lazy. Instead of walking two blocks to get somewhere, lots of people will drive. This reduces our amount of excercise, and if practiced enough, might contribute to some of the obesity in our world.
Of course, cars don't only exist in the United States, but everywhere around the world. Most of the time, cars are made generally the same way as in the United States. Some may consider the car producing business as a connection to the rest of the world. Many of the cars we drive in the United States come from Asia or Europe. Also, when there are more car making companies in the world, there is better competition for every country that makes them, which can contribute to a healthier society.
The first car ever made with an engine was in 1806 by the Swiss inventor, Francois Isaac de Rivaz, although the car did not become popular until the 1900's in America with Ford's famous Model T. Ford's car made headway during the Industrial Revolution during the turn of the century, and America as well as the rest of the world has since been hooked on cars. Of course, the car has had some changes over time, but society's attitude toward it hasn't changed a lot.
Many times, which kind of car a person has determines a part of their status in society. If someone has a Mercedes with all the new technological advances added to it, one might assume that they are part of the upper class or are very wealthy. If someone has a twenty year old used car, society may consider them lower class or not wealthy.
So, what exactly is the sociological imagination of cars in our society? In some cases, cars can tell what kind of economic class you are in. They also have improved our transportation and make getting places more convenient for us, but at the same time can make people less willing to use any other source of transportation, such as walking and biking. These factors make cars a huge part of our society.

Blog 1

This is Sarah's Blog! It's for sociology class. Sociology is a study of groups, rather than the study of the mind of one person; like psychology. In the class we learn about how certain groups of people are stereotyped, what is actually true of these stereotypes. So, with that being said, any posts contributing to a sociological study would be appreciated! But please keep all posts school appropriate!