The 99%

Why desire for economic security is not being met- She is working 3 jobs even though she does have a graduate degree. She is the only one with health insurance and only one with a job in her household. They live paycheck to paycheck.
More fair situation- Better paying jobs for people with degrees, health insurance for all
Relates to social class- This person probably though with a good education and a degree she could get a good paying job. Now this person has to work 3 jobs just to support her family.
Chose this image: It was so sad to think some parents have to work that many jobs to support a family even with a college education and degree.

Why desire for economic security is not being met- She has a college degree and is in loan debt and credit card debt. She has two jobs making minimum wage.
More fair situation- More higher paying jobs for people with education and degrees.
Relates to Social Class- It makes it seem like having an education and degree does not relate to getting a good job and supporting your self.
Chose this Image: It startled me to see her sister say that it was HER fault that her life was like this.

Why desire for economic security- They have two jobs and choose between paying for health insurance or their mortgage. They are a college graduate and say they will most likely work until they die because social security will most likely be unavailable by the time they need it.
More fair situation- The rich helping out the working-class and not changing things just for their own benefit. Better jobs for college graduates.
Relates to Social Class- Shows how rich will always get richer and poor will always get poorer, since the rich only do things to benefit themselves.
Chose this image: The things they say were really sad and made me realize a lot about our society such as, "I have to pay 30% in taxes so that too-big-to-fail companies can be rescued from their own self-inflicted failure while I drive a 9 year old car with 120,000 miles and am forced to choose whether to pay for my health insurance or mortgage and have no money set aside for retirement."

Positive Deviance

Deviance is when you do something that is recognized as violating expected rules and norms. Most people consider deviance to be negative…but it doesn’t have to be. You can also violate the norms of society by doing something positive. For example, Julio Diaz recorded his story in New York City when he treated his mugger right. A teenage boy had a knife and threatned to kill Diaz for his money and instead of getting scared Diaz offered his wallet and his coat. He also offered to pay for a meal for the boy and gave him some extra cash. This is considered a positive act of deviance because usually someone would not offer to do something nice for someone that was trying to steal their money and kill them. This little positive act of deviance though probably changed the boy’s life.

My positive act of deviance was to give hot chocolate to one of the Sodexo workers that stand outside in the mornings directing traffic. I feel bad in the morning when they are outside and shivering because it is so cold. I would consider this an act of positive deviance because it is defiantly not a norm to bring the Sodexo hot chocolate. Most students usually do not acknowledge them at all and just blow them off. It is also positive because it is doing a good thing for someone.

It made me feel really good because he was so generous and thanked me a lot. He was also smiling so wide and it felt good to do this for him. My friend who I drive to school with also gave him the hot chocolate with me and she felt really good about doing it too. No one else really saw except us two because it was before school outside.

This really made me think a lot about the norms in our community. It is sad how it is not a norm to do those kinds of things for people in our community. It is as if positive deviance is not allowed but in reality it should be enforced. I now think a lot differently about how people should treat each other in society and have a good perspective on positive vs. negative deviance. 

Commercial Realism

Erving Goffman, a Canadian-born sociologist and writer, calls advertising "commercial realism." Which means advertising is trying to present the world in ways that could be real. He focuses on advertising in this aspect because of what their seeming normality tells us about ourselves. While watching the video in class, I noticed the huge difference in the way men and women are portrayed in ads. Females are shown very delicate and have a light touch. Men on the other hand, are shown very powerful with perfect stance and direct focus. In other ads women are shown on the ground defenseless and unaware with men hovering over them with perfect attentiveness. These kinds of ads are disturbing because it almost shows men raping women in ads and that is what we are supposed to perceive as 'normal'. If people start accepting this idea of "commercial realism" then our culture could be getting the wrong messages about men and women. These ads are trying to present the world in ways that could be real. Since the communication between the consumer and the ad is very quick it sticks to them because the ads are deep and familiar and when you look at them at first they seem very normal. But if you really study ads you can tell the weirdness in how people are posing, positioned and in what they are doing. This is wrong for media to try and tell us how we perceive femininity and masculinity and what is normal.