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. 

Field Trip Day

This week my class took a field trip to listen to a panel of speakers. Two were gay, two were lesbian and one was transgender. In our society today many people frown upon others who chose to live their lives this way. After listening to the speakers though, I feel society needs to change in order for acceptance and unity in many communities. It's sad to hear the words the speakers were called such as faggot, queer, he/she and many more. One thing that really stuck out to me during the presentation was how they said, "We didn't choose to be this way, just like you didn't choose to be straight." I had never really thought of it like that  and it made me realize that they didn't really have a choice. It also relates to the whole nature vs. nurture idea. They were explaining how the choice of being either gay, straight, transgender, etc is nature. It is as if they are "genetically" born with the idea of that is what their identity is and that's "normal" for them. Thankfully, Stevenson is very progressive and has helped out a lot for these kinds of students. Programs like the GSA and Peer Helpers make school a lot easier for them. Hopefully for future generations speakers like these can help educate more people about LGBTQ so people are more accepting and understand.

Family Socialization

Family has said to be the most important socializing factor in contributing to who we are today. This is because these are the people we spend the most time with and that have taught us rules, values and other facets of society and who we are. My assignment this week was to take a more in-depth look into how my family has socialized me. I decided to interview my mom and ask her an assortment of questions. When I asked her "what expectations she had for me before I was born" her answer was, "To be healthy and have no developmental problems." When I asked her "what lessons, values or ideas has she tried hardest to impart to me" she said, "That money isn't everything and be the best and do the best in whatever I do. Also, treat people nicely, fairly and honestly and be a caring and loving person, good friend, and someone people want to be around." When I asked her "what tradition is most important to you that I carry on" she said, "To keep my faith in Judaism and celebrate the holidays with family and continue that on with my own family." When I asked her, "Did you struggle with figuring out how to discipline me?" she said, "Only as I became a teenager." When I asked her, "What habits or parts of my personality do I have that you recognize as your own?" she said, "Always wanting more and not being satisfied with what I have and also very outgoing, personable, and funny." The answer that surprised me the most was about my religion. Since my family isn't very conservative with religion I didn't think that would be the most important tradition to her. I learned that my mom really values religion a lot and that she believes in my hopes and dreams. I feel my family has in many ways shaped who I am based on religion and how much I push my self to do the best I can.

God Grew Tired of Us

This week in class we watched the film God Grew Tired of Us. The film is a documentary of the lives of several african men that are refugees from Sudan. Many of them lost a lot of family members and endured great hardships to survive. Years later, many of them were given the chance to leave their hometown and go to America. Yes to you it might seem like adjusting to American life would be easy, but for these African men it was a hard struggle to get used to American society. One example was the whole concept of "time." In American society "time is money" and is how Americans fit so many things in their schedule at once. But when the African men were explaining their plans to leave Africa one of them said, "We will leave in the morning...or maybe not...but we will leave at some point." This shows how other cultures don't value time as much as American society does. I thought this was very interesting because I was not aware of this before watching this film. Another thing about the film I thought was interesting was the escalator scene. In our social construction of reality, riding an escalator is such a norm we don't even think twice about it. But the African men were so overwhelmed with the idea of it and were almost falling over when they were getting on and off of it. This film really showed how social construction of reality, sociological imagination and social mindfulness play a key role in our lives and we should be more aware of other cultures.

Ethnocentrism

Ethnocentrism is the principle of using one's own culture as a means or standard by which to evaluate another group or individual. This leads to the view that cultures other than one's own are abnormal. Some examples of ethnocentrism are talking about British drivers driving "on the wrong side" of the road. Why not just say "opposite side" or even "left hand side"? Another example is reading Hebrew. Instead of saying that reading hebrew is from "left to right" or "the opposite direction" we say "backwards." One time I personally was being ethnocentric was when I was eating at a chinese restaurant. I was looking through the menu and came across dog. Yes dog as in the furry, cute, little animals that Americans have as pets. I uncontrollably screamed out "DOG?" not realizing everyone was looking at me. The disgust on my face probably offended the owners of the restaurant because of my carelessness in accepting their culture. Ethnocentrism leads people to make false assumptions about cultural differences. People are ethnocentric when they use their cultural norms to make generalizations about other peoples' cultures and customs. Such generalizations can be way off base and cause people to misjudge other people. Ethnocentrism can lead to cultural misinterpretation and it often distorts communication between human beings.