Is deviance always a bad thing?

"Deviance, in a sociological context, describes actions or behaviors that violate social norms."  We know that norms are the rules and expectations that we follow in, in our everyday society and through our class discussion as well as the textbook reading I have gained more insight to what is deviance and what it is like to go against these social norms.


We know the obvious examples of deviance, but when I think of deviance and the definition all I can think about is not what it means to violate our social norms but why people do it.  I know we are supposed to go against being deviants, but I just want to have some fun.  As long as no one is seriously hurt or put in any real danger, I think it is healthy to be a little deviant in our lives.  We should all learn to let the "devil" come out and play in our everyday lives.  I don't agree with having a completely deviant lifestyle but to have fun.


Deviance can be a way of expressing our individuality and develop an identity and while it is going against social norms it is also better defining them.  It shows both sides of a culture or society's norms and in fact can bring people together.  I know this sounds bad, bringing people together through deviance but I am tired of always hearing about the negative associations with deviance and wish I would read more about positive functions of deviant people.


I think it is however important that we all be culturally component when it comes to what is respectful and not respect in certain cultures and religions as we don't want to intentionally offend another person or group.  This is something we can learn from other people.  Sometimes what we mean in one place is something different in another so just watch out for that and not try to be deviant when it comes to another person's culture.  Other than that, just got with it!!  


Do things you haven't done before and try not to get caught.  We only live once!

Beauty and the Beast

Killing us softly is about beauty and the images of women and how our lives are represented.  The most influential way to illustrate the image of women is to take a look at advertising and how we are constantly immersed "foundation of the mass media".  It sells values, romance, success, of normalcy.  This was the quote that really stood out to me while listening to the clip.  Killing us softly explains about how advertising surrounds us with ideal beauty, what is female beauty and what it takes to succeed in this ideal.  Cultural climate illustrates how women are becoming things, seen as objects rather than actual human beings.  Within this process, violence starts to become an increasing issue because of this type of objectification.  The extent that advertising will go to to sell a product further objectifies women by dismembering the woman's body in order to sell products, most focus is on the breasts and a woman's butt.  Obsession with weight loss and being thin and beautiful becomes an endless issue in advertising and what is acceptable to be in advertising.  Visual images speak louder than anything that is said.  All of the ads illustrates active men and passive women.  On going issue especially from young age and what we are teaching our children to live up to.  What is the line we draw between eroticism and asking for violence?

A call to men is about the collective socialization of men.  "man box" this is the highlights of being a man and some things that are twisted that aren't right about being part of manhood.  These are all the things that we have to hold up as being part of a man, expectations and requirements of sorts.  He speaks through his own experiences and things he sees around him about the characteristics of building up themselves to become men and how it is appropriate to act. Being extremely rough on boys to "grow up" and "don't act like a boy, be a man" can lead to men learning to disrespect women, but not realize that is what they are doing.  "disrespect, mistreatment and abuse of women and each other."  Within the society, men have this constant competition of who is better, achieves the characteristics outlines in the "man box" better than anyone else.  Men are just as involved in violence in the problems and well as the solutions. It is okay to be equal with women, work together to help one another not make it all a competition.  Tony Porter talks about the way to truly be a man and the best man you can be, most well rounded and respected is to break free of the "man box."

Both of these video clips talk about socialization in the ways of what is expected of each gender in society and how we express ourselves.  Illustration of masculinity and femininity through words, images and personal experiences.  The speakers in both videos told their audiences about what is expected as a man and as a women in society and what happens when we go against those expectation. A common issue in both videos was the link to the relationships between men and women and between  men and men and women and women and how it all relates back to issues with violence.  Domestic, physical, sexual abuse and the messages that we send between the sexes in advertising and actions.

This is the photograph that I chose to represent how girls and boys are socialized in everyday society.

Society

Society is all about relating to one another through norms and values and expectations.  It is interesting to see how society and culture relate to one another and how culture and sub-culture are part of the definition of society based on the idea that it is made up of individuals that are part of the same culture or sub-culture  based on their norms and values and bring people stronger in a given society.

One of the most important parts of being part of a society is about the relationships that we form with one another on an individual level and as groups.  We come to together not just on similarities but through our differences.  We also build up in society through technology and communication in our economies and how advanced we have become over time.

Communication in our society is made up of both verbal and non-verbal and in my mind, non-verbal communication is more important in ways then verbal communication is.  Obviously what we say matters, but our body movements, the gestures we make and the facial expressions that we have say more than we might initially think. "actions speak louder than words."

Sub-Culture vs Culture

I have learned a small amount of information over the years about culture and what it means to be part of a culture but it wasn't until our class discussions and review of chapter 2  that I began to understand there is more to culture than just the simple definition.
 It was very insightful to learn about sub-culture and counter-culture and with the understanding of these two topics I am able to understand what it means to be part of a culture and the different components.  After reading "Teenage Wasteland" and the in class quick write, I was better able to make the connections of understanding what it is like to be in a sub-culture and how it differs from the dominant society.  "Teenage Wasteland"showed us all how the teenagers that together committed suicide stood out from the rest of society in how they expressed their own culture of with music and clothing inside their larger culture.  This also illustrated a sub culture because it illustrated a different way of approaching suicide rather than the individual taking their own life like we hear about everyday.