Social Classes

This week in sociology, we watched a video about social class. There's a low, middle, and high class. We got to see how different people were judged for the way they lived. Those that ate in nice restaurants, dressed in high quality clothing, and drove expensive cars were the wealthier civilians. Then, those who lived in average sized houses, had a decent amount of money, and were able to afford a few nice things were considered middle class. As for the lower class, they were frowned upon. They were the type of people who didn't work, or were simply too lazy to achieve success. In the movie, someone had gone around to different groups of people along the street and asked what they thought of the person in the picture they were given. It's odd, that we live in a place that's considered a 'free' nation because everything you do defines the person you are. People judge you by the food you eat and the clothes on your back. The more simple things in life shouldn't have to define who you are and where you come from, because in the end it proves that not everyone is equal.

Bad decisions, good intentions.

This week in sociology, we did an activity regarding drugs. We were given a list of different descriptions of effects that could potentially harm an individual. We were then assigned to rate the drugs from 1-4. 1 being over the counter drugs and 4 that was considered a felony. As we marked up the results as a class, it was clear that even the most common things in our society such as: aspirin, caffeine, and nicotine are considered deadly to our body. Many people in our class however, predicted that Heroine was a prescription drug when it's illegal to have. It's sickening to see the side effects of many common drugs that are commonly distributed within our community. Many of the over the counter drugs have terrible side effects that could kill one who abuses the substance. Americans have the freedom to do as they please and although the rate for smoking cigarettes have gone down by a big percentage, it's still promoted in commercials, magazines, newspapers and all types of ads. So why would American promote the one thing that could kill you over time?

Your breaking family traditions!

This week in sociology, we learned about the word Deviance. Deviance applies to someone who is breaking the social norms of society. Some of the examples we learned in class were, getting a tattoo, two men kissing, someone talking to themselves in public, and balancing things on your head. What makes this so unusual that when someone does one of the four, they're considered breaking the norm? We watched an episode of Seinfeld and when one of the characters was scratching his nose, the girl he was recently seeing had caught him in a act of picking his nose. She then, avoided him and didn't plan on seeing him again. This is a perfect example of deviance. Because it's not socially acceptable to pick your nose, she had put him under the category as unacceptable. One time, my brother had come home and oddly went straight to his room. It was in the summer and seeing someone with a sweatshirt on wasn't too strange but when it's 90 degrees it's pretty shady. When my mom and I went into his room to go say hi, he had his music blasting which hadn't made it clear that we were in the room. As he was taking his sweatshirt off, my mom and I had our jaws dropped. There he was, standing in front of us with a huge tattoo across his back. Although it had meaning to it, it was shocking to the both of us because we weren't expecting it. Nowadays, tattoos are considered common and many individuals get them for purposeful meaning or for enjoyment. But in our family, tattoos weren't something so common. As soon as we saw my brother's tattoo, my mom had realized that this was unacceptable and far from it. As years went by, she had to get over it even though she knew he was breaking the family norm. It was that she just had to come to terms of being tolerant of him and his decisions.

Are you thin enough?

Believe it or not, but our society today has portrayed females as beautiful or something close to perfection. What defines a girl to be pretty or skinny? Where's the limit on all of this? Our media has took regular looking models and have edited their photos to make them look anything but perfect. Half the models you see on billboards, commercials, and magazines don't exist. And because the media has such a big influence on teens, many girls that grow up seeing these campaigns believe that they have to copy these nonexistent models. As little as 4th grade boys have learned what the word 'pretty' means. Girls not only have to have great personalities but their appearance means more than how they act. This leads many females thinking their not good enough because of how our media has constructed our society. On top of it all, girls now are obsessed with their weight. Many disorders have formed because of the cravings to be thin. It doesn't help that our media advertises all types of different pills and diets for all overweight individuals or even those that are at a normal weight. It makes women/girls doubt their appearance and even more targets those who aren't confidence in their own skin. I don't agree with our media because it has an increasing affect on us and we may not even be aware of it. Girls shouldn't be judged by the way they look, because in the end it's not fair in any way, shape, or form.