SumBlog 12

   Anthony Gidden's approach on radicalized modernity really had me thinking about our society today.  Things have been changing in society and some people have been adapting to change while some are still stuck in their old ways.  The Pleasantville video really put it into perspective, and is one of my favorite movies.  In Pleasantville everyone sees things as black and white and everyone has their routine that they do not stray from until two people start to modernize it.  Then things start going from black and white to color and a whole new and exciting world is seen.  I feel that this is what radicalized modernity is really about, something exciting, new, changing the economy and the world around us each generation.  We see it in our architecture, art, and even gender roles.

  The building on the left is from the early 1900's while the building on the right is a 21st century building.  Notice the difference, the change, it's more open, more light, with a design that makes it interesting, and noticeable.

SumBlog 11

Dorothy Smith talks about the Standpoint Approach/Theory.  How we become a part of the group, but we are not being completely objective.  We are able to see things happen from with-in with a feeling of connection and relation, even with a stranger.  Our experience is hands on while our perspective is just looking.  When we were talking about this in class I could not help but think of how children help and become friends with other children that have a mental disability.  I had a mentally disabled friend when I was in elementary school and now that I work in an elementary school, I see many other children helping and caring for their friend(s) with a mental disability.

At a young age children can see when another child is having problems, or needs help and they will go help them.  In my case I was friends with a girl who is autistic, I would become her "buddy" in gym class soon I somewhat became a part of their group.  I was allowed to come into the classroom when they were doing activities and I could help out. I was able to interact and see what life was like in their eyes.  I was an experience I wouldn't trade for the world.

SumBlog 10

Symbols, we see them everywhere with multiple meanings to very culture.  According to Clifford Geertz, symbols help define a culture, they help express something, someone, or a group.  There can be many different symbols, but Geertz divides them into two categories, physical like the American Flag, or a wedding band, and non-physical like a smile, a head-nod,  or a hand shake.

In our modern christian culture we use wedding rings to show that we are committed to one person and that one person is the one we will life the rest of our life with.  In the Amish culture they do not wear wedding bands, or any jewelry that will draw attention, so they grow their beards instead.  When a man has no beard, that means they are single, but when a man does have a beard that means they are married.  To most religions we would find this a little different, but for the Amish it's the way things have been and things have always been.  

SumBlog 9

Erving Goffman and the Presentation of Self caught my interest.  That we as people put on a show or go out on stage when we are in front of others or in general society.  Our status is our social position in life, who we are to others (ie. sister, student, teacher) but our role is more so the expected behaviors of this status.  With these two terms we create a self label which gives us a front stage (in public) and a back stage (in private).
In our society we view women as care givers, and wives, but society has been changing and many mothers have been seen in the work force having a career, and a family.  Women are striving to become equal and accepted in society.  But many still think that they only role for a women is to stay at home and take care of the children, that their status is Mom.

To me this picture can prove that women are strong professional people who can handle not only a full time job but also handle a house hold.  That women can take on many status's and roles and prove wrong to those who doubt them.

SumBlog 8

   George Herbert Mead talks about the generalized other and the self.  The generalized other is how we as society worry about what others think of us and wonder, are we separate or not.  The self is classified into two parts, the I and the Me.  The I is the person you need to be in relation to those around you.  This is your own identity.  The Me are attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors after the I has been filtered, how we have been raised, how we would approach situations.
   We did an activity in class dealing with Facebook and if it takes on more of the I or the Me.  I am personally in between on this issue.  Most people still choose to have that filter when updating a status or posting pictures, which would take on the Me.  But I have also seen people who post status's they should probably have kept to themselves and provocative pictures that should not be posted in my opinion.  This would take on more of the I, where people just do not seem to care what others think of what they have to say or do and there is no filter.
    We also watched the movie Liar Liar in class, with the part where Jim Carey is telling the truth about how he feels about everyone, including his boss, and they are laughing and thinking he's just being funny.  They did not understand that he was being serious because he was being so up front and forward about the way he felt.

I feel that we think too much about what people will think of us, that our society thrives on the opinions of others and that makes it hard for us to be ourselves.  Instead we so many images we have to up hold with so many different people, we don't know who we are anymore.

SumBlog 7

   Anna Julia Cooper looked at the sociology of race.  In her time era this was something very interesting for an African American woman to be studying.  She talked about the struggles of race, sex, and especially power.  Power was the problem, "who has it" and "how is it being used" was the main issue, white men had the power at this time and they were using it to their advantage.  But it wasn't the white men's fault, it was society in general according to her.  That they were born and raised to act the way they do and it just became their nature.
   We learned about 4 different ways people has dealt with minority groups and diversity.  The first one is pluralism, that all groups can still be themselves but still be considered equal.  Like a stew, the potato, carrots, and meat are all important to make one dish come together but they are still separate when you pull them out, they will not just "melt" together.  Next there is assimilation, where majority groups just assume that minority groups will take on their culture and forget about their own culture and roots.  Segregation is the third, which our country has seen a lot of and it still can be seen to this day in America.  Genocide is the last one, this is were an entire group, or race is completely taken out.  Hitler tried to accomplish this with the Jewish people, although he did kill millions there is still the Jewish culture to this day.
 

We have the ability to accept people for who they are and what their culture is like but to me it seems like society was born and brought up to assimilated and segregate.  As part of the white race, and born and raised in America I've heard throughout my years that other races in America need to learn English and learn our culture.  But what is our culture? Our culture is made from all of our European ancestors. America does not have one specific culture, there are things we do that are similar but nothing exactly the same.

SumBlog 6

   Charlotte Perkins Gilman talks about relationships in the household, but most importantly her own experiences in her writing "The Yellow Wall Paper".  She talks about the organization of society and how you can link economy with the sex of person, and that the man is the employer in a marriage while the woman is the employee like a business.  Or there could be a partnership in marriage but at the time of her writing, that was very rare.
   She compared a woman's life to the life of a horse, they both help produce more wealth, but have no means to create money for themselves.  That the man will always be the main component in a marriage, the center of a marriage.  How we live in a man's perspective society, an androcentric culture.
   I believe this is still on going, this androcentric culture.  Sure women have more rights than they use to but it's still the American way to have the woman at home with the children, cooking and cleaning, and the man becoming the provider.  With society changing and evolving politically women have been in the work force more and more but are still and few cents under paid than men.  I think it will be interesting to see what the future will hold for women.  Will there be equality?  Will men accept women having a higher status than them?  And will society expect a single mother working on her income alone to provide for her children?

SumBlog 5

   Harriet Martineau is a very inspiring female.  She is the first one that we have talked about in this class and is the first one that I have talked about in any of my sociology classes.  It amazes me how even with her personal difficulties and writing during Karl Marx's time, she was able to make herself heard and had very well-know writings.  I personally liked her thoughts on human happiness and how it can cause a fairness in society.  
   She also talked about our morals, how they are shared norms and values, and manners, patterns of actions based on our norms, and how society has been loosing these two objectives over time.  This can come from how men treat women, how one race treats a different race, or how one culture can treat another culture.

To me, this picture describes it all.  No matter what you look like or who you are, one should be treated equally and with respect.  Martineau was writing at a time when she was looked down upon by men and had to prove her way into the sociology world, and she did just that.

SumBlog 3

     Emile Durkheim was studied patterns in society, and one of his interests to research in these patterns was suicide.  Durkheim viewed suicide as social decision rather than a personal decision, which I thought was very interesting.  Integration and regulation were the two main factors he believed caused most suicides.  Integration deals with interaction in society while regulation deals with the rules in society.  Although the chart below makes it look like one can only be on one side or another, I believe there is a happy medium in the right in the middle that one can achieve.
                                           
     There are then four different types of suicide Durkheim categorizes society in: fatalistic, anomic, altruistic, and egoistic suicides.  Each type plays a special way of helping society see where they are in life and can help them find an equal balance between too much or too little regulation and too much or too little integration.

     "No living being can be happy or even exist unless his needs are sufficiently proportioned to his means (Lemert 63)".  I like this quote from Durkheim because it's true, no one will be happy with themselves until they have their life the way they want it.  In some ways people view this as a challenge to try and make their life the best it can be, but others will give up and give into society thinking their life is useless and so are they.  This is when society needs to help others in their time of need when they are feeling over ruled by the interaction and rules in society.