Social Stratification

Social Stratification: a system in which people are divided into layers according to their relative power, property, and prestige.

Whether or not we choose to believe it, we are born into a social status.  Children of the wealthy are automatically considered a level above the rest, while children of the poor are looked down upon and often deemed uneducated.  Luckily in the United States, we are not confined to our social classes forever; however, it is very hard to move up in social class if you have been born into a lower class because you have been influenced by those around you.  Just today I was reading a magazine where I saw Willow Smith (daughter of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith) in a photograph with a caption that read "watch for Willow's new debut album coming out this summer." However talented she may be, she had many more opportunities to become a singer because of her parents' connections.  It would be much harder from an everyday person to become a famous singer because they do not have the same opportunities as those who have close connections to a recording company.

Willow, only 11 years old at the time of the recording of this song, has over 50 million views on YouTube.  I do not think that if she had tried to get a recording contract on her own that she would have been successful at such a young age.  Because of her name she was able to gain popularity...she already had social status.

Not everyone is so lucky though.  While watching the 20/20 video in class about the people of Appalachia, it was evident that because of the environment that the people were born into, the opportunities they had to succeed were far lower than in other parts of the world.  The documentary focused on the children of unsuccessful people in Appalachia and the effects of their environment on their lives.  Take Sean Grim, for example.  He was a high school football star born into poverty and a deranged family situation.  His step-dad is an alcoholic, and his brother-in-law molested his sister.  Sean took matters into his own hands and left the family home and lived in a truck to start a new life for himself.  He got a football scholarship to a small, private school, and seemed to be heading in the right direction.  However, he realized that he still could not afford to be at the university and dropped out after feeling uncomfortable with never being able to go out with friends.  He went back home to Appalachia where he resumed life as he knew it before he was motivated to go out on his own and make a new life for himself.  This proves the point that it is very difficult to get into a higher social class than what you are born into.  Bill O'Reilly on his show, "O'Reily Factor", argued that people should just move out of the area if they knew the implications it had on their children.  While he has a good point, it is very hard to get the funds needed to move out when you have grown up in an impoverished area.  He argued with Dianne Sawyer about her 20/20 documentary, but Sawyer never seemed to give up.  She defended the children saying that this new generation wants change, but they just need the help from the rest of the world to get the same opportunities for education and success to dig themselves and their families out of the rut they are currently in.

Karl Marx, who was the subject of the Honors Article we read for this week, concluded that "an individual's social class was determined by whether or not he owned the means of production."  Marx referred to this group of people as the "Proletariats".  Marxism, according to the article, is "a theory of how well-heeld capitalist nations might use their immense resources to achieve justice and prosperity for their people."  This is very similar to communism, which aims to diminish social class and have common ownership of the means of production.  If Marx's beliefs were applied to the United States, more resources and money would be flowing into Appalachia to give them the same opportunities and resources that other parts of the world already have.  The article that we read defended Marx's position on the distribution of resources, but also acknoledged that there were flaws with his work.  However, it identified that the Capitalist society in which we live today, as predicted by Marx, has intensified the inequalities in society.

"Make Me A Sandwich"



"A woman is often measured by the things she cannot control..."  Immediately every woman who ever reads this ad is intrigued because they can relate to the statement.  The honors article that we read spoke of the Nike ad featuring a "natural" Marilyn Monroe.  Pictured above is the advertisement that was produced in 1992.  The ad encourages people to measure people from the inside and not from the outside.  Too often do we judge people based on their looks instead of on their character; we can't always get past the outward appearance and never truly get to know the person.  If people started to accept the fact that women's bodies are all different from one another, then the concept of beauty would change.  The article says that "one way of being beautiful will be, for all times and all places, more healthy, more natural and less harmful than all others."

So what exactly is beauty?  Is it your physical appearance or your inside appearance, or a combination of both?  I think that beauty can be defined in many different ways.  The Dove Onslaught video below gives us a good idea of what society has defined beauty to be...

It's incredible how much society can influece children from a young age in their view of beauty.  Young girls like the girl in the Dove commercial should not have to worry about measuring up to society's standards.  That adds so much unneeded pressure to a young girl's life and can lead to her destruction.  So this topic of beauty...what do you think it means?  I think beauty is being confident in yourself and with who you are and how you appear.  I think beauty is natural, and not cosmetic.  The article says that "women should feel their natural selves are beautiful enough."  The only reason that plastic surgery became so popular was because people thought that they had to look a certain way to be accepted in society.  It's interesting to me to think about beauty from different perspectives.  What makes certain people think that some things like being super skinny is attractive, while other people think that having a full-figured body is more attractive.

Recently there has been a growing amount of Feminists in this country.  This is because of the image of male dominance in society and the perception that men are better than women.  These ideals are again taught to young children through the media, and surprisingly enough through the Disney movies that we watched as kids.  I found the following clip to be a good representation of the male dominance shown through the movies...

One scene from the video that I clearly remember is the song from Mulan where one of the men says that choosing a women depends on her cooking skills.  This perception that women are house keepers goes back to the gender role created centuries ago.  The joke today that many men find hilarious is "make me a sandwich", as if that's what they view women good for.  Even my 13 year old brother thinks that because I'm a girl that I enjoy making food for other people!  He asks me all the time to make him a snack, and I return his request by giving him a recipe to follow.  I don't want to prolong the stereotype! 

I refuse to accept the fact that gender roles cannot be reversed.  For example, many dads are becoming stay at home dads while their wives are working to support the family.  I find it extraordinary how some men feel so superior to women when they might not be as intelligent or as hard-working as some women are.  This bothers me a lot in high school because some of the boys in my senior class think that they are so much better than me just because they are male when in reality I have a higher GPA, ACT, and social status than they might.  I know it sounds a little stuck up, but I think that girls eventually start to justify things like this to make themselves feel better about being discriminated against.  I know I find comfort in rationalizing the situation!  I believe that women are just as capable as men in being successful in the world.  It's no wonder why more women go to college nowadays than do men!  Hopefully some day the roles will even out and men and women will be able to embrace each others' differences and use them to their advantage to accomplish things succinctly!  But until that day comes I still won't be making any sandwiches for men...unless of course it would get me a date to prom (totally kidding!, I think if someone asked me to do this I would tell them to have a nice life!)

Socialization In All Shapes, Forms, and Sizes.

Women in Society:
-Mom
-Relationships
-Submissive
-Pretty
-Slim/Small
-Sensitive/Emotioal

*Any woman acting outside of these characteristics will be labeled a whore, a bitch, or a slut.

Men in Society:
-Powerful
-Sports
-Tough
-Strong
-Protective
-Aggressive
-Big
-Dominant

*Any man acting outside of these characteristics will be labeled gay, homo, or wimpy.

During Sociology class on Thursday, we wrote down society's perceived characteristics of both women and men.  It was interesting to see how society has formed both genders as a result of telling them how they should act and what they should and should not like.  This starts from a young age, as we saw from the in-class activity that we did throughout Tuesday and Wednesday in the computer lab in which we completed activities that showed us society's skewed perception of the world and the people that make it up.  It was scary to think that the messages of being pretty and submissive to men are taught to girls at such a young age through Disney movies!  The media should be trying to make a positive impact on young girls to establish their self confidence from early on and not to tear them down and make them think that they are inferior to men and that this is the way society should be.

However, men don't get off the hook that easily either.  The princes in the Disney movies also teach them the views of society and their role in that society.  Most all of the princes teach boys that it is important to be rich and good looking in order to succeed in society.  It disgusted me to think that this is what children have been seeing for many years and that they have probably internalized what they have watched.

Boys and girls are taught different things from a young age because of their sex, or physiological make-up.  However, their gender takes on a whole different meaning.  Gender, as we explained in sociology class, is how we identify ourselves as learned from the society around us.  Most girls learn to act like society's perception of how a girl should act because they are expected to do so and are raised in this fashion.  Thus is so with the Fafafini, the third gender in Samoa.  Fafafini are men raised as girls by their family, but are acknowledged as their own gender.  In our society in the United States, most people would consider the relationship that the Fafafini have with other men to be homosexual.  However, the Fafafini are not considered gay because they have taken on the gender as a woman, and therefore like men.  I thought that it was interesting, and almost sad, that if there aren't enough women to do chores that a family will raise a boy as a Fafafini.  It seems like the boys are not given a choice and do not fully understand who they are until they are older.

Fafafini

We act the way that we do because of the influences of those around us on ourselves.  From the honors article that we read, "Durkheim observed that human beings experience society's influence as a force outside of themselves that constrains their behavior."  Muzafer Sherif took things a step further and identified that there is a "personal norm" present in every human being.  This means that "the individual comes to perceive the situation in line with the views of others, and is frequently unaware that he has been influenced."  I thought that this was interesting because if you think about it, there is no true-self since we are a compilation of all our past experiences and choices.  I thought that the video below was interesting because it presents some characteristics of the "typical" person on the earth, as aided by society. 

To again reference Cooley's "Looking Glass Self", people "imagine themselves as others must see them."  I know that girls in particular are so engrossed in their image and how other people perceive them that they will go to the extreme to make their bodies perfect.  During the internet activity that we did in class, we got to see before and after shots of women who had been photo-shopped for billboards or magazines.  One video that really made my jaw drop was the Dove Evolution commercial.  I think that it is so great that Dove is trying to make people aware that our view of beauty is distorted and that what we see on the billboards isn't always what is really there.  I have posted the video below for blog readers to watch.  I know that from personal experience, I have always tried to achieve the body type of the girls that I see on the cover of my magazines because that is what society has taught me is attractive.  I've started to notice how my environment truly does affect how I look because over time I have been evolving in terms of what I care about with my body.  For example, over time girls begin to wear more and more makeup because they constantly see that "this mascara will make your lashes look longer" or "this concealer will take away any blemishes that you have."  I've realized that even in the past year I have started to wear more makeup because it makes me look older and cleaner.  However, I am still comfortable going out in public in sweatpants and a sweatshirt without any makeup on during the weekends fortunately!