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! 

Refresh, Refresh, Refresh-The "Looking-Glass Self"

Facebook has become the predominant social networking site for teenagers and young adults.  How many times have you sat in front of your computer clicking "refresh" waiting for a comment or someone to like your status?  We live in a society where instant gratification is everything.  It's amazing how a text from the guy we like or a complimenting comment on one of our pictures can make our day in one split second.  I can't even imagine being in my parents' shoes and having to pick up the phone and actually call someone if I wanted to have a conversation!  And no, it wouldn't be through a cell phone; at that time it would have been through a phone with a cord most likely located in a family area such as the kitchen where everyone could hear your conversation!  Secretive is one of the best adjectives to describe adolescents.  With the use of technology, being secretive is easier than ever....

In class we watched a Frontline video on teenagers and the internet.  One girl featured on the episode was "Autumn Edows".  Jessica, known as "Autumn", created a new risque persona for herself to express her true self through the internet where she would not be judged, unlike how she was at school.  She constantly uploaded photos of herself to her website without the knowledge of her parents until her website was discovered by another parent of a student in her school and was brought to the attention of the school principal.  Her parents were shocked when they found out what she had been posting and initially thought that it was wrong.  However, eventually they came to the conclusion that they did not want to stifle Jessica's creativity and let her express herself through her site.  She wasn't a bad kid, she just found a way to be accepted and creative through the internet.

Like Jessica, many teenagers see themselves through the reactions of others.  This is known as the "Looking-Glass Self" as formulated by Charles Horton Cooley.  "Cooley used the familiar figure of a person looking at his or her refelction in a mirror as a metaphor for understanding the development of the social self." ("From Mirror Self-Recognition to the Looking-Glass Self: Exploring the Justification Hypothesis", Leigh S. Shaffer).  A well discussed topic in class, the question was brought up if a "true-self" actually existed if we are only seeing ourselves to others and conforming to what we think they see in us.  Personally, I believe that a "self" is a compilation of past experiences and choices that we have made on our own that defines who we are.  Although people may have similar characteristics, we are all our own "self" if we so choose to be.  I think that when one makes a decision for himself or herself, that is exercising his or her "self".  However it can't be overlooked that we are influenced by what is around us.  We are constantly seeking to justify our behaviors and reactions, and the ToK (Tree of Knowledge) system, formulated by Henriques, defines this.  According to the article "From Mirorr...", "...'self' has evolved because human beings are the only animals that have had to justify their behavior to others."  If you think about it, everything that we do seems to have to be justified.  Just yesterday I told my parents that I was pretty set on attending the University of Illinois, and went on to explain the reasons why.  My mom stopped me mid-way and told me that I really didn't need to justify my reasons for attending the university because they hadn't even asked the question!  It made it so obvious how often we try to justify our actions when it isn't always necessary.

I would like to spend just a little bit of time discussing the title of the honors article that I read as a reference for writing this blog entry...The title, "From Mirror Self-Recognition to the Looking-Glass Self: Exploring the Justification Hypothesis", contains a pun.  Can you find it?  "Mirror" is the word I was looking for.  The word "mere" would be grammatically correct in this sentence, but "mirror" is so perfectly placed because of the connection to the "looking-glass self".  "Mere self-recognition" would represent just being able to recognize yourself, while "mirror self-recognition" is a whole different animal.  It refers to how we see ourself.  It may not be physically, but could be referring to how we see and define ourself as an individual.  I just thought the title was witty!

"Mirror self-recognition", unfortunately, can be detrimental to a teenager.  On the Frontline episode that we watched in class, a father was featured talking about his son who had been bullied in middle school so severely online that he ended up committing suicide at the age of thirteen.  This really hit me hard because my brother and sister are both thirteen and they are living in this generation where the media and social networking is everything.  They're constantly wired in to everything around them including XBox live games, Facebook, and texting.  There is so much that goes on with technology that it is impossible to know what people are talking about.  I'm worried that they wouldn't know how to handle online bullying and would take it too personally.  Unfortunately, from personal experience, I know a thing or two about cyber bulllying.  When I was in eighth grade, I made the local travel soccer team.  As extatic as I was about it, my future teammates just used it as an advantage to torture and taunt the "newbie".  I remember signing on to my AOL instant messanger account during the summer break and an instant message came up from a contact I didn't have in my buddy list.  I still remember the screenname, but out of respect for the individuals involved, I won't post it over the internet (see I'm not abusing my rights to the internet!).  It started with a friendly "hey how are you?" but transpired into something much worse.  The girls started mocking me and jokingly saying how good I was at soccer, but I knew it was all a big joke because of the way they were saying things.  It would be sarcastic like, "You are SOoOo good at soccer!  Way to make 1 goal in try-outs."  These rude, snide remarks made me miserable and any chance that I had to skip practice I would, not because I didn't love soccer, but because of how rude the girls on the team were to me.  It wasn't an environment conducive to learning and getting better at my soccer skills, but I was afraid of telling my parents anything because I didn't want to get the girls' parents involved and them treating me even worse than before.  I began to think that the image that the girls had of me was actually who I was, just like the Looking-Glass Self.  Luckily I was able to put it all beside me and move on, but I can see how easily it can be to get caught up in what others are saying about you.  I ended up quitting soccer (I loved the sport, but couldn't take the harrassment anymore) and joined the track team, where I am quite happy and accepted by all of my teammates.  It's amazing how a team of over 100 girls can get along so well, but my soccer team of about 18 players couldn't accept one person.  Now looking back, I realize that at least I found my niche and my passion, even if it had to come out of something unfortunate!  Tomorrow I'll probably share my story with my brother and sister and make sure that everything is going alright in their "cyber-world".  Communication is key, even if it has been disfigured with the use of social networking.  Oh, for the record, I didn't check Facebook once during writing this one hour blog post :)

Live, Breathe, Speak American

Throughout the United States, many different dialects of English are spoken.  Although we as Americans all live in the same country and speak English, it is sometimes difficult to understand others because of their accent.  For example, a southern accent is much different from a midwestern accent.  Accents also affect how intelligent we perceive other people to be.  This clip from "Do You Speak American?" helps to discern the difference between correct and incorrect English as we perceive it to be...

As stated in the video, people perceive Southern accents to be a sign of unintelligence.  However, if we look at the presidents of the United States, being from the South did not affect their intelligence but rather helped candidates such as Bill Clinton and George Bush to win the presidency because the public could equate themselves with the presidents.  Southern accents seem more welcoming and like the common-man speak, which appeals to people in that they feel the president is no different than themselves.  


In "Do You Speak American", we learned the difference between Chicano English and Spanglish.  Chicano English is English with some Spanish slang used.  Often, people who speak Chicano English do not even speak fluent Spanish, but they have grown up hearing common expressions in Spanish being used and have incorporated the words into their vocabulary.  Spanglish on the other hand is a combination of Spanish and English.  Many native Spanish speakers once they learn English do not notice that they are switching between the languages when speaking because it seems so natural.  I thought that it was very interesting that there are so many different dialects of English in one country!  Below I describe some common expressions used in different dialects or definitions of the dialect...


1. Valley Girl Speak: Exemplified in the movie Clueless.  Includes phrases: "like", "oh my gosh", "and I was all..."

2. Chicano English: English with Spanish slang.

3. Spanglish: English and Spanish spoken together.

4. New York Accent: Changes the "OR" sound to a "OW" sound

From personal experience, I know how hard it can be to understand people with accents different  from my Midwestern accent.  For example, my grandma and her family were from Georgia.  When I was younger, it was very hard for me to understand what they were saying because they pronounced words in many different ways than did I.  When I stayed overnight with some of the family in Georgia during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, I was only three years old.  My parents were attending a basketball game, and I was left with my relatives since buying a ticket for a three year old was not economical.  Even today I can remember having a hard time understanding what these people were saying to me, and it's crazy to think that we only live about 2 hours away from each other via plane!

While some dialects may seem like a totally different language all together, different languages seem millions of miles away.  Guy Deutscher in his article, "Does Your Language Shape How You Think?" describes that the English language is much more private than other languages because other languages use pronouns to describe the femininity or masculinity of a word.  For example, if someone was telling someone else about their night spent with their neighbor, they would use "el" or "la" vecino/a, and instantly the other person would know what the gender of the neighbor was.  In Chinese, there is only one verb tense for past, present, or future actions, but, "...this does not mean that the Chinese are unable to understand the concept of time."

I found it interesting that in the article it stated, "...grammatical genders can shape the feelings and associations of speakers toward object around them."  Some words in Spanish were feminine while the same words in German were masculine.  This determined how people perceived the words to be gender wise.  An example cited is the word "bridge".  In Spanish, bridge is masculine, but in German, it is feminine.  People therefore assigned different gender roles to the word based on what their language described it as.

Bridge=El Puente=die Bruke

Finally, I found the Australian tongue, "Guugu Yimithirr" to be very interesting.  Instead of describing this as behind us, or to the right of us, they use Cardinal directions.  For example, if I were to say that the desk was behind me, in GY I would say that the desk was south of me, assuming the south was behind me.  I read that we are egocentric even with languages.  "If you saw a Guugu Yimithirr speaker pointing at himself, you would naturally assume he meant to draw attention to himself.  In fact, he is pointing at a cardinal direction that happens to be behind his back."  I found this to be interesting because often we use the pointing hand gesture to point at ourselves when we are talking about ourselves, but this dialect uses it to express direction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guugu_Yimithirr_language 

Overall, we live, breathe, and speak American.  We have determined our "rights and wrongs" of English and continue to express ourselves through the language that we have been raised in.

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Finally, as a side note, this week in Sociology we had the opportunity to go to a presentation for a group called Purse of Hope who is working to save girls in Uganda from sex trafficking.  The numbers were astonishing...80% of people taken for human trafficking are girls who are sold into sex trafficking to make money for brothel owners.  The other 20% are boys who are forced into the military.  We have life so good over here as a society, and we really need to come together to help the society of Uganda to save the lives of innocent boys and girls.  Fortunately, our high school has been able to save a young girl named Prossy from Uganda and bring her into the Purse of Hope home so that she can get off the streets and not have to be sexually assaulted anymore.  The girls in the home learn vocations to raise money for their families (some of the girls become pregnant through sex trafficking), and also money to support themselves so that eventually they can live on their own and operate their own businesses.  The girls made bracelets and necklaces that are being sold at my high school, and I learned that one necklace can save a girl from 140 acts of sexual assault.  140!  These poor girls have a skewed image of their society because all they have seen is the men in the brothels who take advantage of and sometimes hurt them.  I feel so blessed to be living where I am today.  None of my problems seem as grandiose as the ones that these girls go through on a daily basis.  I hope to be able to help those girls in need by the resources that I am fortunate enough to have!  No one should be forced into sex labor.  The video below really touched me and made me want to become a part of the Purse of Hope organization so that I too can help these girls get out of horrendous situations and eventually become strong, independent women.

Pass the Leafy Greens Please...You Are What You Eat.

I remember the first time that I stepped foot in my best friend's house.  The smell coming from the kitchen was overwhelming.  I had never smelled anything more disgusting in my life!  No matter where I went in the house I could not escape the smell.  My friend was Indian, and her mother was always making traditional Indian cuisine when I would be over at her house to hang out.  I remember seeing the yellow curry for the first time on a plate and being asked if I wanted to try any.  Of course, being twelve years old, I said no.  I didn't even give the food a chance because of my ethocentricity.  I was judging my friend's food as inferior to my own food because "ours is right and superior and smells good and theirs is wrong and inferior and smells bad..." (You Are What You Eat, Rappoport).  However, as I grew older, I began to try new foods, and eventually found that curry sauce was absolutely delicious!  I remember the first time my mom bought a bottle, I used the sauce on everything...it took me awhile to get out of that ethnocentric mind set when it came to food, but once I had left it behind, all the different flavors became part of my pallet that I enjoyed eating!


It's ironic for me to think that five years ago I never considered eating like my friend, but today I eat almost identically to her.  I am a vegetarian, just as she is, and through that I have discovered so many new foods that I never would have tried before.  For example, tofu is one of my favorite snacks!  Most people look at tofu (pictured below) and remark at how disgusting it looks, and I don't blame them, but people need to give foods a try before they judge.  

Foods most definitely reflect who we are.  I had never really thought of food defining who I was, but if I look at what I eat in a typical day, it is all drawn back to who I am and who I was raised as.  For example, I eat a very healthy cuisine consisting of vegetables, fruits, protein, etc.  I did not take eating into my own hands until I began to be a serious runner.  The article I read, "You Are What You Eat", said that, "Adolescents in athletic programs may begin to follow the dietary recommendations of their coaches..."  I found this to be incredibly true because I always listened to my coach about what and what not to eat because I thought that it would help me with my running.  I have recognized that when I eat healthy foods, I am more likely to be happy throughout the day and feel good during a workout rather than when I eat junk food, I feel unhappy with myself and end up having a stomach ache later on in a run.  So what was the point of this?  Food reflects who we are.  My healthy eating habits are a reflection of my devotion to athletics.  Also, food can be a reflection of social status.  The article said that our food preferences reflect our social class.  For example, people who drink white wine are seen as people of high social status, while people who drink whiskey are seen as low social status individuals.


Food...who knew such a simple concept could grow into something so large!  Food is even associated with music!  Imagine walking into a Chinese restaurant and hearing Hispanic music.  It just wouldn't go together!  You would expect to hear something more calm and serene in a Chinese restaurant, and something upbeat in a Mexican restaurant.  This is known as a norm.  Norms are the expectations, or rules of behavior, that reflect and enforce values.  


Norms and values often go hand in hand.  What we value is what we use as a pedestal for what is good, and what is bad.  For example, in Sociology class, we saw the conflict of values occur in our deliberation over Euthanasia.  Our question was, "Should our democracy permit physicians to assist in a patient's suicide?"  I was one of three out of the entire class who thought that this should not be allowed in our country.  Although I am looking at it from a religious perspective, where we do not have the right to choose when to end our life, there are also other arguments that support my point.  For example, allowing this law to pass could result in moral detachment from death.  People would begin to see that if death is acceptable, that the law is bendable.  Also, under the Hippocratic Oath, which many medical schools teach to their students, doctors promise that they will not give deadly drugs to patients upon request.  Euthanasia completely breaks the oath, as it is assisted suicide.

Could you really let yourself be stuck with guilt of permitting your own loved one's death to occur?  How would you make the decision to pull the plug?  Could you do it for your own mother?  Your mother who loved and raised you for your entire life?  This unnecessary guilt is placed upon an individual who has to make the decision for someone who cannot make a conscious decision for themself about their own life.  Euthanasia could lead to the killing of innocent people, such as the Nazis did to the mentally disabled, homosexual, and gypsies for no fault of their own.

However, some might watch a video like the one below and wonder how euthanasia could not be allowed...

Yes, this recent story makes you think, but did you see the picture of the woman and her three children towards the end of the video?  Her children must have loved her, and would probably have not wanted to see her go.  Although the lady was unable to see, she was still able to move around and to express herself with her words.  In her case, euthanasia seemed selfish.  She was leaving behind her children, her loved ones, her family...

Everyday we are faced with questions of values and norms.  They could be on the scale of the social norm of food, or on the much larger, grandiose scale of Euthanasia.

American Cultures and Values (Blog Entry #4)

Privacy, equality, time, informality, looking to the future...all are major U.S. American values that the American society has developed over time.  What makes our definition of life so much different than other nations?  Or why are other nations so different from us?  By definition, "values" are socially shared ideas about what is right.  Robin Williams (1914-2006), a sociologist who studied and identified the core values of the citizens of the United States, came up with a concrete list of American values.  I'd like to take a bit of time to explain the meanings of some key American values, and to explain them in the context of other nations.

1. Privacy

Privacy can have many meanings, but for our discussion, I would just like it to take on two meanings.  First, privacy could be physically "private", separated, away from the outside world.  In the United States, we put up signs on hotel room doors, such as the one shown to the left, to keep people out.  We like to keep to ourselves, and to not always have to invite someone inside.  However, in Singapore, people live in such tightly compacted areas that there is no privacy, and people learn to live in close quarters with each other.

A second meaning that the word 'privacy' can take on is being secretive, keeping things to ourselves and not telling others what we are truly thinking about.  On a handout that the University of North Caorlina uses for its foreign exchange students, it explains that the question, ""What is on your mind?" may be considered by some to be intrusive."  As Americans, we are brought up in a society that believes in keeping to yourself and being very independent.

2. Time

  A second major value of the American culture is time.  We are constantly hurried, and rushed, needing things immediately and on the go.  For example, even our food is "fast".  We are a fast-paced society that keeps moving at all hours of the day.  The expression "time is money" is often used in the business world.  Peter, a "Lost Boy" who came over from Africa, observed that in the U.S., "Time is money.  But there in Africa, there is no 'time is money'."  Because of this thinking, people in Africa seem to be a lot more social because they are not concerned with just getting money as many Americans are.  They actually take time out of their day to talk to one another, unlike Americans who would not be willing to forfit their salaries for a conversation with a friend.  In the U.S., we are so concerned with being on time for places, and are often criticized if we are late.  There is no such thing as being late in the U.S.  If we are late for class, we are punished with unexcused absences or tardies.  If we are late for an interview, we most likely will not get the job.

3. Material Comfort

Americans are also very concerned with material items.  Madonna sang in her song "Material Girl", "You know that we are living in a material world and I am a material girl."  Americans often lose sight of what is important such as family, friends, religion, etc.  In our society, a person defined as rich has a lot of money.  However, while talking to a friend from England, rich is defined much differently in his country.  Rich actually entails having a lot of friends, etc.  When someone says, "he is rich", it could be interpreted as "he has many friends; he is rich in friends."  It seems sometimes that it is not about who you are, but about what you have.  While watching t.v. even for a half hour, we see dozens of commercials flash across the screen advertising products to make us look younger and healthier.  It isn't ever possible to be content with your body because a new product is out on the shelf every week pointing out that something else is wrong with our bodies.  Even from this week while reading my Seventeen magazine, I noticed that every other page had an advertisement for perfume or for makeup.  "Get longer lashes", "drop ten pounds in two weeks"...these are just two of the slogans I saw in a magazine for teenagers!!  At the teenage year we are so vulnerable, yet we are constantly being told through the media that we aren't perfect, that our bodies could look better to attract others.  We forget to be who we are and start becoming someone the advertisement agencies would use as a model for their product.

We have grown up learning social norms.  In each country, different social norms are prevalent, but people are judged nonetheless upon whether or not they follow the social norms of their respective countries.  In the Sudan, the "Lost Boys" spent many nights dancing with the other members of their community, as it was a ritual.  However, if they were to dance and sing here in the United States, they would stand out from the rest of us because that is not part of our culture.  Norms are "expectations about what behavior, thoughts, or feelings are appropriate within a group or culture."

In college, I would love to have the chance to study abroad in Spain.  However, it will be a huge cultural adjustment for me because I have become so accustomed to the American ideals and values that everything else seems foreign to me.  I empathize with the immigrants who come to America not understanding how different our culture is and having to adapt to the culture in order to fit in.