Norms and Values

Conflicting Values in America

We are discussing Norms and values in class this week. While it is possible to ennumerate a number of values that our culture shares (individuality, achievement, materialism, freedom, for example). We also learned that large societies have many members with conflicting views and ideas on how these values should be translated into policies.

We chose a topic that reflects conflicting values and learned a technique for deliberating controversial issues. We deliberated the question "should our democracy permit same sex couples to marry?" The following article appeared in Newsweek a few weeks ago:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/229957 . It is titled "The conservative Case for Gay Marriage" and it is about the current case that has come to the Supreme court to defeat Proposition 8, which is a ruling that California passed to make it illegal for gay couples to marry. Do you have a strong opinion? Was your opinion influenced by deliberation?

White Privileges

"I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group"
White privilege: Unpacking the Invisible knapsack by Peggy McIntosh

This article is now considered a ‘classic’ by anti-racist educators. It has been used in workshops and classes throughout the United States and Canada for many years. While people of color have described for years how whites benefit from unearned privileges, this is one of the first articles written by a white person on the topics.

Here is Peggy McIntosh discussing how she came to the understandings she writes about:

Tim Wise, another sociologist, applies this concept to the 2008 election in his article, "White privilege, white entitlement and the 2008 election." Here is an excerpt:

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

And here is Eddie Murphy doing a SNL skit based on this concept:

Are you a "Real Guy"? BVD Wants to Know

I copied the following post from the blog "Sociological Images"
by gwen, 19 hours ago at 12:43pm

Chelsea S. sent in a link to the BVD website and its BVD MANual campaign. BVD is a brand of men’s underwear. The site has several tabs that let you “study” men in various ways. In the Chemistry section we see what men are made up of (larger version here):

So guys are made up of, among other things, obnoxium, machisium, bragnausium, and larcenic.

If you go to the Sociology section you can take two quizzes. The first is about getting dressed (take the quiz here). If at the first step you answer that you are male you are taken to a second step that asks “model or guy?” If you answer model, you are directed to the female category. Once on the female track, you get to go through a series of questions playing on stereotypes of women and, apparently, men who don’t qualify as “guys”:

The second one is on being comfortable (quiz is here). In the second step you have to choose between “sensitive type” or “guy,” and if you choose “sensitive type,” you go to the female section:

In both cases, at the end of the female path, the last question is “Wouldn’t you rather just be a guy?”

It’s a great example of the association of “real” manliness with obnoxious characteristics, while men who don’t meet the requirements for being real men are feminized. While real guys are stereotyped (they’re self-centered, obnoxious, and braggy), those characteristics are still preferable to being a “sensitive” guy with “feelings” and “needs.” And of course, it also denigrates women when being associated with femininity is a way of ridiculing men.

Violating social norms

New Views on Cohabitation before marriage

As we begin to explore the subject of sociology, We have been looking at how sociology is more than just 'common sense', or a social science that simply validates what 'everyone already knows'. I asked you about whether living together before marriage increases a couple's chances of avoiding divorce. The 'common sense' answer is, "Yes. If a couple learns about what it's like to live together before they get married they will have less unexpected, unpleasant surprises;" or, "Yes. A couple can find out a lot more about each other when they live together first, and then decide if they want to get married." I then explained to you that sociological research did not support this conclusion. Studies found that there was actually a negative correlation between cohabitation before marriage and staying married; That is, people who lived together before marriage actually had a higher incidence of divorce. The hypothesis was that those who live together before marriage have a weaker sense of commitment than those who wait until they are married to live together.

Turn out that new research finding have recently been published that suggest that this question is far from resolved. Read the story here:

Contexts Crawler » new views on cohabitation

So, other than, "Don't believe everything your soc teacher tells you", what else can we learn from these new research findings? What social factors are at work that influence the lives of young couples? How do sociologists help us to understand the important events and decisions of our lives? How is this an example of using our 'sociological imaginations'?

Implicit racism

How racist do you think you are? Racism can often be hidden in our unconsciousness. Even though we try very hard not to be racist, we are socialized in to think of white as good and black as bad. Harvard University has been conducting a fascinating study of how we very subtly (implicitly) associate certain traits with being good or bad. Take the 'Implicit Associations Test' on race. Your results may surprise you.