Adultescence

Just as the concept of 'adolescence' as a stage of life appears as a result of the industrialization of the 18th century, sociologists (and, indeed, the people at Webster's dictionary) have identified a new social phenomenon that has been labelled 'adultescence', among other things.  I'd like you to read the following articles and comment on your views of this stage of life.  Is it indeed something that is so pervasive in society that it will become as well recognized as the period of adolescence that we all know about and expect everyone to go through?  How is it a result of the structure of our society?  Is it appearing in other cultures besides ours?  Do you know anyone who is currently living this lifestyle?  Do  you expect to be an 'adultescent' when the time comes?

Adultescence

Achieving "adulthood" is more elusive; Transition to Adulthood occurring at a later age

Women should marry younger?

Socialization of Gender in Pixar films

http://contexts.org/socimages/2009/03/22/gender-in-pixar-films/

Violating Social Norms

Social Norms are the rules that a group uses to define appropriate attitudes and behaviors for a member of that group. We respect and adhere to social norms to make sure we are accepted, and even popular, among our fellow group members. Some social norms are formal laws, but many are simply agreed to by group members. We learn these norms from interacting with other member of our society; we come to know when and where it is appropriate to say certain things, to use certain words, to discuss certain topics or wear certain clothes (and when not to!). One of the sources of humor on "The Office" derive from the fact that Michael and Dwight are continually violating the implicit and explicit norms of behavior for their situation. If you are a fan of the show, can you think of other instances where the source of the humor is in the violation of social norms?

social construction of reality

There is no difference between spit and saliva except how we think about each. Our reality is how we experience the world. For example, we can experience this substance in many different ways. When a mom uses it to wipe a baby's face, it's perfectly acceptable to us. (How the baby experiences it is a different story!) A baseball player spits and we don't think anything of it. When two people kiss, the exchange of substance is accepted as normal. But you can think of any number of ways that this substance would be considered incredibly gross; If someone spits on your desk in class, for example, or your mom tries to use it to clean your face now that you are no longer a baby. Baby drool is ok. Adult drool is disgusting. The object or action has not changed, but our interpretation of it has. This is what we mean by the 'social construction of reality.

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'?

How would you respond if you heard a racist slur?

How would respond if you heard someone being racist? If you're one of the majority who openly condemn racism, then you probably think you'd be perturbed and that you'd reject or reprimand the racist in some way.However, a new study by psychologists in Canada has found that students were largely unmoved when they heard a racist slur, and most of them failed to reject the perpetrator.
Dozens of multi-ethnic (but not black) students at York University in Canada were fooled into thinking that a white participant (actually an actor) in their group had responded in a racist way after a black participant (another actor) accidentally knocked his knee. Specifically, the white student participant was heard to say either: "Typical, I hate it when black people do that" or: "“clumsy *igger". In a control condition, no comment was made.
Afterwards, a brief mood questionnaire embedded among other irrelevant measures, showed that the students who heard one of the racist remarks were no more upset than the participants who heard no comment. Moreover, when asked to choose either the black or white participant to be their partner in a subsequent task, the majority of them chose the white participant, despite what he'd said.
By contrast, dozens of other students from the same University, who were randomly selected to imagine, but not participate in, these events, predicted that they would be distressed at hearing the racist comments and most said that they would subsequently choose the black participant to be their partner, rather than the racist white person.
A possible explanation for the mismatch could be that it is our non-conscious attitudes that influence our behaviour in a real situation - perhaps we harbour some latent racist beliefs - whereas we rely more our more conscious and deliberate attitudes when it comes to predicting how we'll behave.
"...despite current egalitarian cultural norms and apparent good intentions," Kerry Kawakami and colleagues said, "one reason why racism and discrimination remain so prevalent in society may be that people do not respond to overt acts of racism in the way that they anticipate".
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Kerry Kawakami, Elizabeth Dunn, Francine Karmali, John F. Dovidio (2009). Mispredicting Affective and Behavioral Responses to Racism. Science, 323, 276-278

Honfest

The film brings up some interesting questions about Honfest, particularly what it means that one group of Baltimore residents dresses up and acts like a caricature of another part of the population–”hons,” or working-class women (so named for their supposed habit of calling everyone “Hon”).
From the Honfest website:
The Bawlmer term of endearment, Hon, short for Honey, embodies the warmth and affection bestowed upon our neighbors and visitors alike by historic working-women of Baltimore. HonFest is an annual celebration in honor of these women…
In answer to the question, “Is the hon a dying breed?,” Denise Whiting, creator of HonFest, exclaimed, “No! Absolutely not. Hon will live on forever in our hearts, and HonFest gives everyone an opportunity to celebrate and embrace their heritage.”
The festival includes a Miss Hon contest. Here is a photo of Miss Hon 2007:

The website’s description of hons:
…the women who vie to become Baltimore’s Best Hon are a vision of the sixties-era. They are women with beehive hairdos, bright-blue eye shadow, spandex pants and anything with leopard print!
But commentators in the documentary argue that some of the things being parodied–big hair, certain makeup and clothing styles–are still common, particularly in the working-class areas of Baltimore. From this perspective, it’s not just that people are mimicking or parodying the past; there’s also an element of class ridicule involved (since the style, taste, and speech associated with working-class women are being fetishized and parodied by other, often wealthier, women). This brings up a number of questions: Is this just good-hearted fun? Is it truly honoring these women, or mocking them? Does it bring attention to Baltimore’s working class residents, or simply treat them like they are historic relics?
(In)famous Baltimore resident and “Hairspray” director John Waters says,
It’s condescending now. The people that celebrate it are not from it. I feel that in some weird way they’re looking slightly down on it.
This might be useful for a discussion of social class and issues of representation–is Honfest respectful and fun or condescending? Does it make any difference whether some of the styles and mannerisms being parodied are still used by working-class women? Does it matter what the class background of attendees and participants tends to be? You might compare it to the controversy surrounding American Indian sports mascots for a discussion of concerns about representation more broadly. (Original post by by gwen on Nov 16, 2008 on blog "Sociological Images")