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Prior to taking this class, I didn’t even know what sociology was all about.  I had heard about the class before, but did not know what I was getting into when I signed up.  What I got was a class that teaches me things that are relevant to my everyday life.  It makes me think about how I act and how I am seen based on those actions.  By learning about harder topics, I think that we I will be able to better relate to people around at school or eventually in the workplace.  I would have to say that the module on gender really hit home for me.  I didn’t realize how women are normally portrayed or seen, even if they are not trying to be seen a certain way.  I was blown away at how companies can use women as “objects” to sell their products - and it works!  It was disheartening to know that most women are seen as objects and not humans who are equal to men.  

Word Count: 170

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To the future students,

The things you learn and talk about in this class will stay with you for your entire life.  This class talks about everything that nobody actually wants to talk about.  However, don’t be afraid to dive right into the course materials and discussions.  Embracing the difficult parts of our society will help you understand how to be a leader for others to change the ways of our society, especially when it comes to racism, social class and gender.

There is definitely a lot of work for this class, but it is all useful to get a full understanding of the material.  I found each thing I had to do for this class to benefit me and my understanding of the sociological perspective on the world.  Make sure to keep up with your work and don’t fall behind.  It can be easy to push the work off until the end of each week, but try to get a little chunk of it done each day so it is not overwhelming.  

Word Count: 173

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The issues surrounding race are very disheartening to me, much like the issues with social class.  Everyone is should be treated equal, in a perfect world, but our world is anything but perfect.  Racism, which is defined as “the belief that members of separate races possess different and unequal traits” (Conley, 2017, p. 325), is clearly an issue in our society.  This idea is present in the artifact I have chosen.  This article, with a short video, describes how a bill was approved to allow black women to wear their natural hair, without the risk of consequences.  Before this bill was passed, their natural hair was considered unprofessional, and they had to do something with it, like put it in braids.  

A sociologist would pay attention to what was going on in society before the bill was passed, which was discrimination against black women and their hair.  Discrimination is defined in our textbooks as “harmful and negative acts (not mere thoughts) against people deemed inferior on the basis of their racial category, without regard to their individual merit” (Conley, 2017, p. 359).  The article describes that children were sent home from school because of their hair, which is definitely a negative act.

I think this article is an excellent example of how race has an impact on society and how we view other people.  By looking at this through the sociological lens, we can determine that what these people are going through is discrimination and prejudice against their race, which is unacceptable morally.  It is really hard to think, that just for wearing your natural, beautiful hair, you could get sent home for looking “unprofessional.”  It is really something that we, as a society, should try to fix.

Word Count: 288

References

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.

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The article I found for my gender artifact is about changing a person’s gender on their birth certificate.  In Tennessee, a person is not allowed to change their birth certificate gender, even if they have changed to the opposite gender.  But what really is gender?  How does it differ from sex?  Gender, according to our textbooks, can be defined as “a social position; the set of social arrangements that are built around normative sex categories” (Conley, 2017, p. 281).  In simpler terms, this is how a person identifies, as a girl or a boy.  Sex, on the other hand, is “the biological differences that distinguish males from females” (Conley, 2017, p. 281).  This is what, biologically, makes you male or female, in regards to what your body has.  This relates to sociology because how a person identifies and/or how it relates to their sex could be the basis for discrimination.

A sociologist would look at this issue and pay attention to the sexism of the issue, which is when “a person’s sex or gender is the basis for judgement, discrimination, and hatred against him or her” (Conley, 2017, p. 307).  This relates to the fact that a person, who may have changed gender, could be discriminated against because of their gender.  In the article, I would say that there is some sexism going on because the people who are wanting to get their gender changed, are not allowed, just because they changed gender.  People state that they are even subject to harassment because their birth certificate says they are a different gender than they present as.  Due to the fact that Tennessee does not allow birth certificate gender changes, those people are subject to judgement and discrimination by everyone.

Even if someone does not completely support what these people stand for or what they are going through, they should still try to understand where they are coming from, and be understanding that they do not like to be judged or discriminated against.

Word Count: 333

References

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.

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McDonaldization of society is happening more and more everyday.  This happens when certain aspects of a society take on those characteristics of a fast food chain.  The article I found talks about churches that are going through McDonaldization, and how some people are trying to stop it.  This hits somewhat close to home, because I go to church.  I do not want to see church becoming like a fast food meal, but some churches are.  I believe that this article is a good example of McDonaldization because megachurches are going for efficiency and quantity over quality.  Efficiency and quantity are what sociologists would be paying attention to when viewing some churches through a sociological lens.

There are some church services that are focusing on efficiency, which is defined as “a great deal of emphasis is placed on finding the best or optimum means to any given end” (Ritzer, 1983, p. 372).  Church services are typically long, and may take up a good portion of a person’s Sunday.  Some churches are trying to make it short and sweet, but that may not be a good thing.  There is less connection for people attending, and less time to really listen to a “good for the soul” talk.  To go along with this, churches may be looking at how long services run compared to the message they are getting across.  Some messages may take longer to deliver, but if they are in a time crunch, the preacher may not worry about delivering the entire message.  This again, resembles the quickness of a fast food chain.  They are not so much worried about quality, but how much food they can make in a short time.  

Word Count: 281

References

Ritzer, G. (1983), The “McDonaldization” of society. Journal of American Culture, 6(1), 100-107. doi:10.1111/j.1542-734X.1983.0601_100.x.

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The Women’s March on Washington was something that was known across the country.  This social movement, “collective behavior that is purposeful, organized” (Conley, 2017, p. 704), encompassed women from all walks of life, and of all ages.  I found a photo gallery from the Women’s March on Washington to serve as my artifact.  I feel that this march is a social movement because it fits with the definition.  It is definitely purposeful and organized, and is a collective behavior.

A sociologist would look at  how the movement is looking to impact society, and how many people it will be impacting.  I think this movement can be considered a reformative social movement, which our textbook defines as “social movements that advocate for limited social change across an entire society” (Conley, 2017, p. 707).  The Women’s March on Washington was not looking to overthrow the government or completely change how government was run, but just looking to have more rights for women.  They want people to see them as equals and treat them equally.  The women do not want to be treated as objects.  I would say that the march went through all three stages of a social movement, since it was so successful.  The three stages are emergence, coalescence, and routinization, and each stage is important to a successful movement.  The march was successful in promoting the cause, which is a part of the final stage of a social movement.

I think that the Women’s March on Washington is a powerful example of a social movement that has impacted everyone, not just women.

Word Count: 262

References

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.

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I have always found reading about issues with social class difficult.  This article hit me harder than some others because it has to do directly with kids and their education, compared to privileged, middle class families.  Middle class is described as “characterized by a high material standard of living, sexual morality, and respect for property” (Conley, 2017, p. 260).  This article is about parents choosing a school for their children.  Some parents are even going as far as to buy or rent out a second home so their child can go to a better school.  It is obvious that only middle and upper class families would be able to have two homes, so that leaves lower class families to put their children in worse schools.  

A sociologist would look at this issue as being an issue with equality of opportunity, which is the “idea that everyone should have an equal starting point” (Conley, 2017, p. 246).  In the case of the children of lower class parents, this is not so.  The children may be stuck attending an underachieving school, just because their parents do not have enough money.  This difference in social class will impact the child for the rest of his/her life.  They may not receive as good of an education because they did not have the money to go to a better school, which could hinder them from going to college or getting a job.  

I think that students should go to the school district they live in instead of their parents paying for another house to go to a “better” school.  The division in social class hinders lower class children from going to a different school, even if they would want to, because their parents are not as well off as the family that lives next door.

Word Count: 301

References

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.

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The article I chose is quite interesting to me.  Even though we are all humans, some things in our cultures are different from country to country, including touching.  What I mean is, when is it okay, and not okay, to touch someone?  I do not just mean a handshake when meeting someone new, but how about if a stranger touches your arm.  Would that be uncomfortable for everyone?  This study is based on whether the general “rules” for touching differ from Japan to the United Kingdom.  The researchers came to the conclusion that the people have the same feelings about being touched in both countries, and are quite similar.  

I feel this study is a great example of sociological research.  This study dealt more with qualitative research methods, which are “methods that attempt to collect information about the social world that cannot be readily converted to numeric form” (Conley, 2017, p. 47).  The answers and data they collected were not quantitative, but qualitative.  The participants answered questions, that gave non-numerical answers and data for the researchers.  

The researchers used a sample of people from the populations of Japan and the United Kingdom, which is “the subset of the population from which you are actually collecting data” (Conley, 2017, p. 62).  Since the sample was relatively small compared to the entire population of each country and the world, the study has a low generalizability.  Generalizability is “the extent to which we can claim our findings inform us about a group larger than the one we studied” (Conley, 2017, p. 55).  Compared to the entire population, the sample size was extremely small.  A larger study would have to be done to conclude that there are similar touching rules across the countries, and even the world.

Word Count: 293

References

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.

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I stumbled upon an article about tattoos that I thought would really tie in with the theory section in our textbook.  This article discusses tattoos and what they used to mean to almost everyone you came across.  People looked at tattoos as being associated with criminals, gangs or even people who just go against society.  However, today they have a much different meaning: a life that is successful and full of achievement.  Middle class people adopted the use of tattoos to document their life story.  

I feel that this directly relates to the symbolic interactionist theory in our textbooks.  This theory is defined as “a micro-level theory in which shared meanings, orientations and assumptions form the basic motivations behind people’s actions” (Conley, 2017, p. 33).  Tattoos didn’t automatically change from being a sign of criminals to success.  It took years of people being daring and getting success tattoos, to change the meaning.  Once the shared meaning behind tattoos changed, people now see tattoos as marking success and a larger number of individuals want to get a tattoo as well.  If more and more people are getting tattoos to mark their achievements, that notion will spread to those around them.  Our textbook says that “people act in response to the meaning that signs and social signals hold” (Conley, 2017, p. 33).  This would be true in the case of people wanting to get tattoos.  They are acting for themselves, based on how society views tattoos.  

A sociologist would look at how people see tattoos and why each person gets one.  The motivations behind each person’s actions deals with how they see the tattoo reflecting on their own life.  If they see a tattoo as having a large meaning for something in their life, they will most likely get one.  Having a tattoo can be defining for the individual, for themselves and those around them, which is the could be the motivation behind each tattoo.

Word Count: 323

References

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.

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Hello!  My name is Alicia, and I am involved sports and clubs at my high school.  I am not the biggest fan of some platforms of social media, but I love having knowledge at my fingertips.  I also love science and math, but writing and blogging has never really been my thing, so this is definitely taking me out of my comfort zone.  I am not someone who can sit down and words just keep coming.  I am the person who has to really think about what I am writing about before I even know what to write.  Despite this, I am diving into the world of social media and blogging!

On my blog, I will be reflecting on some of the up and coming stories and hot topics in sociology that are happening right now.  I will be talking about some of the things that most people don’t want to talk about, and viewing these things through a sociological lens.  From this, we can learn how these sociological issues impact our everyday lives.  

Word count: 174

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The article I found deals with college athletes kneeling for the national anthem, specifically Devontae Shuler.  Shuler is a basketball player for the Ole Miss basketball team and decided to stand up for his rights by kneeling during the national anthem.  He knew there would be protests, so he decided to show his feelings by kneeling. This movement was started by professional football player, Colin Kaepernick.  More and more professional and college athletes have followed in his footsteps by also kneeling for the national anthem to stand up for their rights.

A sociologist would pay attention to how many people are participating in this action.  On a larger scale, I think that kneeling during the national anthem is an act of social deviance.  Social deviance is defined as “any transgression of socially established norms” (Conley, 2017, p. 191). The majority of people stand for the national anthem, so kneeling could be considered an act of deviance.  

However, with more and more people starting to kneel during the national anthem, this act of kneeling could also be viewed as conformity by a sociologist.  A social conformist is an “individual who accepts both the goals and the strategies that are considered socially acceptable to achieve those goals” (Conley, 2017, p. 205).  The next person to kneel during the anthem could be seen as conforming to Colin Kaepernick’s behavior.  Since there is such a large group of people doing it, some sociologists could see this as becoming a normal behavior.  

I think that this behavior is a major act of act of social deviance, because people are supposed to respect their country.  People who live in the United States are expected to show support for their rights and their country, so kneeling would be a big act of deviance since it is showing disrespect for the country.

Word Count: 304

References

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.

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This article, with pictures and a video, describes a mitten making class for women who are at least 55 years old.  The women are able to talk with each other and learn new things everyday they are together.  The article also talks about how most of the women use the mittens very frequently.  Each of these women went through socialization, defined as “the process by which individuals internalize the values, beliefs, and norms of a given society and learn to function as members of that society” (Conley, 2017, p. 118).  Becoming a functioning member of society happens at a relatively young age, but now that they are older, they are going through resocialization.

The artifact I have chosen is an example of this.  It shows how even at an older age, women can connect and continue to be resocialized. Resocialization can be defined as one’s social beliefs, norms and values being re-engineered through a social process (Conley, 2017, p. 131).  A sociologist would pay attention to the fact that these women are re-learning how to spend their time, since they are retired.  The ladies in the mitten-making class are spending their time differently than when they were younger, which is a new norm for them.  They are deliberately participating in different activities to become resocialized with people their age.

I think this concept of adult resocialization can be applied to the mitten making class because the women are learning how to interact with one another in and out of an actual class, which allows them to become a functioning and helpful member of the class.  Through this, they will be able to learn their new responsibilities, being in the class.

Word Count:  300

References

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.

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The article I found relating to culture is about our society’s constant need to buy clothing.  This so-called “fast fashion” is harming the environment, and most people do not even know.  People feel like they need to buy new clothing each season to match the style of celebrities and models.  This behavior of buying new clothes is part of our culture.  

A sociologist would pay attention to the fact that so many people are following this behavior of constantly buying new clothing.  They would notice that it is normal for people to go shopping and buy clothes to match models.  Sociologists would see that the culture of today’s society has changed, and most people are partaking in this behavior.

The definition of culture, according to our textbook, is “the sum of social categories and concepts we embrace in addition to beliefs, behaviors (except instinctual ones), and practices; everything but the natural environment around us” (Conley, 2017, p. 78).  However, culture can be broken down into two distinct categories: nonmaterial culture and material culture.  This article deals with both.  Material culture is “everything that is part of our constructed, physical environment” (Conley, 2017, p. 82).  The constant production of clothing to match new styles would be considered material culture by a sociologist.  On the other hand, the behavior that people are showing, the constant shopping that people believe is normal, is nonmaterial culture.  Nonmaterial culture is defined as “values, beliefs, behaviors, and social norms” (Conley, 2017, p. 82).

The material and nonmaterial culture of today’s world is changing all the time, but the idea of fashion, and having to buy the newest and best thing is something that is staying pretty constant.  A sociologist might also see these actions as conspicuous consumption, which is “spending money on and acquiring luxury goods and services to publicly display one’s economic purchasing power” (Jacobson, 2019).  People who are buying the newest clothes, based on a celebrity or model style, are buying them to “show off” to people around them that they can buy expensive things, and have the purchasing power to do so.  

Word Count: 349

References

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.

Jacobson, S. (2019). Culture and consumerism.