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Concept Reflection 5

Drawing from Modern Romance and your notes on Marriage and Family, how are the ideas in these 2 articles related to patterns we see in marriage and family? What is the impact of technology and social media? 

I feel like both of these articles and the book Modern Romance can relate to marriage patterns in many ways. The wedding industrial complex creates the pattern that we see in most marriages because it makes people feel pressured to have the wedding that we see through media. As the article The Wedding Industrial Complex it brings up how many people see royal family weddings such as Prince William and Kate Middleton and this is how they picture their wedding. Because of media we see all of these fancy weddings which makes couples think all about the cost of the wedding. The cost seems to overrule any other aspect such as the main reason behind why the two are getting married.  People believe that if they dont have the perfect wedding then their marriage will be worse in the long run. This is the impact that media and the advances in technology has had on couples getting married and I feel like it has in a sense ruined the factor in why two people want to get married in the first place. 

In the book Modern Romance in talks about the fear of settling down. I feel like this can relate to more marriages and relationships as well. Aziz talks about what we will call “the upgrade problem”. This is when someone is in a relationship they will always wonder if there is someone out there that is better for them. Social media plays a big role in this because you could be there scrolling through and see somebody really attractive. You click on their profile and find that they are single and start stalking their page, and you just can't help but wonder what would happen if you clicked with them. We know that we are with someone amazing but there is always that thought of what if they are better than what I have currently. I feel like this upgrade prob has always existed but the invention of social media has amplified the magnitude of this problem a lot. 

Based on what you have learned in class this semester, how might the experience of marriage, “amatonormativity,” or the wedding industrial complex differ for people of various race, class, gender or sexualities?Please give examples that make your case from the television shows that you watched.

Intimate partner violence can be very common in todays society. For some people it could be considered an everyday reality. Relationships like this can be found so commonly that I think most people have either been in one or they might know of someone who has experienced this. Even if people are experiencing this, toxic ideas of romance are still placed as the first priority without any changing of ways, any analysis of behaviors, and with zero questioning at all.

Amatonormativity pressures people to sacrifice lots of things so that the relationship is viewed as above everything else.  It seems to make people experience love as some sort of resource over enjoying the experience that love really is. After watching Bridzilla’s season 10 episode 14 it seems as if amatonormativity erases peoples identities. It makes love seem like it’s blind because if you love someone you can't give up on them even if it puts you in a bad place. In the episode I watched the bride constantly accused the groomsmen of lying about everything he told her, she never believed a word he said even though he never lied. The bride also threatened to cancel the wedding any time her so called to be messed up in any way possible such as not being on time for an appointment or not doing any command that she demanded. The groom was not allowed to speak his peace of mind or else she threatened to leave him or call him stupid because he did not agree with her. 

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Concept Reflection 4

For this assignment, you will need to watch the movie “Crash” and utilize the theories of prejudice, along with the Symbolic Interactionist idea of “contact hypothesis.”

Your assignment is to give me at least one example in the movie of each of the following terms:

-Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis

After the District of Attorney Rick gets in an argument with his wife Jean, he goes back to his council members in his living room and starts to yell and get very frustrated due to the fact that they can’t seem to figure out a way to cover up the incident about his car being hijacked. They can’t label it as two black men because he will lose votes from the black population. If he doesn’t do anything about it and people find out he will lose the law and order vote. Since his goal is trying to get re-elected and he can’t figure out a way to make this situation non detrimental to his election he responds with aggression towards his council members as he storms away in anger.

-Authoritarian Personality

One example of this early on in the movie is when Officer Ryan pulls over the two-black people in what looks like the stolen vehicle from the beginning of the movie. Turns out the Christine the women in the car was having sexual interaction with Cameron the man in the car. Due to the cop’s hatred towards black people he decides to be unnecessarily aggressive towards the couple making the man get out of the car when a ticket just could’ve been issued. In this scene Officer Ryan showed that he was extremely confrontive and seemed to enjoy making submit to authority because he had the power to do so. He also did not tolerate anything that was said by Christine or Cameron. This shows that Officer Ryan is a perfect example of someone who has an authoritarian personality.  

-Merton’s 4 types of discriminators (just one example of any one of the types of discriminators is adequate)

An example of Prejudiced Discriminator from Merton’s types of discriminators was the scene of a Caucasian man in the film who owned a Gun store. A middle eastern man came into his store and the white man denied service to him purchasing any firearms. He denied him service because he was middle eastern, this is an example of discrimination. Not only did he just deny him from buying the gun he also had a very negative attitude towards him as soon as he walked through the door. The store owner also made generalizations about the middle eastern man’s background, assuming his race was the one that hijacked the planes on 9/11.

Explain how the movie (as a whole) demonstrates the Symbolic Interaction idea of contact hypothesis

Despite each character’s personal ideals and beliefs about life in the end they all reconnected with each other in some way. The traumatic, life or death, events forced them to look past their stereotypes and attitudes towards one another and learn to develop some level of trust and compassion for others.

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Concept Reflection #3

I feel like in todays society meritocracy is viewed backwards. In todays world I feel like meritocracy starts with a person social class. Depending on a persons social class determines how long a person stays in school to get an education. From the length of time spent in education determines how smart a person is which then leads to the type of job a person acquires. In my opinion I feel like the way things are done today is backwards and it should be reversed. Therefore the way I feel that it should go is that a person IQ score should determine the length of time they spend in school and the amount of time spent in school should determine the type of job thy acquire. This would be how it worked in a perfect society but we all know that such thing doesn't exist. 

 I would say that there are abilities or jobs out there that are more valuable than others and that education may or may not play a role in that. When I say that education should determine future social class or a persons job it will never realistically be true because education is not needed for some jobs that are actually quite important. I'll list a few jobs that I feel are looked over in today society that should deserve some more appreciation. Teachers for example are jobs that should be taken seriously because this is how we are raising the next generation of people who are going to run the country one day. Most people look at teaching for a job and turn it down for one major reason. They dont pay enough. Other jobs that I feel should be rewarded higher than they are in todays society are as follows garbage disposal, waste management, and mechanics. I say this because if we didn't have these services the world as we know it would become a disgusting place to live in. These jobs give us the basis of society so that we have the opportunity to create more jobs and build on a foundation.

The main reason that I feel like people in the United States support a hierarchically arranged society is because it puts them in a group or social class that they have similar traits with. It makes a person feel like they belong to something whether it is considered to be good or bad.  

In the Davis–Moore thesis  it projects that social stratification results in meritocracy or a hierarchy where all positions are rewarded based on people’s ability and credentials. I think this thesis appeals to American values even though it creates inequality is because it is beneficial for society due to the fact that it motivates people to go after roles in the world that they desire. 

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Concept Reflection 2:

For this journal, I would like you to be an ethnomethodologist, briefly.  I would like you to conduct your own breaching experiment.  Do something small to break taken for granted norms/social scripts for behavior. Take note of how others react to you and describe that (along with what, specifically, you did).  What does the violation of these small norms reveal about expectations for behavior?

After reading this last Sunday I decided that my experiment would be to walk on the opposite side of the sidewalk to see the reactions I get out of people when I don't move to the opposite side. All week long I have been walking on the opposite side of the sidewalk when going to class, workout, and even the grocery store since I live so close to it. Overall there were only two types of reactions that I got out of people while I broke social norms. The first type of reaction that I got was they wouldn't even notice due to the fact that they were too involved looking at their cell phone and not paying attention to where they were walking. Therefore I had to avoid them because they didn't even see me headed right towards them acting like I was doing nothing out of the ordinary. This was a little disappointing because I was hoping to get a reaction out of more people than I did. The second kind of reaction that I got from people came in a wide variety of different expressions. Some people gave me weird looks probably thinking to themselves why is this guy not moving out of the way when he is obviously on the wrong side. Other people would give me a disgusted look saying excuse me but not in a very nice tone of voice. When they said excuse me it sounded like I was frustrating them for causing an inconvenience in their day to day life that they don't need. No matter what happened I acted like I was doing nothing wrong and continued walking on the opposite side of the sidewalk. To answer the question I feel like from the results that I got from my experiment it says a lot about our society and its expectations for behavior. I think it reveals that there are expectations that people have for others in our society that don't pertain to just one person but everyone. While these expectations might differ from person to person I feel like these “set expectations” are pretty widespread throughout society. These expectations do not seem to be very high, they just seem to cover the basics of being polite to people. I would put it as do to others as you would want them to do to you. 

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Concept Reflection 1: There’s Something Different About Robbie

Is the problem with Robbie purely nature (biological)? Or purely nurture (environmental)? Or a combination of the two?

I think that it is a combination of both nature and nurture. While I do feel like it is a combinations of both I believe it leans heavily towards the nurture aspect of things. Since I feel the lesser side of it is is nature I will talk about that first. Most kids do have outbursts when they are younger because they don’t know any better, but looking at it from a biological standpoint a child is made up of half of one parent and half of the other. Therefore, Robbie probably had his outbursts of anger when he was younger partially due to the genes from his parents. When his parents were younger they probably had similar outbursts. Every child is going to have outbursts but the way the parents handle it is a totally different scenario. This is where I feel it switches to the nurture aspect of things. While watching this documentary, every time Robbie had an outburst his parents would never enforce any discipline. This tells Robbie that when he acts like this it is ok because there are no repercussions for his actions. If they had started to enforce discipline when Robbie was younger he would’ve started to learn that the way he acts would not be accepted or tolerated. Instead of doing this they just left him alone until he calmed down. This is where I feel the parents took a wrong turn while raising Robbie. 

What, if anything, could Robbie’s parents have done differently that might have resulted in a different outcome?  Please explain in detail, with examples, what they could’ve done to avoid this situation or why they could not have done anything.

I feel as if Robbie’s parents could have done a few things differently. Starting off with disciplining Robbie when he was younger showing him that the actions he was displaying were wrong. When Robbie would have a tantrum they would leave him alone to cool off and then act as if nothing happened once he returned. Instead, his parents should’ve disciplined him right after the act of throwing the tantrum. When they act like everything is normal after a situation like that, it shows Robbie that he his allowed to act that way. Doing this will only make the child act worse in the future because they learn that no matter what they do the won’t get punished for their actions. Since Robbie’s parents never punished him Robbie grew up learning that he could take what he pleased and it would be okay. This lead him to start treating his mother in any way he wanted and steal his sisters money. Robbie’s parents provided everything he needed except for structure. Instead of Robbie realizing this he took it all for granted thinking that they were always bossing him around to do things that he didn’t want to which lead him to start hating his mother thinking that she was the problem in his life. Robbie felt like the only solution to this problem was to get rid of his mother since his father always reasoned with him or took his side. I feel like this all stemmed from his early childhood when his parents never enforced rules or punishments for Robbie’s actions.