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Gossip Girl is a fictional television show that explores the lives of people living amongst the elites in society in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The show explores class differences through the inclusion of a family who lives in Brooklyn instead of the posh upper east side.  Our understanding of class stems from how the media portrays the different classes. The Class system is an “economically based hierarchical system characterized by cohesive oppositional groups and somewhat loose social mobility” (Conley, 2017, p. 251). Media tries to make it seem like the problems of the wealthy play a larger role in society than the problems of the poor, when in reality that is not true at all. Gossip Girl is notorious for making the simple problems of the wealthy seem so strenuous. Media tries to make it seem like the problems of the wealthy play a larger role in society than the problems of the poor when in reality that is not true at all.it tries to bring light to the issue of the difficulty to integrate the middle-class youth into the education system of the upper class. The upper class is the “economic elite” (Conley, 2017, p. 258), and the middle class being “individuals with nonmanual jobs that pay significantly more than the poverty line” (Conley, 2017, p. 258). Throughout this shows there are many examples of socioeconomic status defining worth as a person and used in status hierarchy amongst people. One of the main things shown in this show is the drastic differences between the classes and although it might seem exaggerated for media the income and wage gap is an ever so real issue and is growing as time goes on.

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Reference:

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist (Core 5thed.). New York: W.W. Norton.

Patel, S. (2015, December 04). Class Differences feat. Gossip Girl XOXO. Retrieved from http://wcsuecho.wixsite.com/echo/single-post/2015/10/05/Class-Differences-feat-Gossip-Girl-XOXO

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A majority of Americans would like to see more women in top leadership positions, not only in politics but in the politic world according to this Pew Research survey. A survey is an “ordered series of questions intended to elicit information from respondents” (Conley, 2017, p.64). However, there is a gender gap in views about women in leadership. 7 in 10 women say that there are too few women in power, while only about half of men stay the same. This gap is one of the major reasons why women are underrepresented in positions of high political and business power. This survey also shows that Americans see women and men as equally capable when it comes to some key qualities and behavior for leadership. Some however still believe that women have an advantage when it comes to leadership due to qualities such as compassion, and empathy. Females male counterparts are seen as better when it comes to their willingness to take risks. Overall, the public sees the benefits of having females in leadership positions. A majority say having more women in top positions in business and government would improve the quality of life for most Americans. This qualitative method of research, or “one that seeks to obtain information about the social world that is already in or can be converted to numeric form” (Conley, 2017, p.47), shows gender gaps on views of women in leadership, how Americans feel about women’s traits in regard to positions of power, and if they believe that women in power will benefit this country both politically and in business.

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Reference: 

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist (Core 5thed.). New York: W.W. Norton.

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Kaustav Dey examines how fashion gives us a nonverbal language and encourages us to embrace our authentic selves. He discusses how when he was a child, he used his school uniform to blend in and not stand out. Clothing can give us power, around the world clothing is perceived as our freedom and shows how not only we perceive our self but how we want others to perceive. You wouldn’t think twice about a woman wearing jeans walking around your campus, however, when Malala wore jeans it was seen as a political act. Knowing this your fashion cannot only be an expression of happiness and joy but can literally be life or death. He uses the metaphor at the end about Muslim women having to wear white after becoming a widow, that we should use color and stand out.

Symbolic interactionism is a “microlevel theory in which shared meanings, orientations and assumptions form the basic motivations behind people’s actions” (Conley, 2017, p. 33). The groundwork for this theory was laid by Erving Goffman. Goffman explored how everyday interactions and encounter’s shape our notion about class and social status. He believed that how people speak, what they wear, and how they present themselves to others are the information that we use to classify them. Throughout Kaustav Dev’s TED talk he examines this idea of symbolic interactionism, through the clothes that one wears. He discusses many scenarios in which peoples clothing were seen more than just a shirt and pants. People use these as a way to get to know us and what we stand for.

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Reference: 

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist (Core 5thed.). New York: W.W. Norton.

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Dr. Kenneth Clarks study after the Board verse Brown case was an experiment that had black children choose between a black doll and a white doll and saw what they preferred to play with. In most instances, they preferred the white doll over the black doll.  They were also asked to identify which was the nice doll and which was the mean doll, as well as which one looked like them. These dolls were used during the court case as evidence showing that segregation stamped black children a badge of inferiority. Segregation was the “legal or social practice of separation people on the bias of their race or ethnicity” (Conley, 2017, p. 352). This experiment was to work on understanding and healing children’s racial biases. Racial bias is the attitudes or stereotypes that affect an individual's understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner.

This study was recreated in the video “A Girl Like Me” (Linked below). They reconducted the test to see how society has progressed since then. I was shocked to find that still, the majority preferred the white doll over the black doll since the 2010 United State Census show a 134 percent increase in Americans who identify as multiracial. It is important that we understand this issue of racism, the belief that members of sperate races possess different and unequal traits coupled with the power to restrict freedoms based on those differences” (Conley, 2017, p. 325), and racial bias because America is no longer black and white, American is a society composed of multiple ethnic and racial groups.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbkfsJUVA_9RUvbDPnWGZoQ

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Reference: 

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist (Core 5thed.). New York: W.W. Norton.

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Sociology is the study of human society, and there are many different types of sociology, from religion, of music, to even medicine. As a woman and young person in today’s society, the study of sociology is very important to understand. I don’t think it was until the discussion on gender and the reading from my book that I truly understood some of the difficulties that women go through. As a future teacher, it is my job to help raise the next generation of future leaders. I think that understanding some of the social concepts and issues that we discussed will help me better prepare my students for a better world. Being able to teach my students not to discriminate and to accept others is one thing but being able to understand it myself and set an example for them. There are many things that I will be able to take away from this class, too many to explain them all. I hope that in the future I can take some of the things that I learned and teach them to others!

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There is now a movement occurring to allow people who assume a different gender identity than their sex to have the same social rights as others. This is known as the gender identity movement This social issue that has been very present in today’s society. However, society is very divided on this issue as this article states. The article highlights the issues being experienced by those who identify with a different gender, as well as ways to help and assist those people.

When looking at gender many people interchange the word gender and sex. Sex is typically described “as the biological differences that distinguish males from females” (Conley, 2017, p. 281). Gender “denotes a social position, the set of social arrangements that are built around normative sex categories” (Conley, 2017, p. 281). The big discussion is whether people can choose their gender that is different from their sex and whether gender is fluid. Gender, like all social identities, is socially constructed. Social constructionism is one of the key theory’s sociologists use to put gender into historical and cultural focus. Social constructionism is a social theory about how meaning is created through social interaction through the things we do and say with other people. This theory shows that gender is not a fixed or innate fact, but instead, it varies across time and place. In society, there is something called gender socialization or the process of educating and instructing male and females as to the norms, behaviors, values, and beliefs of membership as men or women. People are socialized into conceiving their gender as masculine or feminine. This concept of gender fluidity shows that gender norms are learned and either accepted or rejected by the socialized individual. Gender identity is an individual’s self-concept of being male or female based on his or her association with masculine and feminine gender roles.

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Reference: 

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist (Core 5th ed.). New York: W.W. Norton.

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Richard Wilson examines the income gap within countries and its effects on health and social problems. It is first examined how much richer the top 20% is then the bottom 20% to get an idea of just how large the gap is. In the more equal countries such as Japan, Finland, and Sweden the top 20% is about 3 to 4 times as rich as the bottom 20%. However, at the more unequal end, Portugal, Norway, and the US, the differences are more than twice as big, the top 20% is on the upwards of 8 or 9 times as rich as the bottom 20%. When an average of how these countries performed on social issues such as life expectancy, trust, obesity, and mental illness, it is shown that the more unequal countries perform worse than the more equal countries. Throughout this video, he shows many statics that shows how the differences between individuals matter more than the national income and growth when it comes to the average wellbeing of our society.

Richard Wilson focuses on the socioeconomic status, an individual’s position in a stratified social order (Conley, 2017, p. 258), and how the differences between the top and the bottom incomes. Conley states that “one of the main reasons for rising income and wealth inequality in the united states is globalization – the rise in trade of goods and services across national boundaries” (Conley, 2017, p. 263). Unequal income also has an effect on social mobility, “the movement between different positions within a system of social stratification in any given society” (Conley, 2017, p. 267). This is basically saying that a father’s income is more important in determining their children’s income, i.e. a rich father will raise and rich child and vis versa. The income gap in countries can also be examined at each level of the social hierarchy. In the example of infant mortality, the same trend is being seen the lower class or poor is performing worse than the upper-class or the “individuals at eh top of the socioeconomic food chain” (Conley, 2017, p. 258). Can we improve the quality of human life by reducing the differences in incomes between us?

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Reference: 

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist (Core 5thed.). New York: W.W. Norton.

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Dear future and fellow students,

I have a completely different perspective on this class than your average student. Not only did I complete this course in 4 weeks but I am also a guest student here at HACC. Now if you are crazy enough like me and the others that I took this course with and have embarked on the journey of a winter course all I can say is good luck! Just kidding! But this course is a lot of work and takes a lot of time and energy to complete. You may be thinking that there is no point in taking this course, however, this class is all about you and the society that you are growing up in and about creating a better one for the future. There are many opportunities for you to discuss your own passions on social issues as well as learn from others who have different experiences and perspectives from your own. My advice is to listen to what others have to say in this class what they discuss and try and learn a least one thing from that person’s discussion. If you do this, I think that you will take something from this class and have a better perspective on why this class is important. If you are in school that has anything to do with people than understanding the concepts from this class will help you. The last piece of advice that I will leave you with is to take what you learn during this course and think of ways to apply this information outside of the class discussion because society will not grow unless you educate the future generations. 

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Strong men, Caring Women was written by Kristi Walker, Kirsten Bialik, and Patrick van Kessel to describe how Americans define what it values and doesn't value in each gender. In this article, they asked 4573 Americans to describe traits of what they value in each gender from 1500 unique words. The article then goes through and discusses which words were used more frequently than others. Beautiful was almost always used for women and provider was almost always used for men. Some traits described were seen as positive traits in one gender and negative in the other gender. It then talks about how traits were used differently for men and women. Protective and emotional were used almost exclusively for men. Emotional being negative and protective being a more positive trait. Even though this study never showed a census it did show patterns in which society related certain traits to one gender over the other.

How gender is viewed is a major social issue as gender quality is a hot topic of discussion. The idea of gender roles, “the set of behavioral norms assumed to accompany one’s status as a male or female” (Conley, 2017, p. 289), it is shown through this experiment. This experiment also shows that today exists this idea of hegemonic masculinity. This is the “condition in which men are dominant and privilege and this dominance and privilege is invisible” (Conley, 2017, p. 289). The ideas of gender implied from society and media have an effect of what makes and man and what makes a woman, this concept is seen through the research done in this article. Do you agree with this article? Can you really define what makes a man/woman?

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References:

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist (Core 5thed.). New York: W.W. Norton.

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Hello and welcome to my Blog!

My name is Heather Kolanda, I am currently a junior and a guest student at HACC. I attend Indiana University of Pennsylvania full time as an early childhood special education major. I hope that in the future I can teach in a second-grade classroom in Virginia. I live in Harrisburg with my mom and my dog named Josie. I graduated from Central Dauphin East High School is 2017. Throughout high school, I ran cross country and track, and still enjoy running now.

Throughout this blog, you will get to read about some hot topics in the world of sociology. These posts all connect to the topics of theory, research, culture, socialization, deviance, Social Class, Globalization and the economy, Gender, Race, and Social Movements. Hopefully, you will learn something new or find something that interests you!

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Conformity is the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to group norms. This video shows a man waiting in a line on the streets of Las Vegas and the goal was to see if others would join him just because he was standing in the line. Others eventually did conform however it took until the first few people joined. After a few people joined the line more and more people began to join even though they had no idea what they were in line for. Social norms are the set of mechanisms that create normative compliance, the act of abiding by society’s norms or simply following the rules of group life (Conley, 2017, p. 198). This video is an example of a social norm because everyone that joined the line not knowing what it was for following the people in front of them trusting that this was something worth waiting for. They then took the experiment a step further to see if the people would still follow along while going through three obstacles first being a dizzy maze. The next was seeing if people would jump over a piece of tap just because others did it. Last they set up a hopscotch game, which ends in a Congo line. However, crazy unusual these tasks seem, each of the people in the line became a conformist or “someone who accepts both goals and strategies to achieve those goals that are considered socially acceptable.”(Conley, 2017, p. 205). This social deviance, “any transgression of socially established norms” (Conley, 2017, p. 191), of conformity is seen in all aspects of human life, as it is human nature. What in your life are you conforming to that you were unaware of?

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Reference: 

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist (Core 5thed.). New York: W.W. Norton.

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Adora Svitak talks about the idea of adults can learn from children. Through her satirical tone, she discusses the status and roles for children in society and how they should be changed. Kids are experiencing a role strain, they are seen as “childish” and are seen as not being capable of what adult can do. In her opinion, she believes that low expectation set for children lead to low outcomes. Students in the classroom should be not being told what and what not to do but should be teaching the teacher something. As she states in the video “you must lend an ear today because we are the leaders of tomorrow.”.

This young lady examines the roles, “the duties and behaviors associated with a particular status” (Conley, 2017, p. 132), of both adults and children in society today. However, she sees these roles as limiting the growth of society. Adora believes that children are experiencing a role strain, “the incompatibility among roles corresponding to a single status”(Conley, 2017, p. 132). This role strain is being put on children by adults, and children are kept in their ascribes status, “the one in which one is born” (Conley, 2017, p. 133). Assuming that children are not capable of achieving a master status, “one status that within a set that stands out or overrides all others” (Conley, 2017, p. 133), is limiting the next generation and according to Adora is limiting the progress of society. What would the world be like if we stopped thinking of children as childish and allowed them to explore all possibilities?

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References

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist (Core 5thed.). New York: W.W. Norton.

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What does what you wear say about you as a person? This Ted Talk highlights consumerism and challenges the idea of material objects defining who you are as a person. Jessi Arrington packed for her trip to TEDActive with nothing but 7 pairs of underwear. Her plan was to thrift all of her clothes for the week at thrift shops around LA.

Throughout this experiment and her everyday wardrobe, she challenges the idea of conspicuous consumption, “spending money on and acquiring luxury goods and services to publicly display one's economic purchasing power. To the conspicuous consumer, such a public display of discretionary economic purchasing power is a means of either attaining or maintaining a given social status” (Conley, 2017). She believes that you don’t need to have expensive outfits to be happy or to look good. The material culture of our society, or everything that is part of our constructed physical environment, including technology” (Conley, 2017, p. 82). At the end, of the Ted Talk, she talks about the attachment that people have to material objects and how people make the connection between these material objects and nonmaterial culture such as “values, beliefs, and social norms”(Conley, 2017, p. 87). 

Not only is she challenging material culture, but she is highlighting how our clothes help define our personal culture and can be used to categorize into a subculture. As Conley described it subcultures are similar to music genres (Conley, 2017, p. 87). Clothes according to Jessi are a way to express yourself and attract others with similar interests as you. Since your clothes are part of what defines you, what other elements make up who you are?

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References

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a         sociologist (Core 5thed.). New York: W.W. Norton.