Saturday, September 29, 2012

Crazy, huh?

In our culture, we don't just label people as deviant and leave them alone. We tend to bully people who are different. We've created a situation where being labeled deviant is so terrible that we all tend to live in fear of being labeled. We're so afraid of it, and accused with all of the negative associations, that we participate in this horrible act as well. We do this to distance ourselves from being diverse from society's way of being. I'm not saying we are all bullies, but we do all participate, to some degree, in a system that perpetuates difference and dominance. Because of this, we have absolutely impossible standards, when you really take a look at it. Here's a great example:


When it comes to size, according to society, it is bad to be fat, and good to be skinny.


But it goes further than that..
To some extent, it is okay for men to be overweight, but not women. 



And yet, there's even more to it! It's okay for women to be skinny, but not TOO skinny. If you are skinny, you are sick, are perceived to be mentally ill, and then deserve pity.


Social deviance surrounds us 24-7. We just don't take the time to actually notice. 

5 comments:

  1. Are these your own thoughts?
    I noticed that you started off posting a great deal, but you seemed to slow down. Keep this up!

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  2. This was a very interesting post. I also found a website that gives a lot of examples of social deviance and the background of the topic. I'm sure you could use some of these examples and elaborate further for future posts. :)

    http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Theories-of-Deviance.topicArticleId-26957,articleId-26873.html

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  3. Carli I found this article about veterans and PTSD. Maybe you could write about how society treats veterans with PTSD. http://worldpsychologynews.blogspot.com/2012/09/post-traumatic-stress-disorder.html

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  4. Carli, I realized that throughout our early lives, we try our best to fit into society but why do we have to strive for perfection when mediocrity is perfectly acceptable..?
    Here's a link as to why we try our best, as people, to fit in: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-taft/conformity_b_1345306.html

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