Final Post

Who am I? 

When first posed with this question, this was my response: 

Hi guys, I'm Peyton.  I'm 16 and I'm a senior.  Technically, I should be a junior, but I'm not, so it is what it is.  I like to think I am a little funny, but I'm probably wrong.  Oh, well.  Also, I am a giant nerd.  I love school, I love learning, I love science, math, and history.  I'm probably the biggest dork about school you'll ever meet.  My favorite classes I've ever taken are APUSH and AP Physics, and I want to be a physics major in college, so if that doesn't indicate to you what a nerd I am, I don't know what will.  Aside from being a giant loser, here are some other things I enjoy:

• The color purple.
• Reading basically any book
• Watching movies, except action/super-hero/alien/etc. movies.  I don't like those.
• Food.  Except cheese.  Cheese is gross. 
• T.V.  I love How I Met Your Mother, Seinfeld, American Horror Story, and I'll admit to keeping up with the Kardashians
• I like to get stuff.  I don't like to shop, I just like receiving the items.  Online shopping is my savior.  
• Being alone.  I'm the ultimate introvert. 
• Sweaters.  I wear think wool sweaters year round, which is a big problem in the summer.  But I like to be cozy.
• A mixture of alternative and pop music, because I'm one big contradiction.  
• That's all I can think of. 

     I consider my self to be incredibly stubborn and completely set in my ways.  Any attempt to get me to try something I haven't decided to do myself will probably fail.  I like to think I'm a nice person, and that I'm willing to help anyone or give anyone a chance.  
     The biggest influences in my life have to be my family, I almost always take their advice and rely on their support in anything I do.  I also try to make sure that I myself am one of the biggest influences in my decision making, because I don't like to do things just because other people tell me to.  
     My goals in life are to major in science, specifically physics, in college, and get a Bachelor of Science degree.  After college, I want to pursue a PhD in whatever science I end up liking the best, and work as a research scientist.  
     So, that's basically it about me, or at least all I can think of right now.  

This is my response now: 

I am a product of my surroundings.  At the beginning of the semester, we were asked to answer the same question.  I gave a generic overview of myself-what I like to watch on TV and eat.  But, after a semester of sociology, I now see myself in a different light.  I see myself as the offspring of the society I was raised in.  I can now see the effects of my culture, race, nurture in how I behave and how I view the worlds.  I can see the way the media and the rest of society has influenced the way I am, why I like the things that I listed in my first post.  I no longer define myself by what I like and dislike, but by what has shaped my existence.  I know now that I like what I like because I am a white, upper-middle class, teenage, American, suburban girl.  Before, when I was asked who I am, I knew what I was.  Now, because of sociology, I know why I am.  

Post #9

Race does not exist.  From a biological standpoint, that is.  Sociologically, race is all to real, and the implications of race dictate the way society works.  I think that this was one of the most shocking things we learned from our discussion of race in class.  We all tend to overlook the fact that race is just a social construct.  There are no biological, physical, or psychological characteristics that can divide people into races, it all depends on how someone identifies themselves based on their society's categorization of race.  In class, we did a simulation where we were given pictures of people, just head shots, and were given the task of placing them into the race that they designated themselves in the latest census.  What we found was that it is nearly impossible to actually do this.  There are people who identify themselves as "Hispanic" that have darker hair and skin than people who called themselves "black."  There were people who were "Asian" and had lighter skin and larger eyes than someone who was "white."  The simulation really served to show us how it is actually impossible to group people based on physical traits because there is no clear place to draw the line.  What shade of skin is the dividing line between white and Hispanic or Hispanic and black?  How wide can your nose be until you are no longer white, where you cross the border into being black?  There is no clear place where we can distinguish people, so the idea that our entire society functions on the idea of categorizing people is preposterous.  This idea of racial categorization seems even more ridiculous when you consider that race changes from place to place.  You can be Hispanic in America, then travel to Europe where being "Hispanic" isn't even a thing, and then go to Brazil, where there are so many different races, you have to pick an even more specific categorization for yourself, like being specifically "caramel colored."

Even though race biologically does not exist, the social implications and consequences of race rule the happenings of everyday life for many people in society.  Since I am white, I really cannot speak on behalf of the minority races in American society, and cannot begin to describe what it is like to grow up belonging to one.  But, I can talk about something that most white people in Western society don't realize exists, and that is the idea of White Privilege.  This is an idea that is unnoticed, or even denied, by most white people.  White Privilege is not the idea that all white people have it easy and that we all are given handouts in life that make it easy for all of us to succeed, because that is not true.  White people obviously still have struggles, but our race is not one of them.  We never have to consider our race.  We often forget that we belong to a race because we are not forced to constantly remember we are white, and do not have to live under constraints that are placed unto us by our race. Everything in society is structured in a way that make being white the norm.  Things that are the same color as white skin, like clothing, shoes, makeup, etc., are called "normal" or "nude/flesh colored."  Is black skin no longer "flesh"?  Apparently, it is inherently abnormal to have darker skin.  But being white is "normal," and we again are allowed to forget our race because we are not the different ones, they are.  This idea of White Privilege goes much deeper than just what is normal and what is not.  In society, when white people need to receive help from the government, they are viewed by society and the media as "struggling" and "trying to get back on their feet."  But, when black people need to use the same benefits in the same way, they are "abusing the system" and are "freeloaders."  Historically, white people have been allowed to benefit from certain programs that began during the Great Depression, and have had generations to form economic stability for their families.  Minority groups, however, were almost always excluded from receiving the same benefits as white people, and instead of having decades to gain this stability, they have just begun their time to reach this level of success for their own families.  White people tend to forget this historical leniency towards our own race, and just think about the way things are now, and wonder why the minority groups haven't been able to reach the same level of success as us even though they now have, legally at least, equal footing as the rest of us.

Post #8

What make somebody deviant in society? Is it the way they look? How they act? Where they come from?  The answer to this question is actually simply that deviance depends on perception.
If you are viewed by anybody else to be deviant, then you are.  The example we used in class was from an episode of Seinfeld.  In the episode, Jerry was scratching the side of his nose, but his girlfriend, from her perspective, thought he was picking his nose.  Was Jerry being deviant? Yes.  Since his girlfriend perceived him to be deviant, he was.  In class, we did a reading called Saints and Roughnecks.  In this experiment, a sociologist spend over a year observing two groups of male students at the same high school, and tried to determine which was more deviant.  The group called the Saints-the preppy, white, wealthy, super involved, good students-were always described by teachers and parents as very good kids.  Oppositely, the Roughnecks-poor, minority, poorly dressed, disinterested in school, below average students-were always described as troublemakers, as lazy and lacking drive or potential.  In reality, both of the gangs of boys were fairly equally deviant, the Saints being a little more so than the Roughnecks.  Both groups of boys drank, vandalized public property, stole, and caused general mayhem, but since the Roughnecks had the appearance of being deviant, they were the group that was always perceived to be that way.

At my own school, I find that a majority of the school is Saints.  Being an affluent high school in the suburbs, the students that fit the appearance of deviance are few and far between.   Almost all of the students that are deviants are Saints-they appear to be good kids, and do their deviant activity behind closed doors.

Another concept we discussed in class was social class, and how it affects people in America.  We defined social class to be a ranking measured by someones income, their wealth, their level of education, as well has some other factors.  The higher level someone has of these traits, the higher social class they belong to.  Social classes range from the bottom level impoverished, to the top rung, elite capitalists.  In America, we don't like to think of ourselves as a culture with a social hierarchy, but in reality, ours is one of the most skewed in the world.  The levels of income in our country range from those making less than $10,000.00 a year, to the top 1%, making over $500,000.00 annually.  In our country, the top 50% of Americans own over 98% of the wealth.

To demonstrate the realities of the income bracket in America, we played a game of monopoly, where one player played as the old-money capitalist, starting with over $3,000.00 and owning several of the properties, and another player played as the working poor, starting with about $100.00 and no properties, and the rest of the players ranked within that range.  By the end of the game, it was impossible for anyone to come close to catching the capitalist, who ended up over doubling their wealth, and the working poor usually ended up in bankruptcy within a few minutes of starting the game.  This game was able to illustrate the fundamental ideas within the American social class system, where those with money can just keep making money, and those without continually struggle.

We also looked at how certain aspects of one's social class can affect generations after them.  One of these factors was of education.  If a child is brought up in a house where one or both parents has a bachelor degree, or higher, that child is much more likely to go to and graduate from college, since there was an emphasis on education in the household.  On the other side of the spectrum, a child in a home where both parents never finished high school and both work in minimum-wage, manual labor jobs, that child is very likely to also never finish high school, since college is almost a financial impossibility, and there was most likely little to no emphasis on the importance of education in their home.

Service Trips #3-5 at Holmes Middle School

Trip #3~

On Thursday November 13, 2014, I went to volunteer to tutor at Holmes Middle School in Wheeling for 2.5 hours after school.  I have actually volunteered here since sophomore year, and each year have had the opportunity to work with a different group of kids.  Each time I go, I help the kids with their homework or any projects they may need help with.  This trip, I really took notice of how the kids at this school, which is in not a especially nice area, put little to no emphasis on their school work.  The students I work with are seventh grade girls named Naomi and Kelly, and neither of them seems to grasp the importance of doing well and trying hard in school.  I remember when I was in seventh grade, I was already thinking about where I wanted to go for college.  These kids, both of whose parents never finished high school, don't even think about high school yet, and seem to already know that they will probably not be able to go to college, and have already decided that school is not of importance to them.  I think it is very startling to see how kids that are raised in homes where education is not put on the front burner have completely different outlooks on school and their futures than children who grow up in homes where both parents graduated from college.  So, whenever I go to tutor these kids, I try to not just help them finish their homework, but try as much as I can to instill somewhat of an emphasis on education in their minds.


Trip #4~

On Thursday November 20, 2014, I volunteered again at Holmes Middle School, again for 2.5 hours, with the same students, Naomi and Kelly.  This trip, I noticed another factor that differentiates the lives of these kids from my own.  This middle school is in an area whose residents are predominately Mexican, and many of the children at the school are native Spanish speakers.  Through talking to the kids, and listening to them talk to each other, I've noticed that, since a majority of kids speak Spanish at home and are therefore fluent in the language, most of the students that are not native Spanish speakers try especially hard with their homework for Spanish class, and many of them speak enough of the language to be able to converse with the students that are fluent.  I find it very interesting that even though many of these kids don't put a very large emphasis on schoolwork, they try hard in that specific subject so that they can fit in with the larger group of students who do speak Spanish.


Trip #5~

On Thursday December 4, 2014, I again volunteered at Holmes Middle School for 2.5 hours.  This trip, I again helped my students Naomi and Kelly finish with their homework and, once we had finished, taught them how to play the game Clue.  These students, who normally put up quite a fight when I try to get them to finish their homework, and are very reluctant when I try to teach them new things, were suddenly very interested in the prospect of learning a new game.  I thought this was very interesting, and illustrated to me that while students who are brought  up in different environments may have very different outlooks on education through school, they are all still very willing to learn when I is something that interests them, or is fun.

Post #7

Sugar and spice and everything nice...that's what little girls are made of.  Boys don't play with dolls.  A woman's place is in the home.  Nice guys finish last.  Boys don't like smart girls.  Boys will be boys.  All of phrases are ubiquitous in our society.  These are things that we have all heard, whether it be in the media, or from our peers, or even from our parents.  And other these phrases have stemmed from our societal ideals of gender, and act as a way to keep these traditional gender values present in modern society.  

As children, we are assigned our gender from even before birth.  When parents find out the sex of their baby, they begin to buy things that are exclusively blue or pink.  They buy either toy cars or dolls.  They paint the nursery blue or pink.  The idea of certain attributes, whether it be liking of a color or certain toy, belonging to a certain gender, is so engraved in our minds that I didn't even have to tell you which gender received which.  You already knew.  As I discussed in my last post, we are influenced from the second we are born by our families, and throughout the entirety of our lives by our peers and the media.  All of these groups are what are called agents of socialization, and they act as a tool to teach us how we are supposed to be to be socially acceptable.  

Our society teaches us that based on our sex, we must behave in a certain way, and keep ourselves within a certain box to be normal.  I'll start with the girls.  Agents of socialization teach girls that we have to have certain characteristics.  We need to be pretty, dependent, nurturing, kind, easily controlled, affectionate, simple-minded, and willing to succumb to a man's will.  Girls are taught that it is unattractive to be intelligent or strong-willed, and since our main goal in life should be to find a man that will take care of us, we cannot be this way.  Now, obviously this idea of total females being sub-ordinates to men has lessoned, but these traditional female values are still rooted in our society.  But, more importantly than anything else, girls are taught that we must be beautiful.  We must fit this certain cookie-cutter outline of beauty, we must be thin and tall, and have perfect hair without styling it, and a perfect face without makeup.  We must fit this outline of beauty to be considered attractive, and if we don't, we are less of a woman.  This effect of the media on the self-esteem of girls is discussed in the movie Killing Us Softly 4, where ads are examined to show how women are edited and objectified, which leads to a huge effect on girls, causing them to view themselves as less. So, girls begin to put in hours of effort in order to achieve this effortless beauty.  Girls grow up yearning to look like the models they see in ads, not knowing that those models don't even look like that.  In a Dove ad we watched in class, we saw the process that goes into taking a normal woman and making her billboard ready.  Being continuously exposed to these feelings of inadequacy cause girls to be exceptionally critical of themselves.  In another Dove ad, it said "Amy can find 12 things wrong with her appearance.  He can't find one."  Girls are taught to be incredibly critical of themselves and others, while boys are not.  This leads to the national epidemics of eating disorders and a influx in the number of cosmetic procedures done annually.  

The effect of society on boys is almost opposite of that on girls.  Boys are told that to be a real man, they need to be tough, smart, independent, strong, stoic, and dependable.  Boys aren't allowed to show emotion, unless of course, that emotion is anger.  Boys are raised watching movies and playing video games full of extreme violence and learn from it that in order to be a real man they need to be intimidating and controlling, and gain to ability to intimidate through violence, as was demonstrated in the movie Tough Guise.  But, if there are any boys who do show sensitivity or don't wish to be violent, they are made fun of.  They are called "gay" and a "fag."  This "gay-baitng" is what causes boys to try and demonstrate their masculinity through extreme displays of violence, like school shootings, as discussed in the reading by Kimmel and Maher.  Boys, specifically white, suburban boys, are the most likely to commit acts like school shooting because of history of "gay-baitng," and this constant blow to their masculinity causes them to eventually explode their feeling into this display of extreme masculinity through violence.  

Now, I have just described gender by splitting this idea into two distinct groups, as is the norm in our society.  In actuality, this is not how gender is at all, or sexuality.  Americans tend to try and have two distinct groups, one being masculinity and heterosexuality, and the other being femininity and homosexuality.  But in reality, these groups are just the two ends of a large spectrum of gender and sexuality.  There are people who are gender queer, and don't find themselves fitting into either the groups of boys or girls, but somewhere in between.  There are people who are bisexual or asexual, and people who are transgender or transsexual. There is a huge variety of gender and sexual identities in the world, even if society only wants to recognize two of them.  

Post #6

In class, we have been discussing the ideas of nature vs. nurture, and what agents of socialization affect the process of our nurture. Our nature includes traits we are born with.  We are born with our sex, our sexuality, our appearance, etc.  All of these traits are inherent in our genes; especially our aptitude to learn.  As children, we learn most everything we know.  As babies, we learn how to speak, how to walk, how to think and form ideas, even how to chew.  We are born unable to do most of these things that we now do subconsciously. We learn how to do these things from the people around us, or the agents of socialization in our lives.  Agents of socialization are things like our family, school, or the media, as described by James Henslin in the reading we read for class.  When we are born, the first and most influential agent of socialization in our lives is our family.  All the things I listed above are things we learn by being around our family.  Proof of the importance of nurture early in our lives can be seen in the examples of feral and isolated children.  In class, we discussed the example of Genie, who was found at the age of 13 locked in a room in her parents home, strapped to a potty-chair that she had never been able to leave since she was born.  Genie had never had any human interaction, had never had any nurture in her life, and as a result, couldn't speak, couldn't chew, wasn't able to stand up straight, could walk without shuffling her feet, couldn't straighten her hands or legs, couldn't feel temperature, the list goes on and on.  Without having any agents of socialization at any point in her life, Genie had remained in the primitive state in which she was born.  

Through the agents of socialization in our lives, we learn both manifest and latent lessons.  Manifest lessons are lessons that people like our parents have purposefully taught us.  For example, when our parents would discipline us as children, and tell us "Don't hit people" or "Don't talk back to me," they were teaching us manifest lessons to not be violent and to be obedient.  Our parents and others also teach us latent lessons, which are things they teach us unintentionally.  A prime example of a latent lesson is how our parents teach us our gender before we are even born.  While we are still in the womb, our parents will paint our room based on our sex, either blue or pink.  These gender norms are so engraved in all our minds, I don't even have to tell you which color is for which gender, you already know.  Once we are born, our genders are further imposed on us from the toys our parents give us to play with, be it Barbies or Matchbox cars.  We are dressed in certain colors and types of clothing that we carry with us our entire lives because from birth, we are shown that girls are supposed to like things that are frilly and pink, while boys like structured and blue.  

Thinking back on the idea of gender norms in my own life, I have realized that my parents actually did a pretty good job of not imposing certain roles on any of my siblings or myself.  Growing up, my favorite color was dark purple, and I was obsessed with the movie Toy Story as opposed to princesses.  I always carried my Woody the cowboy with me, and almost everyday wore my gray, fleece Toy Story hoodie, and never wore shoes, simply because I hated them. Similarly, my older sister was a fanatic about Thomas the Tank Engine, and my little brother would push a football around the neighborhood in a pink Barbie themed stroller.   I also aspired to be a football player throughout most of my childhood, until it was made clear later in life by the rest of society that girls can't be football players.  But, even though my parents never really pushed these gender specific roles on me, once I started school, I began to try and act more like a "girl," even if I didn't really realize it. My favorite color became a lighter shade of lavender, like the color  font I am using right now.  I began to wear more girly clothes, and play with dolls, and decided I wanted to be a chef instead of a football player.  I decided I wanted to be more like the girls I saw on TV and in the ads for Barbie dolls and fun hair accessories.  Even though I wasn't pressured to fill certain gender roles from my family, the agents of socialization of my peers and the media made me want to fill those roles, and be more of a "girl."  

Service Trips 1&2: Wealshire

For my first two service trips, I went to Wealshire Nursing Home on September 30 and October 14, from 3:45 to 5:15 both dates.  Wealshire is a nursing home for people suffering from various forms of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, and when I go with Key Club, we do activities with some of the higher functioning residents.  I have actually been volunteering here for the past four years, and have always really enjoyed it.  My first trip there this school year, we spent the afternoon playing bingo with the residents.  There is one woman named Nancy who I have gotten to know there over the past couple of years, as she is one of the only residents who is able to really remember who we are each time we visit.  While we were playing, I would help her by pointing out spaces on her board the she hadn't heard be called, and each time she would say "If I win, I'll split my prize with you.  Wanna know what the prize is?  A whole lot of nothing."  Each time we go, Nancy also makes sure to say "I give you kids props for coming back here.  I wouldn't."  My second visit on the 14th, we spent the time painting pumpkins, as many of the residents, and I'm sure many of the volunteers, were unable to safely handle carving tools.  This week, Nancy wasn't feeling well, so I worked with a woman named Elaine, who is in the picture above.  She spent the time telling me about her grandsons who graduated from Stevenson also, and asking me about my family.  It was really great to see how our going there and talking only an hour and a half out of our day was able to brighten theirs so much.