I saw Sociology at..

This week., the juniors have been testing in the field house. For two days we were all packed into the gym for five hours, taking tests that will help us decide our future. With hundreds of teenagers packed into one place, it can get pretty crazy. The first day, Dr. Cheng gave a speech to us about doing well on the test and at the end of his talk he had us all do the wave. I think that this kind of goes along with culture because everyone knew what the wave was and everyone knew how to do it. It's not neccesarily apart of our everyday lives but we are taught to do that and we know when it's appropriate.

Also, when we were given breaks in between tests everyone would seperate into different groups. It wasn't socially exceptable to step into another groups space or area until we were forced to go back to our assigned seats. Another example was when we had a break, someone hit the box off of the fire alarm and it started buzzing. Everyone got silent and stared over at the kid who did it. Then when it was fixed everyone clapped and yelled for the person. It's conformity to your peers when you do what they are doing.

It's our culture to test for college. Not everyone takes it as seriously as others but we all know how to act. This kind of testing is really specific on the directions which made all the stundents laugh because some things are obviously not okay. I think that it proved a lot of peoples maturity levels when taking these tests and getting through the long two days.

I saw Sociology when...

While learning about the gender roles, I remembered a time when I was at the store picking up outfits for my cousins. I walked through the boy clothes section and saw all the blue and darker, sports type clothing they had out for the boys. As I was going through I noticed a little boy and his mom a little ahead of me. The boy was crying because he didn't want any of the clothes his mom was picking out for him. I felt bad for him, thinking he should be able to choose his own clothing if he wants to. I really couldn't do anything about it so I walked away headed towards the girls section.

I walked through the racks of flowers and princess clothes that all the little girls couldn't wait to get their hands on. I realized that the boy and his mom started to walk away from the boys section towards the registers. This meant that they had to pass the girl clothes. And as they were passing the boy stopped to look at a pink girls shirt. His mom tugged his arm not wanting him to even look at the shirt. But when she did that he only started to cry more. She picked him up and put him in the shopping cart telling him that they weren't going to get any clothes at all.

I think that boys learn they need to wear one specific type of clothing and nothing else. And girls learn they need to wear the opposite type of clothing and nothing else. I don't think it was fair to pull the little boy away from the pink shirt. It's not like the shirt was going to give him a disease or make him gay, like I'm sure that mom was thinking. People, even little kids, have the right to wear whatever type of clothing they want. That mother took her sons right away when she wouldn't let him even look at the shirt.

Gender Roles

This week in class the focus has been on gender roles. What makes a person feminie and what makes a person masculine. It made me think how boys and girls could be either now-a-days. A girl doesn't nessecarily have to be feminine and a boy doesn't nessecarily have to be masculine. Sometimes this way of thinking poses a problem though. Some do not think it is okay for a male or female "act" like the other gender.

This makes me mad because I think that people should be able to be who they want and how they want without the unnessecary imput from others around them. We brought up in class that some think they are born that way, and it isn't their choice at all. In some cases, I think that could be very true. Just because a boy wants to play with a barbie doll or a girl wants to play with hot wheels, doesn't mean that they are going to be gay or lesbian. It doesn't mean that they are going to grow up more like a boy instead of a girl or vice versa.

In my opinion, I think that parents are paranoid. They don't want their child to be made fun of so they do everything in their power to keep them from switching the gender roles. Parents sometimes need to back off and let the kid be who they want to be. If they push away the type of person that child is supposed to be, they are pretty much pushing away the child itself.

Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior

After reading the article, Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior, I really thought a lot about what Amy's husband said. He explained that it isn't a child's job to spend their lives repaying their parents. I love my parents and I help them out as much as I can so I can't fully agree with what this man said. We (children) didn't choose to be born and we didn't get to choose our parents or family but neither did our parents. Of course they chose to become pregnant and start a family but they didn't get to say, "I want my kid to be this, this, and this." I think as children it is one of our responsibilities to help out and listen to our parents. On the other hand, our parents shouldn't be making every single choice for us. Mothers and fathers need to give us freedoms, that's how we as kids learn to grow up.

Honestly, I believe that the way Chinese mothers raise their children is somewhat wrong. It could be that I'm not used to that and I've never been around that type of parenting, but it's a little different. Pushing children to the very extreme, like she did while helping her daughter with piano, seems unethical. Children need breaks and to walk away from something for awhile. All humans need that, not just children. I think these mothers are building a strong person and an involved person, I also think though that the Chinese mothers could do this in a less intense way.

In my opinion, if I was called garbage by my mother or father I would be so upset. I don't believe it would help raise my self-esteem. As kids grow up, there are a lot of things in the world that can make a child feel vulnerable or drop their self-esteem. Hearing something that, plain and simple, would not make someone feel good. I think that with all of the different theories of Mead, Cooley, Piaget, and Freud they explain why the Chinese mothers act this way, or how this style of parenting helps.

Culture!

The past few weeks, we've been talking about culture and how all of the different types of cultures interact. Culture universal shows us how many cultures have the same idea (weddings, funerals, etc.) but each culture has different "rituals" that go with it. After watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding, I realized how different my culture is from their Greek culture in the movie. Their family parties consisted of yelling, talking over each other, eating, eating, and more eating. My family parties consist of sitting in the backyard for a barbeque, telling stories, and playing football. We both have family parties, we just do things differently as different cultures. I also looked at the way they got married. The extended family would spit on the bride as she walked down the isle. The pastor spoke in all Greek and once they were married they had to take their first steps together as a couple around the alter. My aunt's wedding that I attended just a couple of months ago, was very laid back and calm. They walked down the isle, were married, and that was it.

I think it's really interesting learning and taking part in other cultures. One needs to have the culture clash and culture shock in their lives to completely understand the fact that everyone is different and just because one culture doesn't do it the same way that you're culture does it, doesn't mean by any means that they are wrong. Innovation, technology, and diffusion has played a huge role in the way many cultures are today. For the most part, it is because of these three things that a lot of cultures are linked together in some way. But on the other hand, I believe that ethnocentrism is something that can really hurt our cultures as a whole. It goes along with one culture thinking another culture is wrong just because they don't do things the same way. Judging a culture is the same as judging a person, it hurts the people involved especially when the person judging doesn't know anything about that specific culture. I think if more people would be open to letting in new and differnet ideas and cultures, our society would be a better place to live in and be apart of.

Breaking Folkways

Folkways, the social norms we all follow in our everyday lives. It makes us "normal" or somewhat close to that. This week in class we had to break folkways and watch the reactions of people around us. To be honest, it was really hard! To do something that people don't normally do and to get weird looks from people takes a lot of courage. Especially because we were purposely doing it. Making sure we weren't breaking mores (do something that goes against our morals) or laws (the rules of our society!).

For my project of breaking a folkway I went to stores and paid in all change. No paper money involved. Quarters, nickels, dimes, and pennies. It was kind of intimidating to go up to the cashier and take out a big bag of change and start counting. I felt really awkward. Some people would give me dirty looks because I was slowing everything down. One person even yelled at me to hurry up and count faster. They would watch me with hawk eyes making sure I was counting it correctly but they wouldn't help me out. Out of all ten times I did this, there was one person who helped me and didn't make any rude faces or comments. I don't think that people understand that when they yell or make rude faces it just makes the situation worse and embarrasses the person. But after a couple times I got used to the faces and comments.

Overall, I think that people are really rude! I learned a lot from this project how fast-paced our society is. Everyone wants to get in and out without any hold ups. I don't think a lot of them realized that the more they interrogated me about it, the longer it took. I would look up then have to restart counting or I they would start taking some away and I would lose track. I think our society needs to slow down and take a chill pill. Because something so small as paying with change really made people mad. This shows a lot about the way our society is run and the way no one will go against what it is.

American Culture and Society

After taking a look at American culture and society, I think that we are looked down upon from many other societies and cultures. With all of the inappropriate things that are just plain normal to us, to other cultures it is against the law or just downright wrong. We talked a lot about kissing in public. It goes back to the article we read in class about the man kissing the Indian girl in a public place in front of people and that was considered illegal or wrong. The Indian culture doesn't allow this kind of behavior. And walking through the hallways or just seeing it on the streets or in public areas, we have no rules against public display of affection. It seems as though  people have made babies standing by their locker at my school. It's gross and not something that should be displayed for all to see. I don't think making it a law is really necessary, but to at least have some rules or guidelines would make the situation a lot less awkward for those around the situation.

I also think that American culture and society is very big on being perfect. We all have this standard that we are supposed to live up to. And it's really annoying because the only people who live up to that standard are the unhealthy, not-going-to-eat-till-you-can-see-my-ribs kind of person. Going against the fact that we all have that standard of being perfect, America has a huge problem with obesity. A whole lot of our population is considered to be obese. This lifestyle is also unhealthy for the human body.

Overall, I think American society is given a very bad reputation because of the things it comprises. If we could set guidelines or boundaries to some things, I feel that we could change our reputation to be something good. But until everyone starts to work together, American culture and society will, unfortunately, be looked down upon.