Deviance

This week in class we talked about deviance, and how it can be good or bad. The study we read was very interesting, because it is very true. This guy does a study on the "saints" of the school, this would be the good kids who do not get in trouble & the "roughnecks" the kids that got in trouble a lot & were barely passing their class, if so at all. It was interesting to see that the Saints could be taking part in the same bad things as the Roughnecks, but since they were looked at like the good kids of the school because they came from wealthy families & had manners, they did not get in nearly as much trouble as the Roughnecks.

To me this study is very interesting to look at because the same thing goes on at school. There is that large group of kids who have a lot of money & are very polite, but they still do the same bad things as those kids who have less money & are looked at as the "druggies." One's status in society will be a label they carry on with them forever, whether it is good or bad. Kids tend to accept what others think of them & even more the kids who are given bad names. They tend to say to themselves "if others think I am bad then I must be." These kids then will keep that in their heads forever because that is what they have been told their whole lives, & will continue to act in bad ways.

Manly Man

Okay, so this week we have been focusing mostly on men & how they are shaped in our society. Let me get right to the point...

1. Disney movies... Alright, yes Disney always has the super hero who is extremely strong & all that, but come on.. are people really going to try to look like Hercules? Sure men want to be strong and able to stand up for themselves and the "girl worth fighting for" (this is a line in Disney's Mulan) but still. I have a feeling they aren't going to the gym trying to look like a buffed up Disney hero.

That being said, I do think that Disney can push the look of buffed men & very manly men to children at a young age. What kids need to understand is that not everyone will be the same. Not all of them will be the big tough, muscular man & that is okay. Guys as well as girls need to work on accepting who they are & being happy with themselves.

2. Men in the media. Yes, this is my same argument from when we were talking about girls in the media. Sex sells. That's the bottom line. It may not seem right to some, but it is what it is. I know that if someone who was not tight muscled like David Beckham was modeling men's briefs, no one would buy them.

Who is to blame for the mens look? The media... or the people who for so long have bought into the ideas of strong, violent, sexy men? Look at it this way... the shopping industry looks for ways to sell their products... if sexy men weren't doing the job why would they continue to use this tactic when selling their products? Don't blame movies, media, and the shopping industry for the "manly look" because we as consumers have bought into it & have made that look grow.