Social Class

"How much do you think social class matters in the U.S. today?"

To put it simple, sadly...Social class is everything in the U.S. It has been since before the Civil War. It's what seperates the next man from the next, the next women from the next man, child vs child. Social differences build backgrounds and competition, its the driving force of our society. Tommy and John could be equal in physical stature, but where john maybe from a middle class, single parent home. Tommy, is coming from a slightly richer middle class family, with 2 parent. Without the details of knowing what the parent's do, most will assume that Tommy has the greater possibility of success. Success shouldn't be defined in those ways, but socially it can show a pattern. Two primary sources of "success" in the house and two solid parents, will build structure in Tommy. Yet, let say John's one parent, is very successful and makes enough to support John and a whole family not his own.  Is that not a solid source of success for John, to have a parent making well into the 6 figures? Who cares, I say; the social games of America put limitation on people before they even have a fair chance to build there own impression. Being rich, poor or wealthy; being black, white or latino; tall, short or fat are all social limitations, that matter to employees and your peers a like. I hope to see this change as the world becomes more diverse and things begin to mix up in societies. If we can break down our barriers socially, we can breakdown or barriers mentally and vice versa, make life in the USA, a lot more of a fair game to play.

BBC Hugh Laurie

Hugh Laurie's song for America - A bit of Fry and Laurie

A BBC sketch (British Broadcasting Channel) portrays its views on American music. The actor behind the hit American Drama, "House" sings a 50 second song about well, America. But, ironically that's is all the songs lyrics consist of "America" chants, with a bridge section chanting "states." The song is catchy, pointless, and narcissistic, as is America, and its people. The sketch shows how the world views us, they see us as not really caring about anything but yourself, but yet we have no real substance. The musician is playing a smooth clean ballad, but he is dressed in 80's rock attire, correct satire maybe? I get the humor, and the laugh track adds to it. But at the end, the musician gets knocked out by a man in a "business suit." I feel the suit represents, what briton and the upper class societies of the world, wish would happen to America;s heartless soul music. Even though the only argument I can find, is that American music and its artist are still very profitable, in Britain and anywhere else in Europe, because of its mindless, heartless, tasteless approach.

Criminal Justice System

It is stated in the book that gays and lesbians experience a high incidence of violent crime and harassment. One third of gay men and one quarter of lesbians have been victims of at least one violent attack. I knew that a lot of homosexuals get a lot of negative attention but i didn't know it was to the point of a crimes being created associated with them. Heterosexuality is considered a norm in public places and homosexuals are still seen as belonging to the private realm. If homosexual people were to expose their selves in public as being together or compassionate with each other than they are more vulnerable to crime or even provoking it.
A young man Matthew Shepard, in Wyoming was beaten outside a bar by the accused and two other men. He was then tied to a fence in the woods when it was very cold outside and after eighteen hours he was found. Shepard was pronounced died a couple of days after that, some would view this type of violence as a justifiable response to a behavior or life choice they view as immoral. Some view reactions to hate related attacks ultimately denies essential person hood and right to life of the victim. Such crimes have led many social groups to call for hate crime legislation to protect the human rights of groups who remain stigmatized. I don''t think that being gay is wrong or means that a person is not like the rest because we as American are to be free. If that is what makes them happy then what is it hurting. It crazy to see people being bullied or beaten up for going against the norm that we come up with. I see many parents staying together fighting and arguing in front of the child just because they have a child together, but there we have these homosexuals who love like no other and we treat them like crap. At least they are happy and the child is loved. A lot of people feel there child will learn how to be gay and that doesn't always happen the child could still be very straight. I seen as a young child that my mother liked to smoke cigarettes, but i never once thought of doing it or even trying it. All I am saying is that everyone should be treated equal and we should lean America in the wrong direction. I feel our society should be as quick to judge anyone for everyone is different in their own way and if America feels better by pointing out the things that aren't within the norm than maybe America isn't what it's supposed to be.

The Enviroment Factor

Growing in suburban DC, or more specifically NOVA (northern Virginia), i never fully lived the city life. I had the opportunity of coming from a small town near a big place. Its like being the little brother who benefits from the the mistakes their parents made with their older sibling. Though not worse, than the city, still influenced by the city, impacted by the city. My boyfriend being from the city claims to have only had 900 students total hi graduating year, mine on the other hand almost double. My life was more spread out, make things like city corners and stuff less of a problem and a flat tire or a frozen driveway more one. Simply just a more room for error in the suburbs of DC, but that doesn't mean you should go looking trouble. I also know currently Virginia is ranked the best state to raise a child in, based off one of the 2012 Virginia primaries votes. If that statement is true then I would like to think benefited from  Virginia and doing fine with the full city life.

Gender Inequalities

“Men look at women. women watch themselves being looked at,” says John Berger. This qoute sums up the gender relationship since men knew they were seperate from women. Men have controlled the gender gap for a very long time. The active male can dominate the passive female becase she is looking for confirmation from the male. Was Eve made from Adams rib or from his back. The difference in the two is one puts Eve as equal and one puts Eve as belong too man. A womens identity belongs to man. Even in the modern era, with fashion and the media, which are ran by men...women are at the mercy of a mans perception. Every word in our vocab can be used to seperate the man from the women. Masculine was picked over feminine for a reason. This to me isnt right as a women, self enpowerment has to come from within. But a women that is too comfident is looked down upon, often called a "bitch" or other harsh terms. I work hard in my everyday life, sometime way harder then my male counterparts but, its a fact that I will never make enough to be considered equal. The value of a women is still under appreciated.

Global Inequality

The post-Global warming era has bought along with it, a lot of global awareness. From the earth's sustainability, and the sustainability of the people on it. As the 1st world countries battle to grow more economically, they gain leverage over the bottom billion population of 3rd world countries. Is this fair? No, if you’re on the wrong end of diplomacy. The same way we fight for equality within our own lands (short term goal) we should do so as a whole for the world; human race (the big picture).
 Global Inequality can be broken down into the inequalities, which exist between countries and the inequalities within countries.  Not everyone in the United States is rich and not everyone in a poor country is poor.  Both measures must be taken together

Changing Social Connections

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I believe it can go both ways because there are advantages and disadvantages to the new technology available used by Americans. The advantages are it has help build job opportunities, relationships, and to be able to communicate faster. The disadvantages are that there is little physical contact and not everyone has the money to access a lot of the technology. Jobs are always being posted online and are easier than going into each store asking if they’re hiring. Now a days when you walk into a job that’s hiring they will ask that you go home and fill an applications online. Often relationships are formed online because it allows things to be said without people seeing your reaction. It doesn’t bring the emotional social baggage that is part of the face-to-face encounters. It allows people to first communicate and then decide whether to pursue with a relationship. Now if you have family across the world it doesn’t matter because technology has made it much easier to communicate. Before you would have to write letters and wait for them to be returned. The downfall is that sometimes immediate family feels ignored because your not going to use technology with someone sitting in the same room with you. Another issue is that a lot of families and schools can’t afford technology so they feel that they have to work harder to find information for their studies. I feel it’s something we should be aware of in the future because some people might depend fully on it. Now a days people can’t remember a simple contact of a loved one without checking in their phones.

Nature and Nurture

Nature is a name given to a long-standing controversy as to the relative influences of genetics and nurture is the environment in the development of personality. Nature is represented by instincts, and genetic factors, and nurture by social influences.

I am a mother of a little three year old boy. His father and I separated when he was almost a year old. We use to do everything with each other had set routines. When his dad moved out we had to set a schedule for my son to when his dad was going to get him. He old stay at my house during the week and his dad would have him every other weekend. It was a huge change for my son because their were different rules to follow at both houses. I noticed a change in my son because he was becoming more needy and I couldn't go anywhere without him screaming. I couldn't drop him off at daycare even though I told him I was coming back. I had to work a lot more because I was paying my bills on my own which was causing me to see my son less. He was always crying wouldn't get off your lap to play with other kids or anything. His dad and I seen how it was affecting his life and we agreed to still do things as a family so our son wouldn't think we hated each other. Even though we hated each other guts we knew it was best for our son.

I strongly believe in nurture because something can always change your life forever. My sons dad and I were ruining our child's life. We must nurture our children, a parents love and caring determines how a child grows up and how a child will eventually parent. No matter how much love me and his father gave him it wasn't the same as us all together giving him unconditional love. A child always needs to feel like they are important no matter what age they are at. The first three years of your child's life are crucial. Those are the years children will develop significant intellectual, emotional and social abilities. That's when they learn to give and accept love. Nurturing make you who you are today and to me that is very important.

Stanford Prison Experiment

This experiment was held in 1971 by Philip Zimbardo, who was a psychologist. This experiment consists of undergraduate students who played roles of both guards and prisoners. Zimbardo wanted to test the impact to situational variables on human behavior. It lasted about one week, but it was supposed to last for two weeks. The students were treated so unfairly and they were losing their sense of identification and extreme stress. The guards became very aggressive and abusive. A prison like environment was placed in a basement and each cell contained three prisoners at which they stayed in all day. Guards worked eight hour shifts in groups of three and after shifts they were able to go to their homes until their next shifts. Zimbardo was head of the prison but overlooked the abusive behavior. It was hard for him to remain an observer because it was hard to keep scientific methods in place.

After watching and reading about the experiment it seems like it had more observational results with no scientific evaluation. It seemed like because of the situation the prisoners acted the way they did. This wasn’t due to their own individual personalities because before coming into this experiment they would have never acted the way they did. This experiment was criticized as being unethical. Role playing played a major role because the prisoners based their behavior on how they were expected to act. Zimbardo said it was false because no one was given instructions, which was left false due to the simple fact that of course the prisoners are going to obey the guards and feel overpowered especially knowing that the guards had more power and didn’t live like prisoners. The fact is that it is hard to mimic an actual prison cell because they weren’t real crimes and they knew it was for researching purposes. Philip feels the experiment demonstrates the powerful role that the situation can play in human behavior. It is said that the study recently gained attention after reports of the Abu Ghraib, which prisoners were held in Iraq who were tortured. Philip believed that the two resembled each other.

I don’t feel that this experiment was helpful in any way. First off he just randomly picked the students and guards. The guards had no prior experience and could decide what to do with the prisoners, which in a real jail there are rules and guidelines. Another odd thing was what the guard had the prisoners do for punishment and sometimes the things were just to humiliate them. We don’t put prisoners in dresses or make them scrub the toilet with just their bare hands. Another thing is that prisoners are usually people that have committed crimes and are in there to serve time and think about what they did. The prisoners in this experiment were just brought in and they knew it would be for a short period time and knew it wasn’t real. This experiment didn’t grasp the necessary aspects to present reality in prison life.

Hello my name is Chantel and I am a full-time student here at NOVA. I also work part-time at massage envy to pay for school and other bills. I am a mother of a little boy named Corey who is currently two years old. In my free time I love to do things with my son and I also love to sing. I graduated from South Lakes high school and have attended NOVA after graduating in 2009. I will be graduating with a general studies associates degree. I want to take two semesters off to go visit family in California then I would like to continue in the Fall of 2013 to pursue my bachelor's degree. I am taking this class as an elective and I chose Soc because I enjoyed taking Soc 201 and 202 this summer. Overall I am told that I am a hard worker and I hope that all my successes will one day pay off.