Subculture & You Are What You Eat

This week in sociology, I found a lot of the things we learned very interesting! I never really thought about Barrington High School as its own subculture and how something as little as the rules we have in our student handbook separates us from any other school out there. When we were talking about our school being its own subculture, we also discussed some of the positive and negative sanctions we see happen when we’re at school. Sanctions are expressions of approval or disapproval given to people for upholding or violating norms. An example of a negative sanction I commonly see is when teachers give a student four detentions for having their phone out during class. I noticed an example of a positive sanction in the beginning of this semester of this class. My teacher gave us all coupons that we can use for late assignments so we don’t get points taken off for it being late and if we don’t use the coupons, it would boost our grade up by a percentage point.  

It was really interesting to me thinking about how people identify themselves through food and how we judge people through eating habits. I’m not the kind of person who judges someone by the way they eat because I know I’m not perfect and I know at times I can be a really sloppy eater, slow eater, don’t eat much, pig out on food, and so on.  When I thought in depth about it, I see where people would be judgmental about someone who’s a sloppy eater because they would probably think that they are a sloppy and messy person in general, or when a girl is on a date with a guy and the girl orders only a salad to eat, the guy would probably assume she’s nervous and is masking what her real eating habits may be.  

Ethnocentrism & Cultural Relativism

This week in sociology we began learning about culture. Culture is defined as the language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and even material objects that are passed from one generation to the next. The first thing we started discussing was how ethnocentrism judges another's culture as in terms of ones own norms and values. I thought it was interesting that what we believe is normal to us is different in other cultures. For example, we think our food is normal and smells good, but food in other cultures is wrong and smells bad, or how we think it's normal to sit on a toilet when we go to the bathroom, but in japan they think it's normal to squat because it's more sanitary. We also learned about the alternative to ethnocentrism, which is cultural relativism, and what that is, is understanding unfamiliar values and norms and suspending cultural standards we've known all our lives. In my opinion, I feel like most people should stay open-minded about other cultures and not be judgmental about the way they do things differently because it can decrease competition and limit peoples opinions of another culture due to race. 

Lost Boys of Sudan

This week we watched Lost Boys of Sudan, which is a documentary about two Sudanese refugees on a mission to negotiate with people in America to help put an end to the pour conditions and violence that’s occurring in Africa, and learn how to adapt to a whole new culture. The way people go about life in Africa is so much different than it is here, and it was neat seeing Peter and Santino come to America and familiarize themselves to a whole new way of living.

In my opinion, I feel people in America take the resources we have available to us for granted sometimes since we've grown up in a country where it’s always been there for us and we don’t really know how else to live. When the boys first pictured how their life would be like living in America, they imagined it to be easy and they would be able to get whatever they wanted when they wanted it, but what they discovered was that living in America was just as hard as it was living back in Africa. Peter and Santino were able to do things they’ve only dreamt about doing like getting an education, eating as much food as they wanted, sleep in a bed, live in a house with a roof over their heads, and make money, but learned pretty fast that just because they have access to those things doesn’t mean it isn’t a struggle to survive. All the money they would make from working would go towards all the things that they used to think was just “handed” to them. Even though it was challenging for the boys to get use too the American culture, they never took anything for granted, they worked their butts off, and they appreciated being an American citizen more than anything, no matter what the situation may be.

Watching Lost Boys of Sudan, I noticed how the boys would do as much as they could to seem like a normal U.S. citizen and to try and fit in since people would instantly judge them from the color of their skin.  This documentary shows many ways how Santino and Peter did as much as they could to seem like a normal American teenager by going to school and getting an education, going to work to make money, driving a car, making friends, playing sports, etc. One of the major things I saw the boys change to fit in more was stopping the way they would interact with one another because if they touched a “man” in America like they would back in Africa, people would think that they’re homosexuals.

When Peter was talking on the phone with his sister, I noticed how pressured he felt when she asked him to send money to his family back in Africa because whatever money he would make went straight to the things he needs to survive. After seeing Peter and Santino realize that nothing was handed to them like they originally thought, made me think that people in Africa must assume that we can get money whenever we want because all they hear is how great America is and how it’s the best country to live in.  

Freaks and Geeks

This week we focused our attention on a humans desire to understand the world around them through social sciences. One of the main topics we covered was the three sociological perspectives and how each one relates to everyday life.  Watching Freaks and Geeks in class allowed me to get a better understanding of what functionalism, conflict theory, and interactionism is and it was cool to see how well this show tied into what we are learning about in class.

 I learned that functionalism is like a structure of society that maintains order and does its job. In order for this sociological perspective to function properly, it has manifest function which is an intended consequence, latent function which is an unintended consequence, and a dysfunction which is a negative consequence. The show Freaks and Geeks does a good job presenting its manifest function by showing the importance of going to school and getting an education, the latent function which represented school dances and learning how to socialize, and the dysfunction by relating it to the bullying that occurs between the different social groups. Without having an intended consequences, an unintended consequences, and negative consequence, this sociological perspective wouldn’t function the way it should because there would be no rules or no boundaries for people to follow, no place for individuals to interact or get to know one another, and no consequences that anyone would have to face.

By dictionary definition, conflict is defined as a fight, battle, struggle, or controversy. This definition resembles how the sociological perspective of conflict theory is a social living contest of who can attain the most power and is a never ending battle between all members of society. Freaks and Geeks does an excellent job displaying this theory by showing how much power the parents have over Lindsay and her brother, how the councilor makes Lindsay work at the homecoming dance, how the upperclassmen have more power over the underclassmen in school, and how the social standing in school, such as the cheerleader bringing the boy his jacket, makes the boys friends instantly assume she’s in love with him and that he should ask her to the homecoming dance. The conflict perspective is going to be present and never ending in everyone’s lives no matter if they want it or not. If someone wants something, they’ll do what they want to get it and when other people who don’t have what they have, then they will do whatever they can to attain it.

In my opinion, symbolic interactionism is one of the easiest social perspectives to understand because it’s based on how people change their understandings about the meanings of things. For example, in Freaks and Geeks the gym teacher puts the freaks and geeks on one team, and the jocks and bullies on another. This type of interaction symbolizes how the coach views the meaning of a simple game of dodge ball as a game where it’s the popular group going head to head against the non-popular group. Everyone plays a role in social interactionism so what you wear, what you eat, who you hang out with, where you come from, and so on, is how people gain an understanding about who you are and if your someone they would want to interact with.    

Personal Space

Personal space varies between every person, every country, every culture, every belief, and every religion. When I observed what personal space may mean to other students at Barrington High School, I noticed a difference when it came to gender and the opposite sex. When girls talked to their girlfriends, guys talked to their guy friends, couples talking to one another, and guys talking with their girl friend/girls talking with their boy friends, you'd notice a complete difference when it came to personal space for each group. Though not all couples are like this, but I observed this one that would be looking at each other around two inches apart, and were all smiley and kissing each other. There was literally not enough space for them to even look each other in the eyes when they would talk. I noticed whenever girls would talk to their girlfriends, they would sit close enough to each other so nobody else can hear what their talking about. I feel most girls do that so they can talk about their problems, talk about what this person did, talk about how hot this guy is or what her boyfriend got her, etc. Observing the way guys would interact with each other was the most interesting and entertaining because there was no such thing as personal space. The guys would get really close to each other and act like they were a couple, they would throw things at each other, make sexual references about anything anyone said, and would do whatever they could to make each other feel uncomfortable. I wonder if guys do things like that on purpose to make the girls laugh or because they want to get our attention or thats just what they do. Walking around you see a lot of friendships between someone with the opposite sex. I noticed that the conversations that would take place was roughly at a distance of seven to ten inches which is a good distance because your able to look each other in the eyes when you talk, see their reaction to something you said, and have a genuine conversation.

As I was observing what personal space may mean to other people I noticed about myself that personal space isn't much of an issue for me. Though I do like having my space when someone makes me uncomfortable, all in all I'm a friendly person and am totally fine with having conversations with someone five inches away or even thirty inches away. The more closer I am to someone I'm having a conversation with, the more I feel like we both understand each other than we would if we had a conversation further away because it's not easy to lie to someone when your face to face, you feel more sympathy for that person, you hear what they have to say and not what other people are saying, and so on. I defiantly feel more comfortable talking closer to a girl than I would a guy just because I'm a girl, and girls have lots to talk vs. having a close conversation with a guy which can lead up to them taking it the wrong way and trying to do something that puts you in an awkward situation.

Who Am I?

My name is Danielle, I'm currently a senior at Barrington High School and next year I'll be going to college at Colorado State University. The reason why I chose to go to Colorado was because I'm a huge outdoors person and I love the environment there. I've always liked mountain biking, hiking, river rafting, rock climbing, snowboarding, etc. and Colorado gives me that opportunity to do the things I enjoy.

I'm someone who absolutely hates drama so I do as best as I can to avoid it. I'm a friendly person and never judge someone off of their looks or what other people think of them. I can be shy at first, especially if I'm around people I don't know very well, but once I start warming up to I can be very outgoing. I'm a trustworthy person and am someone anyone can talk to about anything.

My parents filed for divorce in the beginning of my freshman year and it wasn't official till the end of first semester my junior year. I didn't do so well in school during that time because I was busy dealing with my parents issues so my younger siblings could have as much of a normal life as possible. Even though the past few years have been rough and overwhelming, my family still means everything to me. Without them and without going through what I went through, I wouldn't be where I am today. I believe everything happens for a reason, and what I dealt with the past few years has made me a stronger person today than I've ever been and helped me learn more about myself and who I am as an individual.

One of my goals in life is to graduate college and go backpacking around Europe or go to Australia for a year to take classes on marine biology. I hope to become a councilor at a rehabilitation center to help those who struggle with their addiction(s) and support their families throughout the process. Life is full of surprises and all I can do now is wait and see what my future has ahead of me.