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Impact of media on individual
Impact of media on individual
How does sociological imagination relate to sociological perspective
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Sociological Imagination is essential realizing that how you feel personally, emotionally, or physically is also being felt by everyone else in society, and this opens up a whole new perspective of understanding. And this new understanding is so important to being compassionate and empathetic with someone because you are also in the same boat. Like when it comes to self-image and self-love. I always had the issue of loving myself for what God made me, because of what I 've internalized on watching tv, reading magazines, and etc. Viewing images of skinny, blonde hair, blue-eyed, gorgeous women, I associated was a real beauty. Much to my displeasure to learn, that millions of women also have internalized this. It’s also displeasing to know that …show more content…
At a young age, I already internalized so much self-hatred because of the color of my skin and hair. I struggle with this immensely since I’d watch Disney movies, that only popularize one racial demographic, and the only person that I could semi look up to was Princess Jasmine from Aladdin. But there was no real representation of minorities when I was growing up, so I strived like any other person would to be a Disney princess. I always asked my mom to put weave in my hair or do something with it, so I could have long flown hair like Princess Ariel, from The Little Mermaid movie, or strive to look as beautiful as Princess Aurora when she was sleeping. And I continued to struggle with these ideas that what is beautiful was to be white. And I just couldn 't comprehend at the time, that I was already beautiful just the way I am. It wasn’t until I got to high school, where I somewhat shed these ideas on what was beautiful. I just realized that the media and the movies are essentially fake and photoshopped. And the models for the tv and magazines were too boney and hungry. I got used to my curves and by the body by that time. But I didn’t really show forth pride for my melanin nor color. I just accepted the fact that I was black and born that way. I didn’t realize how rich and important my color is as well as my culture. It was until I started school, here in the University of Boston, …show more content…
and this has been internalized by everyone in the African Diaspora. This affects their self-esteem, respect, and their love for themselves. because they believe that they are ugly or not beautiful because they are not white. Black men help the situation neither, where they segregate their own race, like in music videos and movies. Black men, always ensured that they have the lights skins models and dancers, that have the hourglass figure with big butts. This is particularly damaging to our women whose skin is darker, body different from what it saw on Tv. it 's hard to find someone who has the same feature as you on tv when it is only one form that is being shown. And to relate it to slavery, and how the African-Americans were so divided within each other because of the field slave vs house slave mentality which is an example of the In-group and out-group (Sociology 101 Lecture, “Groups and Organization”, September 29th, 2016.) The field slaves didn 't care for the slave master and don 't respect him at all because he doesn 't respect them as human beings. Whereas, the house slaves, even though they receive the same treatment as the field slave, they believe that they are better than the field slaves. because they get to live in the house and is able to eat the same food as their master (even though the food is just scraps of what was left). And they are overtly concern for their
The sociological imagination is the ability to connect your own life and experiences to other people as well as history. When you take a deep breath to think about what you are doing and where you are at in life to see how it fits into your ultimate path you are using your social imagination. It is actually frightening in some cases to think how painstakingly average what you are doing is. I think that is part of the reason many people seek for something in life that gives them a sense of individuality. For example, while attending soccer practice, you do something that you think is extraordinary, but then another player steps up and does the same thing. If you stop and think about how many other kids are able to perfect and perform the same
But why, and who had them convinced that they were better than me? The solution to my problem was the media. When I picked up a magazine or turned on the television, the women depicted in these articles and movies resemble women of the lighter skin complexion. The lighter-skinned women were perceived to be smarter, wealthier, prettier, and even happier. They didn’t look anything like me they were flawless. Now, that I have the knowledge I know that these images are carefully airbrushed and manipulated to give that sense of flawlessness. But instinctually, as a 12-year-old girl viewing these images, I quickly compared myself to these images. Teens of my generation are extremely vulnerable to strong external forces whether it’s drugs, alcohol, violence, sex, and the media. Looking for validation from society would seemingly be the worst thing that you can possibly do because you leave yourselves vulnerable to becoming a victim. Nobody teaches us how to feel: self-confidence was something that cannot be taught. But, for a while I did experience periods of low-self esteem. No one would've suspected because somehow I was still able to maintain this chill, down-to-earth persona. One day, I decided that I wasn’t going to let people get the best of me. I needed to be happy; and at this point in my life I was not going to let anyone deter me from my happiness. The best way to gain my
In today’s society, it is easy to spot someone blaming themselves for the occurrence of their personal life problems. For example, a single-mother may blame herself for not being able to support her children well due to a shortage of money and unavailability to find a decent job. Another could be a newly wed couple having daily arguments that may lead to their divorce, or women who are facing difficulties perceiving their housekeeping responsibilities and wanting to become something more than just a homemaker. These various private tensions may seem very personal. These dilemmas are all related to a bigger world called society and this is known as the sociological imagination. Sociological imagination suggests that people look at their own personal troubles as social issues and, in general try to connect their own individual encounters with the workings of society. The personal problems are closely related to societal issues such as unemployment, marriage, war and even the city life where the private troubles and the public issues become clearly apparent. With the understanding of the sociological imagination, I began to notice the daily choices I make, the classes I attend, the way I was raised by my parents, the group of people I choose to hang out with, the things I like to converse about with others are all somehow affected by public issues and what society tends to make us believe is right. There are many areas in my life where I feel that I am greatly affected by various sociological theories such as events dealing with gender and sexuality, family and culture, ethnicity and race, and social class and work.
...being as close to white as possible. Black people and black culture is looked down upon as being dirty and inappropriate. Beauty, in essence, is having blond hair, blue eyes, and a clean, plastic family. The roles of each member of the family are fixed, and each person fulfills them with good cheer. This standard of beauty is then applied to everyone as a kind of scale of quality. A person who matches this standard is "good" and is respected for being so. A person who does not match the standard, or does not choose to conform to it, is not looked down upon. Not only are all people measured by this standard, people are aware of it at an early age. The "Dick and Jane" books read by children in school, clearly define beauty. More importantly, these books show that happiness can only be attained through beauty, and that an ugly person can never really be happy or good.
The African American community is supposed to be united under the Black race, but that is where the problems come in. Under the ethnicity of African Americans, and have pride in their skin color and are supposed to be joined together, there is a system of separation within the different shades of “Black.” In the black community, there are all kinds of shades of black, yellow, light, brown, dark brown, and other shades. According to Dr. Ronald Hall, a social work professor at Michigan State University, "As a result of having been colonized particularly by Spaniards, the British, etcetera, a lot of people of color internalize and idealize values for lighter skin because that is considered the norm.... ... middle of paper ...
Sociological imagination (perspective) is a term coined by C. Wright Mills, which enables us to grasp the connection between history and biography. The term means understanding human behavior by placing it within its broader social context (Henslin 1:2–3). Society molds our personal experiences, and society is directly affected by the historical period in which we live. It encourages us to examine subjects with a broader view, which is a more holistic approach to better understanding the events happening in our lives. Doing this might uncover underlying causes and possible solutions for circumstances that might seem inexplicable or trivial with using a basic approach. We are a part of society, and day-to-day personal experiences are related
I still need to learn how to stop judging people by how they look. I don’t mean that I judge people by their skin color, but by how they dress and what kind of cloths they are in. Everyone should wear what they feel good in, wear what they want to without anyone telling them they shouldn’t. I would like to be more open minded, but it doesn’t help that my mother makes those comments all the time about how someone is dressed. Race plays more of a role in my life than I would like it to. I am a white female, so I am seen as both privileged and oppressed, privileged because I am white, oppressed because I am a woman. I want to break my chains of oppression, break the chains of privilege, I want to be defined by who I am, not by what I look like or what gender I
Growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood as a kid sanctioned me to perpetually become aware that I was different from my neighbors. Through some social interactions with my friends in elementary schools, I quickly descried that my appearances, such as my hair, eyes, and nose was different from my peers. For instance, my hair was a lot darker than most of my peers’ hair and the texture of my hair was different from most of them. “Grow out your hair” were phrases that lingered throughout my childhood days, where I had my hair at a very short length. Throughout my childhood, I longed to try to be a part of the dominant group in society such as the Caucasians, but I did not do anything to be a part of the bigger group in society. Instead,
The topics of race and discrimination in the journal article show disturbing data of African Americans who are more likely to have physical and mental health issues. The constant exposure to racism that African Americans face leads to serious health issues such as hypertension, depression, and feelings of unworthiness. In Du Bois’s article “Du Bois stressed the role of socioeconomic inequality, such as unit housing, unsanitary living conditions, and poor food quality”. (Monk 397) It seems as if African Americans are going through these socioeconomic inequalities because of race and how they less fortunate because of societal views. Going back to the history of slavery, light skinned blacks were favored more than darker skinned field slaves. Usually, light skinned blacks received less discrimination than darker blacks. Even the idea of socioeconomic inequality is similar to the way light skinned blacks were treated better by white minorities, when it came to buying property from real estate. It seems as if physical appearance is a crucial element for determining factors about people.
This is the foundation of the Sociological Imagination Concept. According to C. Wright Mills, sociological imagination is developed when we can place personal problems in a social situation or environment such that they are no longer viewed solely as individual or personal problems, but instead as social problems. That is problems that are shared by enough peop...
In my words, Sociological imagination is a way for a person to look at their life as a result of their interaction with society. It can explain why a life is lived with way it is lived and all events, decisions, successes, and failures that have occurred. In my life I have encountered many situations, problems, opportunities and events. I can use my sociological imagination to examine these and figure out why I am the way I am and also why I have chosen to do certain things
Sociologist C. Wright Mills tells us that we must expose ourselves to sociological imagination, which is the ability to link someone’s personal struggles and success to the world around them and to observe what social factors might affect them. Sociological imagination is the ability to get rid of the familiar routines and look at something as
The first concept that I had to process is sociological imagination. On a personal note, my ability to understand
We all need to come together and stop giving into the white standards. The phrase “My Black is Beautiful” has to be said more so that they understand that it is okay to love your skin. It may be hard for some people to do, but it will take time. Our beauty has become a battleground, and this comes from years of slavery and Jim Crow segregation. The unprocessed collective pain from these destructive social experiences has been passed down through generations. As a result, there is so much pain living on our skin and we are trying to escape
Consequently, I feel misunderstood at times. I had this hole in my heart, where the love and affection of my biological mother belonged. A lot of my childhood involved being anxious about whether I would find my spot in a world where it seemed like everyone looked different than me. However, everything I felt, the discrimination, the disapproving whispers, and the loss I endured all happened for a reason: to strategically mold me into the person I am today. My experience and viewpoints have lent me the desire to use my education for better and to be someone who strives to create an accepting, understanding society. I find the world around me to be fascinating; it’s a jumbled up, beautiful chaos that tugs at us from every angle. My world has been turned upside down by the recent political turmoil. Last year, I began to understand what it means to be confident with who you are. Seeing people who so eagerly will tear into you, simply because of the color of your skin has always affected me. But now, I see things differently… I don’t desire to look like my peers anymore, I desire to show others why it’s imperative to listen and accept