Young Males, Modern Society, and Drug Use
To understand the use of drugs by young men and to review the literature in a coherent framework it is necessary to begin with an understanding of the term 'gender'. Gender is said to mean more than just male or female. Rather it is a description of the traits and attributes which society ascribes to each sex. Gender is distinguished from sex in that sex refers to biology, whereas gender refers to the cultural meanings and social constructs that are superimposed on the biological differences between the sexes. That is, gender is socially constructed. It transforms female to mean 'feminine' and male to mean 'masculine', and by so doing it defines our expectations of both male and female behavior in everyday life.
Most research up until the 1980s was based on male perceptions and male constructs of drug use, which by its very nature, neglected female drug use (Davey, 1994; Sargent, 1992; Temple-Smith & Hamilton, 1991). Some studies ignored women entirely; others included women but ignored gender, simply combining men and women in the analysis. Authors of many studies thus generalized from male subjects to 'people'. As Henderson (1993) says "It is a familiar sentiment by now that the literature on drugs is limited when it comes to the subject of gender and drug use. All too often studies have ignored gender as a factor in drug use and extrapolated from the male experience." (p. 127).
It is important, therefore, to acknowledge that historically, gender has been a 'blindspot' in much of the research on drug use and abuse (Lammers & Schippers, 1991). The influence of male gender has not been considered, despite the fact that males have mostly been the subjects of the studies. As Broom (...
... middle of paper ...
..., S. (1997). Youth violence and the limits of moral panic. Youth Studies Australia, 16(1), 25-30.
Vogel-Sprott, M., & Chipperfield, B. (1987). Family history of problem drinking among young male social drinkers: Behavioral effects of alcohol. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 48(5), 430-436.
Waldron, I. (1991). Patterns and causes of gender differences in smoking. Social Science and Medicine, 32(9), 989-1005.
Waldron, J. (1997). Changing gender roles and gender differences in health behavior. In D.S. Gochman (Ed.), Handbook of health behavior research 1: Personal and social determinants (pp. 303-328). New York: Plenum Press.
Walpole, S. (1995). Gender equity in education: A view from outside the classroom. In Proceedings of the Promoting Gender Equity Conference (pp. 5-11). Canberra: Ministerial Council for Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs.
The narrator’s briefcase itself is perhaps the most important of Ellison’s inanimate objects. While the influence of the briefcase is not in its being an overtly crude representation of an oppressive society such as, for instance, Mary’s bank, the briefcase nonetheless plays an important role in constructing the pillars of the narrator’s superimposed identity. After the Battle Royale scene, the narrator is finally allowed to make the speech he has prepared. During his speech, he makes the ‘mistake’ of using the phrase ‘social equality’ in place of the much more ambiguous term, ‘social responsibility.’ The narrator corrects himself amidst the jeers of the almost entirely white audience. He then continues with his speech, lauding the importance of friendship, extoling the necessity of docile mutual existence to the “thunderous applause” (31) of the audience. Pleased with the narrator’s attitude of implied submissiveness, the superintendent “come[s] forth with a package wrapped in white tissue paper” (32). He presents this mysterious ...
During the 60’s and 70’s, drug use became a social phenomenon. It has been called the age of experimentation. People were trying drugs at a rate never before seen. Part of this was the ease of distribution due to the interstate systems. However, also many adopted an attitude that it was just an “experiment.” One issue was the lack of understanding on the addictive quality of these drugs. Another problem was that if it was prescribed medication, people held the belief that it could not be a dangerous or harmful thing to take. Combined, these attitudes began to have large-scale, adverse effects in
Heavy metal music has developed greatly ever since it was created in the late 1960’s, evolving into large and varied categories of subgenres. It is not uncommon for types of metal to be confused for one another despite their distinct differences. There are hundreds of subgenres, but three of them will be discussed, the bluesy and distorted doom metal, the fast and fantastical power metal, and the ill reputed black metal.
Golding uses imagery of the nature to portray how Simon was linked to the natural world. After Simon's death, a sense of serenity takes over the beach and even the sea seems to become less restless as “the rain ceased, and clouds drifted away" (pg.153). Although Simon’s death was sad, upsetting and unfortunate, Golding tells us that “creatures with fiery eyes” (pg.154) which surrounds Simon’s body and turn him into a beautiful figure of “sculptured marble”(pg.154). “Everything was coated with a layer of silver” (pg.154), which softened the enormity of Simon’s death. Golding uses bright colors and descriptions such as “phosphorescence” (pg.153) which implies that although Simon is dead, he is figuratively “brought back to life” by the nature all around him. The images created by the s...
The first and most popular genre on the list is heavy metal. This is also referred to simply as metal by most people. Metal is a genre of rock music that was developed between 1969 and 1974. “With roots in blues-rock and psychedelic rock, the bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, heavy, guitar-and-drums-centered sound, characterized by the use of highly-amplified distortion and fast guitar solos” (Ben, History of Heavy Metal). Heavy metal fans have been known around the world as “metal-heads” and “headbangers”. Some of the early heavy metal bands include Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.
More tragic play The tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark is the most popular works of William Shakespeare. Probably the popularity of this play lies in the use of character of Hamlet in exemplifying the human mind through its complex workings. Hamlet’s internal dilemma of making the decision whether he should revenge the death of his father or not was a crucial turn in his life as the state of mind was the main reason which effected the decision power one makes in his life. His uncle Claudius was the one who murdered his father and the moment when the ghost of Hamlet’s father appears and asks Hamlet as to when the revenge of his foul and most unnatural murder is to take place. From this point onward Hamlet is under a constant dilemma. He does not find himself ready to take the revenge. If Hamlet had killed Claudius at the first opportunity than the revenge would have been taken but his internal dilemma would have never been solved. This play became very popular and the reason for the popularity was Shakespeare’s use of the character Hamlet and through this character he has tried to exemplify the complex workings of human’s mind. Shakespeare used emotion, reason and attitude of Hamlet to allow the readers to form an opinion or make a judgment about the basic aspects of the life of human beings. The reason the prince could not take the revenge of his father’s death was that he was a man of great moral integrity and to take revenge was an act which was against his deepest principals. Some of the other behaviors of the prince was that after the death of his father Hamlet became so disenchanted with his life that he lost all his desire and will to take any kind of revenge. Due to the delay in revenge Shakespeare was able to develop th...
Drug in the American Society is a book written by Eric Goode. This book, as the title indicates, is about drugs in the American Society. It is especially about the misuse of most drugs, licit or illicit, such us alcohol, marijuana and more. The author wrote this book to give an explanation of the use of different drugs. He wrote a first edition and decided to write this second edition due to critic and also as he mentioned in the preface “there are several reason for these changes. First, the reality of the drug scene has changed substantially in the past dozen or so years. Second much more information has been accumulated about drug use. And third, I’m not the same person I was in 1972.”(vii). The main idea of this book is to inform readers about drugs and their reality. In the book, Goode argued that the effect of a drug is dependent on the societal context in which it is taken. Thus, in one society a particular drug may be a depressant, and in another it may be a stimulant.
Pirruzia, T (2011).Review of the Roots of Youth Violence: Literature Reviews. (n.d.). Chapter 1: Biosocial Theory. Retrieved May 1, 2014, from http://www.children.gov.on.ca/htdocs/English/topics/youthandthelaw/roots/volume5/chapter01_biosocial_theory.aspx
Metal music, which is mostly referred to as “Metal” is a very popular genre of rock music, though not the dominant genre in the modern world. Originating mainly in the United States of America and the United Kingdom in 1950’s, it developed and gained popularity in the next decade only. It is one of the most prominent genre in the music industry that has also influenced other genres, with its style, even in modern music.
Adolescent Substance Use Trends Patterns and trends of substance use among adolescents fluctuates from generation to generation. There are many factors related to the increased risk for substance experimentation. For example, generational substance use, poor parental monitoring, and low academic performance contribute to elevated risk for substance use (Allison, et al., 1999). Substances that have remained on the forefront for adolescent use and abuse include alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana (Hussey, Drinkard, Flannery).
Latham, P.K., & Napier, T.L. (1992). Psychosocial consequences of alcohol misuse in the family of origin. The International Journal of the Addictions, 27, 1137-1158.
Biologically women are unable to metabolize alcohol as quickly as men. A women’s genetic and physical makeup impacts the role of addition. Drug cravings are more prevalent in women and women have a higher rate of relapsing after treatment. Society perceives women based on culturally defined gender roles. Often times woman are judged by their emotions to determine their level of intellect and may face scrutiny based on their substance of choice. There are stigmas placed on women to conform to societal norms such as beauty standards, maternal instinct, career oriented, feminine, self-restraint, patience and sensuality yet through all of this women are expected to be self-sufficient and free from temptation. These stigmas lead to some of the
In the story of Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, there are many different perceptions of what the tragedy could be. In my opinion, the tragedy in Hamlet was a direct result of the foul play emitted by Claudius onto the royal family of Denmark, and his refusing to reveal his evil plot. From these acts, a series of events developed could have been avoided by a simple act of confession.
Heavy metal was born from the voices of Ozzy Osbourne (Black Sabbath), Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin) and Ian Gillan (Deep Purple) (Walser). The genre is in a musical category of its own that has become defined by a hard sound created by heavy drums, distorted guitar and explosive lyrics. A common misconception about the genre is that the “explosive lyrics” are violent, antagonistic and written in hopes of causing the world to burn. In reality, that only defines the sound...
Heavy Metal’s popularity is and has been on the rise due to its many bands and increased guitar technology. Since the mid 1960’s, when heavy metal spread to the U.S. from England, it has grown in popularity. Many of the first bands that came from Europe came with two intentions; to spread heavy metal to other parts of the world, and to make it grow in popularity. (Ragland 1).