Dangerous Social Forces

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Recommended: Importance of personal and cultural identity

Social forces always come along with behaviors, whether they’re good or bad. They create who people are and can even help identify who we are. Those forces can even help with identifying others too. But they can become dangerous and they shape who a person will grow up to be. If they're influenced to do amazing things or horrible things, help others in need or ignore them. Social forces are beyond our control. Nothing can change them. Social forces influence identities and become dangerous. Gender, race, time and place are just three social forces. All can have negative effects associated with them, the stereotyping of gender, saying that a girl has to dress nice, or cook in the kitchen, race and being discriminated against for not being a certain color, or even how being in a certain place can affect a persons identity, on the way they should act. Using references from To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and other various other resources.
First off is gender. From the moment someone is born, they are marked male or female on their birth certificate. And from there on, that person has expected actions. Gender creates identity or an imagine that people perceive. “... Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagined things, thats why other people hated them…” (Lee 41). In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout, a Tomboy girl, gets criticized for acting like a girl. But what exactly is a girl? Why do people stereotype genders to create an identity. That girls, “Imagine things,” and thats why they are hated. This is when social forces become dangerous. It becomes dangerous when a persons gender forms how they have to act. It can impact who a person is, and change them. Or try to change them, “Hooters… “female sex appeal” is importa...

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...y. Social forces can bring out the worst in a persons behavior. People use them everywhere, whether its good or bad. With just one look, a person can create their own view on another person based off their identity. Everyones social forces can be different, but no one should be treated differently. A person can't change their identity, so why criticize it?

Works Cited

Arnade, Chris. "America Is Still a Deeply Racist Country." Theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 12 Jan. 2014. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.

Mabry. Human Geography J.H.H.S. January Lecture

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: Warner Books, 1982.

"Looks That Get You Fired?" Lawyers.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2014.

“Race, Hatred and the Power of Words” John Hersey High School Freshmen Forum

Shute, Nancy. "Kids Are Less Fit Today Than You Were Back Then." NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 03
Apr. 2014.

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