Deviance In The Normal Heart

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Deviance

The topic of deviance encompasses how the whole of society views the gay community and, within the movie, how the public reacts to those who become infected with the HIV/AIDS disease. Deviance occurs when an individual breaks a norm created by the greater society (Brym, p.342). Structural functionalism claims that deviance helps structure society by establishing what is normative and non-normative behaviour. Systems create norms that tell members of society how to act and behave …. In the past individuals whom identified as homosexual or lesbian were viewed as deviant members of society. The Normal Heart, however, depicts individuals of the 1980s gay community as more integrated into the social norm of society. This can be seen in the many events that are held by widely known members of the gay community such …show more content…

Rules that standardize everyday behaviour are norms (Brym, p. 342). In the film, the gay community of the 1980s is widely accepted and all about “free sex” and expression. The HIV/AIDS disease, however, disrupted this life style and Dr. Brookner assembled members of the gay community and explained to them that they had to stop having sex until the disease was further studied. Everyone (except Ned) was outraged explaining that they finally can love freely while Ned explained to the doctor earlier that the gay community thought sex was all they had. In society today, the LGBTQ community has been accepted as normative and is even widely celebrated as seen with gay pride parades and other events centred around gay pride. The HIV/AIDS disease is now known to affect any member of society, not just gay individuals, and treatments have made the disease less fatal. Having AIDS/HIV is still seen as deviant but the disease is much more manageable than the epidemic represented in the

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