Hats Off To Deviance: Breaking Social Norms

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Hats Off To Deviance Every subculture has different levels of punishment severity when it comes to norms and folkways. Through my experience of breaking a folkway I believed to be insignificant, I realized that a subculture I am a part of judges certain behaviors that I would consider only slightly abnormal as extremely unacceptable. My goal for this assignment was to break a social norm that would not cause uproar from the people around me, so I endeavored to wear a comedic hat throughout one school day. Unknown to me at the time, this would become an ordeal that, in my opinion, was blown entirely out of proportion. As I walked into the school building wearing my hat, I felt slightly self-conscious. However, this did not last long because as I came in sight of a teacher, I was immediately ordered to remove my hat. Shocked, I …show more content…

Two of my other teachers also prohibited me to wear my hat; the only logical thought process I heard was that other students would see my hat, and they would also want to wear hats. However, I do not see a problem with everyone wearing a hat. Only one of my teachers allowed me to wear the hat in class, and I observed that, after a few initial laughs, class went completely normal. My teacher agreed. At lunch, I was able to wear my hat, and it was a topic of conversation for my friends. They asked me why I was wearing my hat, and once I explained my situation, there seemed to be an air of general acceptance from the group. I felt a little out of place, but we moved on to discussing other topics, and the hat seemed to be forgotten. I experienced a few strange glances and occasional laughs from other students, but no one other than my friends asked me outright about the hat. At first, the sense of being judged by others caused me discomfort, but this did not bother me once I had gained acceptance from my

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