Social Construct of a Pool Hall
Billiards, or more commonly referred to as pool has been played for many decades. In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century it was played by those of upper class standing in their homes. Over the twentieth century pool shifted roles, becoming part of middle and lower class society. With the class change, pool also moved out of the home and into bars and halls. Pool has been forever transformed; today there are three main groups of pool players to be found in pool halls; professional players: blue collar players, and teenage players.
Non-pool players hold a very stereotypical view of what makes up a pool hall and its patrons. It tends to be a bar, full of drunkenness and fighting. Gambling, smoking, and trashy women standing next to their men. As one mother of five children stated in her interview, "it's motorcycle people." Here she was referring to the type of people who go to pool halls. And while she has never been herself, nor does she plan to go, she describes her motorcycle people as wearing, "leather jackets with fringe over dirty white t-shirts." These stereotypes could be possible for the lack of families and older couples who would go to pool halls. As with many stereotypes, this one is also inaccurate, of the three groups, the description of a "motorcycle person" does not fit in.
To define the groups of pool players, I studied a pool hall in Waterford, Michigan. This pool hall is located on the Waterford border with Pontiac, right off the main highway, in a collapsing business district. This area has seen its better days; it is now falling down the economic ladder. Now it resembles many inner cities of America. The hall is tucked back in off the highway, next ...
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...oup that should be left unrecognized, the women. Players from the lower groups do not strive to become members of the professional players, as professional players do not wish to move down in the ranks. The order is set; there are very few transfers between the groups.
The three groups: the professional players, the blue-collar players, and the teenagers, have forever transformed the atmosphere of the pool hall. While many stereotypes exist concerning what a pool hall is, many are not true. It is not full of "motorcycle people," nor is it a drunken scene as depicted in movies. It is a place of social construct, such as everything in society.
Works Cited
Jennifer. Gender Relations and Alchol: An examination of The Cocktail Waitress: Women's work in a Man's World. 5 November 2001. http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/6265/papers/gender/cocktailwaitress.html.
The author explores some stereotypes based on what types of jobs are more women’s type of jobs or more manly jobs. Careers such as carpenters and truck drivers are all almost exclusively male jobs, whereas careers in nursing or secretary work are all almost exclusively a woman’s type of work. Since the 1970’s, women have made head way into male dominated jobs. However, the author states that even though women have made it into male dominated jobs, this is not true for the reverse situation. The woman type jobs are still almost exclusively women’s jobs with men making little entry into them.
Jiobu, Robert M., “Racial Inequality in a Public Arena: The Case of Professional Baseball”. Social Forces , Vol. 67, No. 2 (Dec., 1988), pp. 524-534 Oxford University Press
...t and leisure, to creating equality amongst everyone. The history of sports has been marked by division and discrimination but also has affected modern popular culture and changing social attitudes and standards towards gender equality, social-class and race. During the Gilded Age and after, sports finally broke the barrier between gender, social-class, and equality. It allowed blacks to be able to play sports with whites, women to play sports with men, and it allowed the poor to play sports with the middle-class and wealthy. Not only did sports in the Gilded Age allow barriers to be broken, but it also allowed sports to be shared amongst different races, women, and social-classes. Different sports such as prizefighting, boxing, and swimming were introduced by the minorities in society, and have now become some of the most popular sports today.
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Coakley (2009) starts off the chapter by introducing how participation in organized sports came about and how gender roles played a major role early on. He describes how most programs were for young boys with the hope that being involved would groom them to become productive in the economy. Girls were usually disregarded and ended up sitting in the stands watching their sibling’s ga...
Music has been around since the dawn of time, ever since man first inhabited this planet we have learned to communicate in ways other then conventional speaking. Different Cultures all have there own specific way of communicating through music. Music is basically broken into two specific groups Eastern Music and Western Music. Eastern music is mainly derived from the orient and India. While, Western music first emerged from Europe. Western music has developed in many ways since the middle ages through its form, sound, and message.
Jennifer. “Gender Relations and Alcohol: An Examination of The Cocktail Waitress: Women’s work in a Man’s World.”. December 9th, 2001. www.geocities.com/wellesley/6265/papers/gender/cocktailwaitress.html
Bronchiectasis is a chronic disease of the lungs where the airways of the lungs become abnormally widened, leading to a build-up of excess mucus that can make the lungs more vulnerable to infection (Nhs.uk.2014). The extent of the disease can vary greatly- may be one section of an airway that is widened and abnormal or many airways- usually somewhere between these extremes. Widened parts of the airways are damaged and inflamed, which causes excess mucus to form which is less easily cleared. Furthermore, these parts of the airways are weaker and more liable to collapse inwards which may affect airflow through the affected airways- severity depends on how many of the airways are affected (Patient.co.uk. 2014). Patients with bronchiectasis have chronic cough and excess sputum production, and infections due to bacteria develop in them- this results in the loss of lung function (O’Donnell 2008).
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