“Sociology is the systematic study of the ways in which people are affected by, and affect, the social structures and social processes that are associated with groups, cultures, and societies in which they exist.” (Ritzer 2015, 75). Sociology not only tries to identify effects of social problems, but the causes of those social problems. The systematic study of Sociology will expand in cultures, race, and the world over a continuing increase in issues. In this essay, I will examine the relationships of deviance, stereotyping, and sexuality by analyzing the terms to scenes in the 2013 film Fruitvale Station. First, I will talk about deviance by analyzing the term to the scene where Oscar Grant is consuming illegal drugs and considered the …show more content…
sale of illegal drugs. “Deviance is any action, belief, or human characteristics that members of society or a social group considered a violation of group norms and for which the violation is likely to be censured or punished.” (Ritzer 2015, 215). For instance, an example used in the textbook stated, “Before most people in the United States considered tattoos more deviant than normal.” (Ritzer 2015, 215). In Fruitvale Station, the viewer is introduced to Oscar Grant III, a 22-year old putting out the marijuana smoke and hiding the stash of marijuana in his closet when his daughter knocks on the door. As the film moves along, Oscar contacts a friend to sell the bag of marijuana after smoking some of the marijuana to earn money. The conformance of deviance is seen when Oscar dumps the stash of Marijuana because selling and possession of Marijuana are considered to be illegal. In the year 2009, the possession of Marijuana was considered to a deviant action which led to a punishment in the United States, but the movement from deviance to normality is shown as some states have legalized the use of recreational marijuana. Both the textbook and film demonstrate deviant actions can change when a product becomes just another part of our consumer society. In addition, both the textbook and film touch on the idea of race in similar ways. Now, I will talk about stereotyping by analyzing the term to the scene where Oscar is targeted by police inside a train.
“A stereotype is a generalization about an entire category of people.” (Ritzer 2015, 299). An example given in the textbook is “In department stores, security guards may, without apparent cause, follow black customers.” (Ritzer 2015, 300). In Fruitvale Station, Oscar and a former inmate recognizes Oscar and attempts to assault him inside the train. Due to this disturbance, the BART police are called to intervene the disturbance which stopped the train. While Oscar and his friends separate to avoid the police, Oscar makes the decision to go back inside the train. Oscar hidden inside the train is stereotyped by a White Male police officer due to his skin color which is a fixed idea. In the film, we can see Oscar be apprehended and the policeman stated sit with your girlfriends which are exaggerated generalization about the group which is African American males. Both of these are examples of stereotypes because in the textbook and film demonstrate certain minorities are stereotyped by the dominant race due to their physical and biological characteristics, such as skin color. Subsequently, both the film and textbook touch on the idea of
gender. Finally, I will talk about gender by analyzing the term to the language used when the police detain Oscar and his friends. “Sexuality is the ways in which people think about, and behave towards themselves, and other sexual beings.” (Ritzer 2015, 330). An example given in the textbook is “A person’s sexual orientation and romantic tendencies may differ.” (Ritzer 2015, 331). In Fruitvale Station, when Oscar and his friends are heading to see the fireworks they see two females sitting next to each other on the train. When one of his friends tries to hit it off with one of the females by saying I like your everything, she states they are gay. While the males were thinking and behaving toward their opposite sexual being, the two females were actually homosexual. This shows an increasing difference in sexual identities because the two females do not hide their lesbian identity and show their sexuality. This demonstrates how both in the textbook and film sexual identities encompass a wide range and there is a growing number of sexual subcultures. To conclude there were relationships of deviance, stereotyping, and sexuality in both the film and textbook. In conclusion, both the film and textbook demonstrates the positive and negative effects these concepts have in society. As a society, we need to understand there can be differing and similar perspectives which will have an effect on future generations. This applies to the world because as a growing population concepts can continue to stay in place or change as the society continues to evolve. Through Sociology, we can see the affects individuals have on all types of situations, because our reactions we have towards certain issues. Sociology will continue to be an important study in our world because we can understand an issue better through the effects of not only cultures, race, but the world.
The purpose of this paper is to analyze a movie and list five sociological concepts outlined in our textbook, Sociology A Down-To-Earth Approach, 6th edition by James M. Henslin, which was published by Pearson Education, Inc in 2015, 2013, and 2011. I have chosen the movie, “The Breakfast Club.” This is a 1985 movie directed by John Hughes. It is about five high school students that have detention on a Saturday for nine hours. The five students are played by, Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, and Anthony Michael Hall. These five students are deviant in their own particular ways and have different stereotypes. Eventually the students share personal information about their
I can relate to your initial thoughts of the film McFarland, USA. Often, the “savior” of a group deemed troubled tends to be of different race and ethnicity. There are many stereotypes perpetuated in American Society. However, I appreciated the fact that Jim White genuinely cared about his students. I loved how he immersed himself in the townspeople’s culture and was willing to pick crops with his students if it meant they would keep competing in cross country running.
Society is faced with various problems that hinder the development of its communities. These issues affect the society in a numerous of ways and has a major effect on the citizens of the community as well. Social adversities causes grief and is also the cause of crimes and other miscellaneous activities that occur in inequitable areas. In the film, Fruitvale Station, there are abundant amounts of these adversities and societal issues that are illustrated. Fruitvale Station is a great example of a film that shows accurate social issues that occur in today’s society. The movie demonstrates issues of inequality, racial prejudice, gang involvement and also unemployment. It also shows how the people who are forced to live with these issues, fight for survival to maintain to see another day.
Deviance is described as “the recognized violation of cultural norms”(Macionis 238). While deviance can include crime, it is not always such. Deviance can mean trying to sneak into a hospital room, desperately searching for someone like the character of Benny in the movie Benny and Joon. Or it could be preforming on the streets for people to watch. Deviance isn’t always a criminal act. The movie Benny and Joon gave several examples of deviant behavior portrayed by the three main characters, Benny, Joon, and Sam.
The movie analyzed in this paper is The Mission. This movie contains several sociological aspects and concepts. The concepts most easily identified are the ones that will be discussed in the following pages of this paper. Those concepts are Social Inequality, Deviance, and Subcultures. Social inequality is the social differences that exist whenever one group of people has different access to the rewards a society offers. Deviance is a variation from a set of norms or shared social expectations. Finally subcultures are groups of persons who share in the main culture of a society but also have their own distinctive values, norms, and life styles. These three concepts are clearly recognizable and are the concepts most prevalent in storyline of the movie.
A stereotype about Asians that was witnessed in the movie is during the opening scene. When an Asian and Mexican driver had an accident for that reason the Mexican is being prejudice
The movie The Boondock Saints provides an excellent example of positive deviance through innovation. The Social theory of deviance can easily explain the brothers’ actions. The movie can be used to study deviance as the brothers kill people who are mafia members, breaking the norms of society. Even though the acts they are committing are clearly illegal and deviant, the people of South Boston do not react in a negative way. Since the Social theory is very broad, it will be easier to look at the brother’s acts under three sub theories: Labeling, Conflict and Strain theories.
Racial stereotypes, the automatic and mental pictures that people hold about members of a certain race. Stereotypes can be found for any race or ethnicity and are typically generalized to a whole group of people, rather than to one individual and their differences. Although racism itself is not as common in today’s world, racial stereotypes do exist and are very common. The popular sitcom, The Office, addresses the serious issue of racial stereotypes by Michael Scott to its audience with different races of characters.
For example, a teenager in today’s socialistic normalities are thought to be selfish and so absorbed in their phones they miss out on everything around them. However, not everyone is like that. The only reason someone thinks about a stereotype being fact is because the ones apart of the statistic are the ones who are the loudest and are easily pointed out. Mitch1991 claims in a Teen Ink article posts “Loud, obnoxious, rebellious, out of control, and up to no good… these are just a few of a wide number of stereotypes that are attributed to American teenagers. What is it about teenagers that make the rest of society seem to turn against them?” He has a very reliable point because he is living the stereotype first hand. A teenager is not alone in stereotyping of age. Elderly people are stereotyped as well. These may include being ignorant of what is going on, not being able to learn anything new, and being weaker at everything than younger people. Although these may be true for some people, they are still not true for everyone. Similar to how not all things people say about teenagers are true. This post he made matters because stereotyping does not just stop at the adult level or the color or race of a person level. It expands way past that. This is similar to how the Finch kids are treated at Cal’s church; unfairly and judgeful. Grouping people together like a teenager or elderly person is today or how the Finch’s are in the book, are one in the same because both have been stereotyped and not completely truthful for
Deviance is the term that s used for the type of behavior that does not comply or rather, goes against the norms of the society. Crime is an evident example of deviance and this has been used in a great way in this film. The film revolves around Derek who chooses to leave the path of deviance
There is an interconnection between social categorizations of race, gender, and class, that work in cohesive measures to create a disadvantage or advantage to those in a particular social group. Logan Gutierrez-Mock’s “F2MESTIZO” focuses on a biracial transgender man, who experiences life on both sides of the binary system, that being a white and a person of color, and a cisgender and a transgender. “F2MESTIZO” takes on the subject matter of intersectionality between race, gender, and class similarly to bell hooks’ theory on drag balls of the film, Paris is Burning. Although the ideas of passing between races and flowing between gender identities are often times seen through two different lenses, we see characters in both scenarios, enter and exit worlds of powerlessness and privilege, imitate race and gender to attain power, and establish a two-fold world of “us” against “them.” This, in turn, reveals much about the effects internalized racism that arises from the power complexities between race and gender.
Throughout literature, cinema, and even history, location-based stereotypes have had an impact on the way the story unfolds. One of the most famous novels that involve these location-based stereotypes is S.E. Hinton’s award-winning novel, The Outsiders. The characters in this novel form opinions about each other based on where they are from. This opinion based on where someone is from doesn't just happen in this novel. It happened in 1619 when slavery started and people felt they could just take African Americans from their home just because they were not from England, so they viewed them as a lesser valued person.
While watching movies, have you ever noticed that the villains in almost every single Hollywood film are of Middle Eastern or European descent? In a reoccurring theme of Hollywood, the villains in these films are almost always foreigners or people of color. This is a stereotype. On the other side of the spectrum, we often see that the heroes of these films are most often than not white males. This is another stereotype. Within the last few years, we’ve seen actors such as Will Smith, Morgan Freeman, and Zoe Saldana take the lead roles, so it can’t be said that there are no non-white heroes, but there certainly isn’t many. Hollywood action movies, moreover than other genres, are typically loaded with an abundance of stereotypes. The way these movies are composed and structured can tell us a great deal about the views held within the American psyche and who holds the social power. The harsh reality is that the media ultimately sets the tone for societal standards, moralities, and images of our culture. Many consumers of media have never encountered some of the minorities or people of color shown on screen, so they subsequently depend on the media and wholeheartedly believe that the degrading stereotypes represented on the big screen are based on fact and not fiction. Mary Beltran said it best when she stated in her “Fast and Bilingual: Fast & Furious and the Latinization of Racelessness” article, “ultimately, Fast & Furious mobilizes notions of race in contradictory ways. It reinforces Hollywood traditions of white centrism, reinforcing notions of white male master while also dramatizing the figurative borders crossed daily by culturally competent global youth – both Latino and non-Latino” (77). This paper will specifically look...
In the movie, Clerks, produced by Kevin Smith, Dante states, “I’m not even supposed to be here today!”. Dante says this throughout the whole movie, because he got called into work on his day off. The movie, Clerks, was released in 1994, during the time of Generation X. The movie portrays two young adults who have no work ethic, and who did not attend college after high school. Clerks made Dante and Randal come off as lazy and seem like they only cared about themselves. This movie has brought the wrong interpretation on Generation X, and has made people believe in the stereotypes of their Generation. For example, not attending college after high school, not caring about anything besides themselves, and being uneducated. Although, I believe
(4) Conventional is easy. Whenever an idea is generally perceived by society as standard or traditional it becomes very easy to display to the public without the raise of an eyebrow. This is the basis on which stereotypes appear in films. You’d think in the 21st century where what once were radical notions like same sex marriage and recreational drug use are being legalized that something uncalled for like the constant portrayal of character stereotyping would come to an end. Alas, stereotypical characters continue to emerge in film and unfortunately have become a staple of Hollywood because they’re simple and straightforward, requiring little effort on the part of the writers or thinking from the audience.