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Recommended: Analyse moral panic
A moral panic is defined as a public panic over a matter that is considered to be threatening or shocking to the social order. One example of a significant matter that caused a moral panic in the public eye is homosexuality. The public discriminated against homosexuals, viewing them as sick, unnatural, immoral and a threat to society. Another example of a moral panic is America’s effort to protect its children from sex, which is discussed in the Harmful to Minors book by the author Judith Levine. This controversial argument by Levine explores why Americans demonize the topic of sex and keep their children away from it in fear that it will harm them, and in return Levine explains how protecting them away from sex actually ends up harming them.
Homosexuality existed since ancient times, for example in Ancient Greece, where it was evident through many literary and artistic works claiming that “pederasty” which means homoerotic relations between adult men and adolescent boys were very common. The adult male was called “Erastes” which means the “older lover” who was usually the role mode...
“Moral panic has been defined as a situation in which public fears and state interventions greatly exceed the objective threat posed
Pepper Schwartz opens Why is Everyone Afraid of Sex? with "In spite of the visibility of sex in the media and popular culture, despite a widespread acceptance of a variety of sexual practices, Americans still hold a deep-rooted fear of sex." (252) Schwartz then goes on to explain the surprising, but obvious truth. American society portrays a sexual attitude, but is actually hiding a fear of the activity. Schwartz does a great job of showing both sides of this argument. She mentions how sex seems to no longer be a completely taboo thing within the media and society today. Within television, magazines, articles, movies, etc, sexual themes are all over the place. Another factor is that premarital sex is becoming more and more acceptable these
Thus, the partygoers in Symposium have gathered during a festival celebrating the fertility and productivity of heterosexual relationship to attempt to justify their homosexual relationships by eulogizing Eros. Since heterosexual relationships were justified by the production of children, a justification of homosexual relationships woul...
In the article, “Moral Panics: Culture, Politics, and Social Construction” the authors Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda discuss two different perspectives of moral panics. Each perspective give a different way of looking at how moral panics are portrayed to come about in society. The Objectivist perspective and the Constructionist perspective show how people view moral panics. However, the Constructionist perspective is more important and valuable to society than the Objectivist perspective.
The word "homosexual" seems to have come into the English language around 1869, introduced by a Hungarian named Benkert but not generally used by the British until the 1880s. Yet, according to Theo Aronson, there were other words used at that time to identify the love between the same gender. "Homogenic love," "similisexualism," and "Uranism" were apparently among the more common references to homosexuality.
Fear drives a call for action against drugs and violent crimes. Concept of Moral Panic The concept of moral panic emerges when the mass media sensationalizes violence as it relates to drug use and sales. It is defined as a “condition, episode, person or group emerges to become defined as a threat to social values and interests.” (Altheide, 2009, p.79) Media coverage on select topics such as drugs and the violence associated with it shows a pronounced problem.
Aristophanes has mildly insulted the previous speakers in two ways. By claiming that one of the original forms was androgynous, he has suggested that heterosexuality is at least as natural as male homosexuality – as is being a lesbian. In contrast, Empedokles in fact did hold to a theory of sorts based on fitness to the environment, the description at 191c strongly suggests that only heterosexual relationships yielding only a temporary satisfaction and relief, allowing the participants to go about their business.
Moral Panics and the Media. Oxford: Oxford University Goode, E and Ben- Yehuda, N. (1994) Moral Panics. The social construction of deviance. Oxford: Blackwells.
Halperin, David. "Is There a History of Sexuality?." The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. Ed. Henry
Societies can sometimes be exposed to periods of moral panic. A condition, episode, person or group of people appears as a threat to certain societal standards and interests. This phenomenon is depicted in a stylized and stereotypical fashion and presented to the public through the moral perspective of editors, bishops, politicians, and other influential people, whose principles define the societal values. These people pronounce their diagnoses and resort to certain ways of coping (although, sometimes, the parties can come to an agreement and a way of coping could evolve). After the condition disappears, submerges or deteriorates, it becomes even more visible. Every now and then the object of the panic is quite unusual, although mostly it is something that has been debated for a long time, but that suddenly appears in the spotlight. Occasionally, the episode is overlooked and forgotten, except in folk-lore and collective memory, but at other times it manages to create a serious impact, producing changes in legal and social policy or even in the way society conceives itself (Cohen, 2002).
Some individuals hold the opinion that prudery is not only silly but also dangerous to the virtues and coherence of the U.S. community. Prudery divides the U.S. into two unnecessary categories that not only reduce societal coherence, but also reinforces the effects of other political and social divides that exist in the society (Marcotte 1). Prudery culminates in the eruption of sexual scandals that are insignificant in the public arena. Even so, these arguments can be easily countered by those presented by Henderson who uses empirical data to show that prudery in the U.S. has positive effects, which is contrary to popular belief (1). By comparing the statistics on teenage pregnancies, abortions, and HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in the U.S. to those in selected countries in the Western
Goode, E. & Yehuda, N. B.1994. Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance. Oxford: Blackwell.
One of the most hated, reviled, and public enraging individuals in society is a pedophile. Most equate pedophilia with a sexual molester of children or some sort of perverted freak. There is considerable misunderstanding about pedophilia. In a 1990 research study, the authors state “there is widespread belief among professionals the general public that sexual abuse causes sexual abuse.” The theory is referred to as “abused/abuser hypothesis of child and adolescent sexual abuse” (Garland & Dougher, 1990, p. 448). Fact is the face of a pedophile is not some monster lurking in our neighborhoods ready to pounce on the first child available. He is not necessarily a “dirty old man” either. A pedophile could be anyone: a next door neighbor, a lawyer, school teacher or a relative (Wylie, 1998). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) categorizes pedophilia as a disorder only if the sexual fantasies or urges involve prepubescent children , if they last at least six months, if the individual has acted on them, or if they cause marked distress” (American Psychiatric Association, 2000).
“All men are created equal, No matter how hard you try, you can never erase those words,” Harvey Milk. A homosexual, as defined by the dictionary, is someone of, relating to, or characterized by a tendency to direct sexual desire toward another of the same sex. Homosexuality is ethical, and I will provide rational arguments for, and irrational arguments against the topic. A few objections are as follows: It is forbidden in the Bible and frowned upon by God; It is unnatural; Men and women are needed to reproduce; There are no known examples in nature; and the most common argument that concerns homosexuality is whether it is a choice or human biology.
The sexual orientation of a person has been a critical debate over the past several centuries. For several...