What Is Social Location Essay

1874 Words4 Pages

Social Location In learning about different ways that we as a society categorize and divide people, it is essential to understand what about people it is that we feel the need to label and differentiate between. When a person is born into this world, there are certain statuses that they automatically obtain, called ascribed statuses (Henslin 98). These statuses determine each person’s social location in society. This includes gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, and ability. Each person has their own unique social location, and is affected in a different way than the next person may be. As a white, queer, cisgender, middle class, female, in relatively good health, I have always been relatively privileged. Because I am white, …show more content…

Since I have worked in a bar as a cashier and as security, I have been sexually harassed by men countless times. They grab me and tell me that they want me. I have had multiple different men tell me that I should make babies with them because they are taller than me and it would be a good investment for the NBA. Even though I tower over most women at 6 foot 3, I still have to worry about sexual harassment and sexual assault. Women are constantly told that we need to be on guard, stay away from dark alleys, keep our drinks in our hands at all times, and carry pepper spray to protect ourselves. When women report sexual assault, they are callously interviewed by police who ask what they were wearing or if they had too much to drink. We are being taught to not be raped instead of teaching men not to …show more content…

For example, I have an aunt and cousins of Peruvian descent, and an aunt and cousins of Korean and African American Descent. Being in such close contact with people of different races, I have always been more sensitive to racial issues than my peers. It also just so happens that this has most likely influenced who I choose to be around. I don’t necessarily gravitate to people who are like me. My best friend is black, Filipino, and Puerto Rican, and my other best friend is African American. Being so close to them has opened my eyes to systematic racism that goes on in America. These friendships have drastically changed my opinions in politics and other social situations. Their countless stories about being racially profiled and abused by different authority figures has opened my eyes to the inequality. I have also been very fortunate to grow up around many LGBTQ people because most of my mother’s best friends are part of the community. As well as this, I have a brother who just came out as gay. Being around so many diverse people growing up, I never really realized that some issues-more specifically racism and homophobia- were such big problems still. As a young child, I can remember being confused when I was told that my family members were so different from me. Especially my cousins who I knew I shared blood with. Since we didn’t have cable television, and all I watched were Animal

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