Deviance

In a place like Stevenson, there are so many ways to cover up deviance. Although there is deviance, our deviance is not that bad in terms of violence like from the Saints and Roughnecks article that we read. Our deviance is more in the forms of using drugs and alcohol and, I guess, a little violence. The difference is that in a place like Stevenson, most people are like the "Saints" from the article. So many people are involved at Stevenson, whether it's through sports or clubs, that many people can use their involvement to their advantage. Just from going around in class and listening to everyone's stories, it can be said that many deans form their punishments differently based on perception. The star of a sports team or the president of a club will get a different punishment, if they even receive one, compared to a student that is not involved in anything. Perception really does matter. As terrible as it sounds, the clothes you wear, your personal hygiene, your manners, etc, are what get you further in life because of perception.

Independence

I think the idea of independence is really hard for parents and teens to handle. Teens are fighting for independence but once they turn 18, they realize how dependent on their parents they actually are. It seems as though every time you think your independence will increase, it seems to decrease or stay constant. I'm sure the idea of "when I turn 18, I won't have to listen to my parents anymore" or "when I turn 18, I won't have to play by their rules" has gone through many teens thought processes. Although we are legally adults at the age of 18, many teens do not understand how much they rely on their parents daily mostly in the Lincolnshire area. For us it's more like, when we turn 18 we need to continue to listen to our parents because who else is going to help us financially? When we go to college and gain a little more independence socially, we finish college and either have to lose that independence when we move back in with our parents or we lose it when our parents have to help pay for rent. The average age of being completely independent in the United States is raising because of these reasons. Because more people are going to college and continuing to stay in school, there are less young adults making enough money to be independent from their parents.
Just a few weeks ago, my Environmental class was going on a field trip and we needed to get our field trip forms signed by our parents. One of the kids in my class went home to have his form signed and his dad laughed in his face because his son is 18 and he still needs to sign field trip forms for him saying he could attend.

Masculinity/Femininity

The ways that men and women are portrayed really affect our culture. I think that the United States is guilty of portraying masculinity and femininity in poor ways and because of this, our views of men and women as a culture are skewed. Men need to be independent, athletic, aggressive, unemotional, intellectual, etc. This is the portrait of a perfect male but on the other hand, very few men actually have these characteristics. Because of the way our culture views masculinity, if a man does not have these characteristics, they feel as if they are not masculine enough. When a man/boy is involved in things not portrayed as manly, for example dance, theater, etc, they feel as if they are not masculine enough. This is similar to the views of women being skewed. The main view of a woman is that a woman has to be beautiful. She needs to be thin, tall, and perfect. Because of the way the media portrays women, girls tend to put themselves in danger in order to look the way the models on t.v. do. Luckily, this image skew has been noticed and many companies and people are trying to eliminate the "perfect body image". For example, Dove is using "real women" in all of their adds to try to show the differences between what is real and what is fake. The idea of femininity is beginning to be stressed and helped while the idea of a "perfect man" is still there. It is good that things are being done to help the image of a woman but things need to be done to help the image of a man as well.

Bowling for Columbine

Honestly, I am not sure what Moore's thesis would be if I had to think of one. Throughout the movie he brings up several points that could affect the rate of violence but he never really comes to a conclusion. He explores the idea of poverty and how your economic standings affect the rate of violence. Moore shows how the United States has more gun violence than Canada but Canada has just as many guns. All of Moore's points seem to spur discussion but, at the same time, he never comes to answer any of them. I found this kind of annoying. I feel like throughout the movie he is trying to get answers, which came across in a very pushy way, but he never comes to any conclusions. He also seems to only include points in which he could find enough information and if he couldn't find information on the other points he just skipped them instead of informing the public of those reasons as well.

Can we be different from our parents?

Can we really be different from our parents or do they affect us so much that we consciously and unconsciously carry on their characteristics? We touched on this topic in Sociology but I've also been talking about this in World Masterpieces. Today in WM we talked about change, like whether or not you can separate from some of your parents traits. It has been said that parents have the biggest affects on their kids lives. It makes sense, obviously, because they are usually the only people that around you all of the time. Unconsciously, many of their traits are passed onto you because you learned basically everything from them, or in some cases through friends as well. The grey area comes forth when the topic of change is encountered. On many occasions, I can vouch for this as well, many kids see things their parents do and think to themselves, "I will never do that when I'm a parent". But can you really help it? There have been studies that show that kids with abusive parent/s are more likely to be abusive, and kids with parent/s that are alcoholics or drug addicts are more likely to become an alcoholic or drug addict.
In my opinion, a lot of this has to do with choice and education. Many little things can be picked up by parents through your unconscious like the way you sit or the way you eat. On the other hand, many things can be changed if you choose to change them. If you have a parent who is abusive and you think that abuse is o.k. because no one ever told you it was wrong, then you may grow up to be an abusive parent. But, if you have an abusive parent and you know that abuse is wrong, then you can make that change to never be abusive in the future. This is because you are becoming consciously aware of the fact that abuse is wrong rather than leaving it in your unconscious. So, although many things are passed on from parents to children, it is possible to change.