Author: collinsi10

Family is one of the most important influences in our lives both emotionally and politically. Our nuclear family teaches us almost all of the lessons that we go on to use in our life and with our own future family. A large part of my family comes from Eastern Oregon, where they owned farms and raised their family working hard and educating their kids through said work. The farm family is one of the closest families, spending upwards of 70 hours a week working together to create something that powers our country. Along side farmers, football is an american tradition that spans the past 100 years. Nothing represents football better than the Super Bowl, which is why businesses pay millions of dollars to be featured in the advertisements. One particular company took advantage of our american values, producing one of the most touching ads ever created.

https://youtu.be/AMpZ0TGjbWE

God made a farmer was created by Ram Trucks, targeting american values in order to promote their company. They start by highlighting all of the things that farmers do daily that people of other professions could consider impossible. Working 70-80 hours a week, milking cows and plowing fields and still having time for PTA meetings at night. Christianity is the dominate religion in the United States, and the advertisement uses that to its advantage. God made a farmer combines the two things that the typical american cares about, and on top of that combines it with football, america’s past-time. Ram uses language in the ad that only a farmer would understand like leaning lambs and weening pigs. When the typical middle class farming family watches this ad they feel the connection with the message. Ram Truck’s target audience is the farmer and they do a great job of targeting that group of people. Later in the ad they bring up nailing a family together with the strong bonds of sharing. That is where the family values part is present. The farming family watching the Super Bowl and seeing this ad will feel the support from our country and feel good about what they are doing. This leads to them remembering this ad next time they are looking for a truck. Family is important to all of us and we want to have the strongest connection with our nuclear family as possible. This is why the advertisement works because no family is stronger than a farmers.

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We began this week discussing gender and sex, how they are different and how they are similar. This was a difficult issue to talk about because as a man I do not know what it is like to live as a woman and vice versa. I can only talk about my experiences which limits my understanding and causes bias. To cope with this bias while discussing topics that I do not understand I decided to focus on the achievements in gender equality that we have made over the years. The Woman’s Rights Movement of the 1960’s was one in particular that I focused on because of how groundbreaking those achievements were. Giving women the right to vote was a major accomplishment of the first wave of feminism, which opened the door to women being allowed to influence policy, and being voted into office. For this weeks blog I would like to focus on a video that I found which highlights the changed in today’s view of women’s rights.

This video is an SNL Skit which parodies an advertisement from the 1950’s. In the 50’s, household appliances were marketed towards women because women’s “role” was caretaker of the house. In this video the highlight the advancement in women’s rights and how they have become a part of the workforce since the 50’s. The site a statistic that says that women have become the primary breadwinner in 50% of American homes, and therefore cleaning up is a “man’s job”. The video also highlights several gender based stereotypes like men being stronger which is why a 70 pound steel door on a washing machine is required. Also, a six foot tall washing machine, and drinking a beer afterwards. These obviously are not true in all cases especially when talking about height because I have met several women over six feet tall, one being my sister.

All in all this video is a joke, meant to entertain, which it does a good job of. But the important part is the advancements in women’s rights that it highlights. Women have become a massive part of the working class, and the corporate workforce. They are increasing in size in the military and our representatives, and this is all due to the almost 60 years of feminist advancements which seek to make men and women statistically equal, and equal in the eyes of our government and the law.

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This week in Sociology we discussed different types of oppression and the Socio-Economic divide in America. It was a good conversation. Everyone has different positions on each topic and we discussed the material in a civil manner. I was happy about this because I have had classes where debates get heated and personal attacks are made, and this is no way to conduct a debate. One of the main topics we discussed is the monetary gap between the rich and poor in America. We watched a video discussing the real statistics, and putting the divide into perspective. I was left wanting to know more about the difference between the rich and poor, and how it compares to similar graphs from civilizations throughout history. We hear a lot about “the ruling elite” in our country, or the 1%. So much so that it gives them an Illuminati like feel. We discussed several ways to even out this divide, or if it is far to attempt to even out at all. One of my peers suggested we focus less on equality and more on equity, which has been a topic for several of my past discussions with my former professors and classmates. I am going to discuss two pictures that I found which demonstrate what the difference between “Equality” and “Equity” is.

This first image has three people at a baseball game, attempting to watch from behind a fence. On the left they are all three standing on one box which raises their height and makes it easier to see over the fence, but since they are all different heights the person on the right cannot see while the other two can. This picture is label equality. Equality is defined socially as equality of opportunity. They are all given one box and the opportunity to see over the fence, not taking into account their height difference. The picture on the right is labeled Equity, and shows the same three people of different heights, this time with a different box layout. The shortest person, on the right, has two boxes, the middle person has one, and the left has none. In this case the box that was previously given to the person on the left has been given to the person on the right in order to give him enough height to see the game. In this image all of the people can see the game. Equity is defined as the equality of outcome. Instead of giving everyone equal opportunity we should give the people who are inherently disadvantaged more help in order to p;ace them with the people who were not disadvantaged.

In this second image there is a new situation on the far right. The wooden fence has been replaced with a wire fence, allowing all three people to see without the need of assistance. This image should be labeled “Justice” because it defeats the initial problem which should be the solution. When putting this into the real world on the topic of Social Justice the result is the same. We should not be concerned with giving people equal opportunity or equal outcome, but instead with eliminating the need for assistance in general. Removing the barrier that separates us and achieving true equality.

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During our second week of class, we dove deeper into the material that we are going to be covering throughout the entire year. Some of this material included looking closer at the theories that we discussed in week one, and the people who developed said theories. I would consider this the most interesting week we’ve had so far, mostly because I am more interested in the details and how things work than the overall theories themselves. However, one topic that we discussed peaked my interest more than the details of the theories. We discussed the types of norms, including folkways, mores, and taboos. I found this subject particularly interesting, especially when we looked into the representations of these in society.

To explain more about breaking social norms I present this article by the BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42538495

In this article, the writer talks about YouTube star Logan Paul, who traveled to the suicide forest in Japan to film one of his vlogs. While filming, Logan discovered a man who had committed suicide hanging lifeless from a tree. Logan then proceeded to film the body, making jokes about it and using it for media attention. When his video was uploaded the internet immediately responded with criticism, saying he was using this poor man’s body for attention and views. Logan was attacked because he was violating a social norm. He was doing something that many people considered to be “taboo”. The thing about social norms is it is not written anywhere that you should not take a video of a man who had just committed suicide, or any social norms for that matter. But the reason they are considered norms is we all tend to follow it as a society, and if you break it society will backfire.

There is an argument to be made that certain norms can be broken, even ones considered taboo. The practice of art tends to be an area where norms tend to be broken, especially when talking about depicting graphic scenes like Logan Paul did. Was Logan’s video just his expression of his artistic talents? If you ask me I say no, especially when you look at his history of putting himself into bad situations in the name of YouTube “content”. On the other hand I’m sure if you asked Logan if his videos are art you would get a very different response. But that is how people tend to react when they are in the wrong.

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Welcome to my first blog post! In this blog I will be discussing what we are learning in my Sociology 107 class at Central Washington University. The first week of Sociology consisted of learning the basic concepts in which we will use throughout the quarter to expand our minds. One of the first topics we talked about is the theories, or paradigms if you want to be proper. Some examples are Conflict Theory, Structural Functionalism, Feminist Theory, etc. The paradigm I would like to focus on today is Post-Modern Theory. The basic breakdown of Post-Modern Theory is that social reality is constantly changing, and because of that the is more than one answer to every question. I completely agree with this assessment out our world and our society, but there was one issue I took with this theory which was brought up by one of my classmates. The description of this theory included a description of science which labeled it as a black and white field with only one answer. Now I understand what they mean by science is a black and white field but I disagree.

In this video Neil Degrasse Tyson explains how science is actively changing through constant research and development. Science is not black and white. It is constantly improving in search of the black and white answers that create our universe. But as long as life in our universe exists there will always be discovery and something new to learn. Therefore, science will always be fluid, not set in stone. Whenever science determines that something is fact, there is a chance that they are correct, but an equal chance that someone will discover a different reality, set in stone. The great part about our society is that I may be completely wrong in my assessment of science, and it is okay because we all have our own opinions about everything. The same qualities that make differing opinions respectable makes science fluid, the fact that no matter how confident you are in your opinions, you could still be wrong. Science is fluid, politics is fluid, Sociology is fluid, and that’s what makes it great. I am excited to get into sociology, and go deep into the issues we will be learning about. I have always been interested in politics, and economics, but sociology covers both of those subjects and how they come together to form what makes our society they way we know it.

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