Deviant Norm Violations - Essay Example

? Deviant Norm Violation of Deviance is the violation of norms includes anything that falls outside what people and societyperceive as normal. Moreover, it is any behavior, belief or condition that violates significant social norms in the society or group. In my assignment, the classic folkways definition of deviance is appropriate. It argues that when we carry out our normal day to day activities based on custom, tradition and etiquette, which include fashion norms, table manners and physical eye contact among many others. The violations are generally not considered as stern but may result in one to be viewed as odd besides being avoided. This is because customs may be violated without serious ramifications on the particular culture involved. During the early times in the Middle Ages when religious paradigm prevailed, deviance was regarded as a religious disorder and sin attributed to satanic influence. Firstly, I went to McDonald’s restaurant to have a meal with some of my friends and I was overdressed. While at the restaurant something happened that those who had accompanied me to the restaurant did not notice. A mother and her daughter entered the restaurant and I immediately established physical eye contact with her. She had average height, black curly hair and looked like she was eighteen years old. She stared at me and capped it with a smile as I also stared at her. This lasted for a while, though my friend whom I was with was busy enjoying his lunch and paid no attention to what I was doing. Though eye contact is considered normal I was deviant in the sense that I was transfixed on her and also lack of etiquette on peoples privacy. Having eye contact is necessary sometimes if you want to send a certain message to a person. When somebody is looking at you and you, in turn, end up being transfixed on someone, it is considered as a clear indication that communication signals have been sent. The recipient of the message is the one who is tasked with the work of trying to unravel what the eye contact and the smile meant. Though eye contact passes a message that would otherwise not have been passed, it considered odd sometimes. The use of eye contact is crucial in society as it forms a basis of passing confidential information even at public places. According to Alder, deviance takes many forms and in sociology it had its attention directed at the mental instability, behaviors, attitude, and affiliations to sub groups, social stigmas, crime and finally the abuse of banned substances not . Deviance is not a characteristic associated with somebody but it is made to look in a certain way be gaining support of the social institutions and beliefs. Race, class and gender may not be classified as someone’s individual characteristics but they are supported by the social ideologies and social institutions. Certain behaviors have over acts that are considered as deviant. This may include as in our case violating dress or speech conventions, kinky sexual behavior and dressing. Therefore, these results to people casting you as a deviant label for the over acts you are engaged in. The way we dress is sometimes seen by as way to express our class in the society. Consequently, class results in creation of disparities in the society. Here the use of eye contact to suggest some messages to people is basically on how we make our social judgments. This is because people possess certain stereotypes regarding on how we interpret body languages. People in the society are sometimes against the use of body language like the use of eye contact to communicate because it is seen as a way to promote explicit sexual messages. This emanates from the perception that the users of this behavior are either engaged in criminal activities or are not morally and ethically upright by engaging in homosexuality, lesbianism and prostitution. This is because these groups have formulated symbolic signals, publications or any other symbol that they use to proclaim their identity. The first time I was in company of a male friend when we went for lunch. Though we had dressed to kill nobody had bothered on how we were dressed in the ending up drawing no attention. This time round I was accompanied by a female friend and went to Alfred State Taco Bell for dinner. Almost everybody was having a glimpse on what we were wearing. This was something Dianna found amusing because she kept laughing and giggling every other minute people glared at us. To me all the attention had shifted to my shoes because of their glittering surface and the designer finish it had been given. This is because the societal set-up here was conscious on fashion and dressing etiquette. Certain behaviors are considered as intentionally selected lifestyle choices just as we had decided to dress according to fashion. However, certain social places have their code of dressing. So any form of deviation from the normal way people that frequent that place is more than likely that to cause people to raise their eye brows. This is the reason there was profound sanctions at this eating parlor. This disapproval by the society is a clear indication that every place that people congregate has its set code of clothing like places of worship, sporting events, places of work and learning institutions. This is based on the fact that some people in the social system have defined, categorized and recorded some habits and behaviors as defiant not excluding dressing mannerisms. Gender relationships are also seen as another form of deviance depending on how people make their social judgments. This is because a person’s deviant status is the result of responses of others to that person’s actual or presumed act. In this context when we sat down to enjoy our drink, other people had seen as violators of the social fabric by dating in public and we were such young people. This is a loosened moral norm according to the people who were there. This makes to quickly judge who is deviant and who is not deviant basing on our relationship. By being labeled as deviant there is a major change in one’s public identity resulting in one donning a new status in society that is master status (Adler & Adler, 2008 pp. 345). By donning very expensive looking clothes a person may be as well asserting the social class where he or she belongs. This is because when a well to do person mixes with people of a lower social ranking than theirs they are easily recognized. This explains why there a lot sanctions at this place I had dinner as compared to the first place I had lunch with my male friend thus it is best explained by the symbolic interaction theory that describes deviance as consequence of the perception of the people and the meanings people give to different types of behaviors. By dressing in expensive clothing in low end society you are bound to be talked about because people have that eagerness to know more about your details because the levels of deviance are in the power of class and gender. Well to do people are expected to associate with people of the same class as theirs. This explains why deviance is caused factors within a culture and structures within the society. This concept is clearly explained in the labeling theory that describes that some groups have more power than others thus assigning deviant labels to others. There is the proposition that deviance is a socially constructed process in which social control agencies designate certain people as deviant and in turn come to accept the label assigned to them and start to act accordingly (Adler & Adler, 2008 pp. 209). According to Adler & Adler (2008 pp. 235), people have a grater tendency to deviate from the societal norms when they frequently associate with individuals who are more favored towards deviance than confornity. This is because after giving our order we proceeded and sat at a highly exposed table. Some lads who were having their conversation were forced to stop to have a look at us not excluding the workers. Mainly my conversation with Dianna was centered on how everybody was struggling to have a look on what we were doing because they presumed on a date. As we moved out we stole the attention of some guys and girls who were dining at the top section of the restaurant to the extent of them standing on the table in order to catch a glimpse of us as we moved out. This time I noticed a significant difference on how people had behaved as compared to the previous occasion and it was more often. I kept pondering on what led to the drastic turn of events. Was it because I was with Dianna? Or was it because of the change of venue? Also what passed through my mind was that because the previous time we had gone for lunch but this time we had gone for dinner also might have played a role in the unexpected events turn of events. But all this probable solutions all pointed towards the same thing, they were more severe sanctions compared to the previous occasion. This is just to give an impression that different societal cultures have different perceptions on how we dress the available fashion and their attitude towards it. Form the first and second happenings they all gave different results. The third time I also went with Dianna but this time round we went to Terra Cotta coffee house in Alfred. Dressing a pink and green stripped dress with an orange coat Dianna looked elegant in her outfit. I was dressed in black slacks, black tie and shoes. When we arrived we found a mixture of almost all type of people and both of them had different modes of dressing. Some looked like art students, some like sports personalities, some two gentlemen dressed in black suits and really looked like they were of the business profession. There was an older couple besides some students clad in sweaters. Here nobody was bothered with our arrival. We got our drinks and proceeded to the outside table and sipped our drinks as we gazed at the passersby and proceeded with our conversation. When we were outside four other guys were also there. As I conversed with Dianna the people using the streets only gave us a glimpse and proceeded with their activities. Some two girls were having their meal behind us. They kept staring at me not ruling out my good looks as one of the reasons they were staring at me I thought to myself it was a sanction as well. Physical eye contact is a way of sending a message to someone detailing why the girls stared at me. The people in the last place I collected my data seem to understand and appreciate the meaning of fashion. This is why they did not bother eye contact. The mode of dressing to them is not a very serious issue as compared to the other first two places I visited. This is because though we had dressed to kill nobody bothered to get our attention unlike the different two places we had visited which gave different results. The Terra Cotta had many different demographics as opposed to Alfred State Coffee Taco Bell where the sanctions were more profound as people’s attention was drawn by us on the way we had dressed. Because everybody was trying to have a glimpse on us as Dianna and I continued with our errands. It seemed that we had offended them with our mode of dressing. According to the fifteen people that were present at that place were accustomed to people like us visiting such places. This is manifested by the cross mixture of the type of people present at that time. Also as we expected the passerby’s on the street but only gave a glimpse and walked away. The society has its mode of separation and stratification though they vary in the degree and complexity of the stratification. The dimension under which the separation is made is based on a single dimension to keep it a bit simpler as it is more associated with the contemporary societal set up. It is because of class that one can access certain privileges in the society. It because of class that the mode of dressing is shaped, the type of language being used, mannerisms of the people, tastes and other likings that people prefer most (Adler & Adler, 2008) When people were dining at the restaurant only people that were of the same caliber were seated together. This is because they belong to the same class in the society thus having a way of doing things according to the way they are done in their respective classes. This is because class is not just an attribute of individuals but is phenomenon that is prevalent feature in the society. Conclusion Deviant behavior is no different from understanding other behaviors. It is no different because it is human behavior understandable within a general context of socialization and role playing. To sum up, the experiences of deviants, the deviant-making process, and the ways in which people labeled as deviant in society react to that label is comprehensively manifested by in the text. Also the way we choose our friends is to some extent decided by class. This is evident because I only chose people who knew how to dress elegantly. Consequently, the occurrences of the sanctions were basically based on the choice of the places we wanted to go and visit but not on the elegance of how we were dressed. To sum up, the society has the power to define other people’s behavior as deviant bringing out the interactionist and constructionist perspective on deviance. This was manifested through etiquette, mode of dressing, physical eye contact and fashion in the different places I visited. Reference Alder, P. A., & Alder, P. (2008) Constructions of Deviance: Social Power, Context, and Interaction (6 th ed.). Belmont : Cengage Learning. Read More