The Everyday Sociologist - Essay Example

The Everyday Sociologist The study of sociology is a wide field that encompasses everything from our most intimate relationships to the transactions we make at the grocery store. Our marriage, our work, our studies, and our recreation are a complex weave of social interactions. As we grow, we develop methods of communication and form ideas about individuals and groups. We envision ourselves as a member of a class, a gender, an ethnic group, or race. We are conscious of how we are treated by other members of society and likewise we become more aware of how we treat other people. From the moment we wake up and decide what clothes to wear we begin to make decisions that will form the basis of our life's activities. We attach ourselves to groups, we form partnerships and relationships, and we conform when necessary and violate the norms when the norms don't fit. We work to fit into a society and work to make society fit our needs. We struggle and we accommodate, as we become better sociologists in our efforts to cope with our everyday sociology. As I put on my clothes in the morning, it may be viewed as selecting the correct uniform. I want to assure that my clothes are appropriate for the day's activities. I want to belong to the group that I will spend the day with and clothing is a first impression that can include or exclude me from the group. This isn't a judgment I make based on any scientific research. It comes from the experience I have. Since I'll be working in the office today, I want to be sure to wear something conservative. I want to let my coworkers know that I am a part of the business community and not a maverick or a rebel. My heart may not be totally into the job of customer service representative, but my clothes will say otherwise. I will conform to the accepted dress code and in doing so, I will portray a sense of confidence and instill a sense of belonging. Yet, as King states, "Repression and unhappiness springing from conformity and suburban life are conveyed by ''gray flannel suit''" (King 3). I am conflicted by the desire to belong and the steps I need to compromise to become a member. In my job as a customer service representative, I am required to interact with several groups. As groups, each one has its own definition of acceptable behavior. The informal language I use with my co-workers may not be acceptable in a meeting. The group of coworkers makes their own rules and folkways, but is always aware of the need to stay within company guidelines. The strict rules that govern our interaction with customers are formal norms, complete with written instructions and penalties for violations. Yet, the behavior we exhibit in all these different settings and groups comes naturally and is quickly learned. As Eliasoph and Lichterman observed, "Everyday experience makes the concept of group style intuitively plausible". The group sets the norms and as part of the group the norms are learned. When I was hired at this job, I was apprehensive due to my age. I expected that being an older person, the business world might want younger and more energetic workers. I anticipated age discrimination during my interview and was prepared to hear excuses and rejections. However, I was not prepared for the institutional discrimination I was met with at one company. While applying for a job as a telephone representative, the company informed me of their policy that employees need to be able to lift 50 pounds. The job description did not require any lifting, but the company had systematically eliminated a large portion of its available labor pool. Older people were disqualified, as were many females and handicapped persons. I did however, finally land a job with a good and more socially aware company. During my first week of training, I was surprised to see that the company hired almost exclusively women. I wondered if the company was practicing gender bias, or was it merely my selection of working in a natural gender specific occupation. It required a pleasant phone voice and empathy for the customer. Are these traits that naturally serve the functionalist view of society Or was this practice exploiting women by keeping them in their role as low paid servants in a stereotypical nurturing role As I investigated this issue, I found that the CEO was a woman and most of the management team were women. I ruled out the possibility of genderizing and noticed that the women were better at this than the few men that were employed here. The company was displaying a natural role by using the ready pool of female labor to fulfill its need for qualified workers. I have an appreciation for the progressive country that I live in. The opportunities for women in the U.S. is far better than in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh (Schaefer 281). My work is a constant stream of interactions with people of all races, genders, ethnicities, and class. It can be a daunting task trying to sum up the person on the other end of the phone in an attempt to communicate effectively. I unconsciously adjust my tone and word selection as I project a level of respect and efficiency that will make them feel comfortable. These are, however, assumptions I'm making that may not be valid. I find myself grouping people with like accents together as if they are all the same with identical values. I'm careful to keep this out of my conversations and transactions. The bureaucratic company I work for has laid down well-defined rules for interaction and they are to apply to all our customers. Lunch time approaches and I select which lunch group I will go with today. I elect to go with two close peers that I've dined with before. We discuss a variety of foods; Mexican, Chinese, Thai, and a new Greek restaurant. We settle on Taco Bell. Taco Bell is called a Mexican restaurant, but it really is food that has been assimilated into mainstream American culture. It employs mostly younger people working for minimum wage, but there are no Mexican's working here. While we eat, we discuss our families, religion, and politics. The sociological effect of religion on our culture dictates that we take a tolerant stand and accommodate many different facets. Yet, the topic almost always escalates into a near argument. As much as we try to remain tolerant, our ethnocentrism takes over and blinds us to more rational thought. Right and wrong go out the window and as Stephen Carter, a law professor at Yale observes, "When you insist on the right to be complicated," he says, "you anger people who want to fit you into little boxes -- liberal, conservative or whatever" (qtd. in Rosen). My sociological imagination helps me keep my place in the world that has many varied and complex religious systems. As the workday ends, I return home to my nuclear family. I live with my husband and daughters in a middle class neighborhood. The area is racially mixed and has a better than average public school where my children attend. I would like to send my daughters to a private school, but the cost is prohibitive to people in my economic class. Our family's tradition is one of public schools and few members have ever attended college. I'm breaking out of that long standing pattern and hope that my participation will socialize my family to the value of education. Credentialism will require them to fulfill their college responsibilities or risk being marginalized in tomorrow's society. My husband meets me at the door and immediately casts me into the feminine role by asking what's for dinner. We have an egalitarian arrangement, we share many duties and most decisions are made cooperatively. Yet, even though we share many roles, some are assumed to be very gender specific. He fixes the car and I prepare the menu. Though I usually cook, tonight we'll be cooking on the grill and that duty will fall to my husband. Clean up duties are shared equally and my daughters will also help with the dishes. The detergent I use for the dishes is a brand that was sold to me by television advertising. It promises the soft hands that are important to the women in the culture where I live. After dinner, I go over my schoolwork and am surprised to find that my history lesson is a discussion of the Civil Rights movement. I discuss the sociological perspective of Marx with my family and try to enlighten them to the aspects of the dominant-minority relationships in the world. They understand the concept that dominance will occur as long as it is possible and it is allowed. My daughter seems to understand when she informs me that she is being dominated by the stratification at school with their new rule that no logos are allowed on clothing. She insists it's a way of oppressing the predominately racial groups that wear sports logos and team jerseys. I try to explain that it may just be a hidden curriculum that the teachers are using to get the students to accept conformity and be better prepared for the business world. We retire to the living room to watch a television show. The decision of what to watch is complicated by our desire to be entertained and our compulsion to be politically correct. Though we may be unaware of it, many of our thoughts and ideas about gender, age, class, and race come from the television we watch (Westwood). Even the hours of the day are broken down into age categories. Morning is for children, afternoon for adults, late evening for violence and more explicit programming. Television will tell us what is adult and what is for children merely by the time it is broadcast. We choose a documentary on PBS that shows the introduction of television in Bhutan. Bhutan is an isolated country that is rich in religious tradition. They have recently introduced cable television, the last country in the world to do so, and the elders fear the traditional way of life will be swept away by faddish western mores (Bhutan - The Last Place). The leaders of Bhutan rightfully expect the consumerism driven television will attempt to dominate the population's thinking. CSI, Law and Order SVU, and daytime soap operas portray a very small slice of the world in an exaggerated and redundant format. Rather than bringing education to Bhutan, it is likely to bring false images of the world. The same is true of news programming that comes from limited sources. They will see the news that a small number of people feel is important. It's the same for all of us, but the situation in Bhutan points it out very distinctly. I see that we are the same as the people of Bhutan, struggling with the impact and value of television. I read the days online newspaper and am depressed by the continual fighting that exists between people and nations. A headline on CNN reads "FBI Charges Florida Professor with Terrorist Activities" (FBI Charges). My mind forms an image of a terrorist with an automatic weapon shielded by a facial covering as to not expose his identity. He probably works out of a building where the inhabitants have been evicted or forced to flee from the fighting. As I turn to the next page to read the complete story, I am shocked to see a picture of the terrorist. He is dressed in a business suit. He is a professor at a major university that was arrested in the U.S. for raising money for alleged terrorist activities. I am stunned by the differing images of my social concept and the reality of what the paper had termed "Terrorist". The article dispels previously held notions that I had of terrorists working undercover to bomb and kill. It shows a Muslim extremist to be a member of our society, dressing like mainstream America. I am forced to examine other images of people I have that may be guided by prejudice or stereotyping. I retire to the bedroom and turn on a late night television show with host Jay Leno. As he does his monologue, I understand the jokes and get a good laugh. I begin to see that the humor in the jokes needs to be understood from a social perspective. What may be funny to me may be offensive to someone from a different culture, as comedy is essentially sociological. According to Beatrice Berry, former Sociology professor turned comedienne, "Sociology looks at the mundane and points out the obvious," she explains. "Comedians do the same thing--only they make light of it" (qtd in Gregory 51). Our world is filled with obvious examples of social interaction that we take for granted on a daily basis. Examining them more closely allows us to fit into the rest of the world as well as to allow others into our world. As I close my eyes to get some much-needed rest after my busy day of social interactions, I am required to fulfill a religious ritual and say my evening prayers. As I pray, I thank God for my monogamous husband. Though we may be equals, I still look to him as the leader of the family. I pray for the health of my parents. They are aging, and as they get older they experience more health problems. I don't know how my praying will affect the government, but I pray that the immigrants will be treated fairly. In a culture that has separated government from religion, the effects of my praying may be fruitless, but I have a need to perform the ritual of praying. Sociology has impacted me at every level of my daily life. From the time I wake up until the time I go to sleep, I am faced with endless decisions I must make. From the clothes I wear to the food I eat, they are all influenced by sociology and I benefit from the sociological knowledge I have. Sociology gives me greater harmony in the workplace and grants me more compassion and understanding of the people in my world. Whether they are a terrorist or teenager in Bhutan, sociology pulls me a little farther into their world and gives me a greater understanding of what should be obvious. Works Cited "Bhutan - the Last Place." Frontline World. May 2002. PBS. 28 Apr. 2006 . Eliasoph, Nina, and Paul Lichterman. "Culture in Interaction." The American Journal of Sociology 108 (2003). "FBI Charges Florida Professor with Terrorist Activities." CNN. 20 Feb. 2003. 28 Apr. 2006 . Gregory, Deborah. "Beatrice Berry." Essence 24 (1994): 51. King, Florence. "Good Ol' Clothes - Conservative Clothing and Attitudes; in Defense of Elegance." National Review (1996): 1-5. 28 Apr. 2006 . Rosen, Marjorie. "Keeping the Faith." People Weekly 40 (1993): 63-64. Schaefer, Richard T. Sociology a Brief Introduction. 6th ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2006. 1-507. Westwood, Sallie. "Girls Just Want to Have Fun: Representing Gender." Sociology Review 9 (1999): 22-25. Read More