Conducting an observation at the mall allows for one to view many different people interacting and demonstrating numerous behaviors. The Mall in Columbia is generally a happy place where people visit to shop, socialize, and eat. While conducting my observation, I saw that some people at the mall were by themselves, with a loved one, or with friends. When out in public, there are certain norms or rules of behavior that people are expected to follow. People who do not follow these often face consequences such as stares, verbal reprimands, or possible legal action (Woller, 2013). Taboos often regulate sexual behavior. A person’s culture greatly influences the way in which sexuality is expressed and acted upon (Yarber & Sayad, 2013). Although …show more content…
There were three females and two males. They were African-American and about 16 or 17 years of age. They were dressed in trendy clothes. The “leader” of the group appeared to be a female who was more boisterous than the others. According to Social-Role Theory, people act differently in social situations and take on different roles based on the expectations that society puts upon them (“Social-Role Theory,” n.d.). She seemed to be flirting with one of the males. While they were sitting at one of the tables, she attempted to get the attention of one of the males by touching his arm repeatedly, showing him things on her phone, and talking just to him exclusively. She interrupted others while they were speaking quite often. At one point, she sat on the male’s lap and showed him something on her phone. He pushed her off after about a minute. She laughed and proceeded to swat him in the arm as though she was offended. She continued to attempt to get his attention by asking him questions and by looking at him. After about fifteen minutes, one of the other females suggested that they go to Starbucks. They got up and started walking away. The “Leader” attempted to walk next to the male she liked and at one point bumped into him with her shoulder. Although they were a little loud and boisterous, they still followed the unwritten rules of society. Also, this type of rambunctious behavior is expected and accepted from …show more content…
They were Caucasian and looked to be in their 40’s. They were dressed in jeans and sweaters. The male had his arm around the female. They sat there talking and relaxing. They seemed to be in a happy mood. The female place her hand on the male’s thigh. She tapped his thigh several times. Eventually, they got up. The male picked up all of their shopping bags. They began walking away and the male put his arm around the female once more. She then leaned into him as they walked into JC Penney’s. They were quite sweet and followed all of the rules of socially acceptable
At the beginning of the 1900s, there was a “sexual revolution” in New York City. During this time, sexual acts and desires were not hidden, but instead they were openl...
The author, Celeste M. Condit, listed many of her personal experiences instead of statistics and research findings, which made the article easy for the reader to identify with , while remaining highly credible. Condit provided ample examples to justify her position, such as inappropriate nonverbal behaviors intended to establish dominance. Those nonverbal behaviors included male students putting arms around her shoulders and placing a hand on her knee. Condit (1996) points out, “I discovered that this mannerism was a routine way in which white Southern males exhibit their dominance over females” (Mayberry, 2009, p.252). In one incident, a male student chased a female professor down a hallway, yelling at her for a low grade. In yet another incident Condit was physically threatened by a student and required the ass...
Kidd expands on society’s sexual perspectives in mass media and illuminates the stress pushed towards the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender population. He outlines sexuality as one of many influences on the ways we interpret the culture we consume. He supposes that popular culture has five major social roles: generating basic social norms, producing social boundaries, producing rituals that generate social solidarity, generating modernization, and generating social progress. He pays particular attention to Emilie Durkeim and connects his sociological
By doing this research, I am hoping to fill a gap in current research and to show a relationship between an individual’s current activity and preference and their perception of other people’s to be similar to their own. It will also help to show that some previously atypical sexual behaviors may be more commonly practiced than previously thought which would allow some to breathe easier about not being “deviant.”
New venues for leisure where men and women could meet and engage in unrestricted social interaction, brought a shift in the average American’s experience of courting and sexuali...
Sex in today’s world can be seen anywhere. It is on billboards, radio stations, personal books, school books, magazines, peers, movies, songs, and the most famous is televisions. Commercials use seductive images, sounds, and music grabbing the attention of the audience. Movies and television are proof of the sickness of sexual addiction in society. This disease spreads across the country, infecting the way people think and live their lives. Ultimately it is destroying society and what America holds to be morally correct. Two such sources of writing, “Sic Transit Gloria…Glory Fades” and Countering the Culture of Sex, give examples of what effect culture play in the way of living. Today’s culture pumps out messages of sexual immorality and the idea of sexual relations outside of marriage are fine. Sexual immorality can destroy families and create dysfunction in the sacred vows of marriage.
Traditional gender roles are the behaviors and practices we adopt from learning and what has been passed on from past generations. We learn these from our fathers, mothers, grandparents, and peers. It’s a set of unwritten laws that each gender operates under. These roles have no exception. This soon becomes a problem in society because it creates sexism based off of traditional principles on what each gender should be doing or how they should be acting. Research suggest that “Sexism is defined as prejudice or discrimination toward people based on their gender” (Marks & Zaikman, 2014, Pg. 334). Sexism correlates with the double standard of women on the aspect of it being acceptable in society for men to promote sexual activity and women being bashed and looked down upon when they promote their sexuality. There has been more prevalent news of women taking the stand on their sexuality and bodies. The double standard that exist in America has more recently raised attentiveness in society with such campaigns as Free-the-Nip. The free the nip campaign is a fight for equal rights amongst women. The main ideology of the campaign is for women to have equal rights when it comes to being bare chested in public, the same rights that men have (Reporter, 2015). The double standard here is society saying that women should not be allowed to be bare chested taking
Klein, Marty. America's War on Sex: the Continuing Attack on Law, Lust, and Liberty. 2nd ed. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Praeger, 2012. Print.
Some individuals hold the opinion that prudery is not only silly but also dangerous to the virtues and coherence of the U.S. community. Prudery divides the U.S. into two unnecessary categories that not only reduce societal coherence, but also reinforces the effects of other political and social divides that exist in the society (Marcotte 1). Prudery culminates in the eruption of sexual scandals that are insignificant in the public arena. Even so, these arguments can be easily countered by those presented by Henderson who uses empirical data to show that prudery in the U.S. has positive effects, which is contrary to popular belief (1). By comparing the statistics on teenage pregnancies, abortions, and HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in the U.S. to those in selected countries in the Western
The next social norm I analyzed was sitting in someone’s assigned seat. This was chosen because I felt it would be engrossing to observe the different reactions fellow high school students retaliated with, all being different races. At Liberty High School I took someone’s assigned seat five different times, three times being on February 9th. While breaking the three social norms, there was one feeling that I felt was mutual throughout.
Levy’s book is an eye opener of how most women accepts pornography and raunchy behavior. Levy wants a society where women are free to embrace their own sexuality without indications from the media. She wants women to stop mistaken liberation as engaging in vulgarity behaviors. Her thesis is clear throughout the book and she uses examples to prove her argument. However, her argument is not strong because she lacks concrete data and analysis that would allow her readers to see different groups of women instead of the only group of women she presented.
Whenever we go out shopping or relaxing at malls, we actually don’t see or recognize any effects of malls as we mostly go there for these two reasons. Malls are an integral part in the lives of America. They are shopping centers that have created a lot of buzz in many writers. This is because we have more malls in America than high schools. Malls have received praises from people like James J. Farrell, Jon Pahl and George Lewis who view malls as not only shopping centers but also as places that provide a reflection of the American culture and serve as centers of pleasure and entertainment. In contrast, William Kowinski and David Gutterson criticize malls for just being an artificial environment that creates disorientation among American shoppers. In my opinion, malls are just magnificent commercial buildings that create a sense of false dreams and imagination.
Traditional sex scripts of men and women create for a rape-supportive culture (Check & Malamuth, 1983). Rape is a logical extension of our sex role socialization process that legitimized coercive sexuality. Through these scripts men are taught to take initiative and persist attempts of sexual intimacy. Traits of dominance, aggression and violence are idolized (Martin, Taft & Resick, 2007). Women, on the other hand, are taught to not indicate their sexual interest or engage freely in sexuality. They should possess qualities of being passive, submissive and sexual gatekeepers (Martin, Taft & Resick, 2007).
Heldman, Caroline, PhD. "Sexual Objectification...: What Is It?" The Society Pages. Sociological Images, 2 July 2012. Web. 04 May 2014. .
“Sex and the Social Dance” was a streaming video which examined the sexuality of social dances around the world. Regardless of geographical location or decade of popularity, dance conveyed social values. In particular, the sexuality was expressed through physical contact or lack thereof, in the gender roles of the dance, and in the purpose of the dance.