Sloppy Eating As A Social Deviance

2505 Words6 Pages

Introduction Societies are founded on various social norms. Norms can best be defined as a set of acceptable attitudes and practices by a given society. These norms however are found to vary from one society or cultural setting o the other. Deviance on the other hand is simply when one does something that goes against the set societal norms. Deviance is gauged on a scale of attitudes and behavior contradicting to acceptable social standards (Samuels, 2012). My experiment My experiment was using sloppy eating in a public place as a social deviance and measure the reactions of people then look further into the matter and access why people behaved in the way that they did when they spotted ne eating sloppily in public. Therefor the larger definition of the deviance resulting from my experiment is stigmatization or disgrace. The reason behind my conclusion that sloppy eating is public results to a deviance that is subject to stigma or disgrace is because such an act shocks many, but has them talking among them about it as disgusting. Normative behavior applying to sloppy eating Normative behavior in any society is that behavior that abides to a society’s standards and that cannot be debated upon by the majority of that given society. Normative behavior is any way of behaving that a society finds good and forms a routine around it. One society always differs from the other based on various perceptions, belief systems and location (Samuels, 2012). A Muslim society finds pride in the women wearing the harem and calls that a norm. On the other hand, the western society is less perceptive to the woman’s mode of dressing and argues that since men and women and women are equals, a woman is allowed to wear whatever she feels comfortable in ... ... middle of paper ... ...or this research as they also fell under the category of folkways as sloppy eating, the shock, the embarrassment and the open criticism are among the key shared reactions. Also though nobody can elaborately explain why a woman can wear pants and a man should not wear a skirt, or why a lecture is limited to suits on official working hours, the same principle of simple ‘wrongness’ of such acts without explanation is extended to sloppy eating in public. Conclusion Sloppy eating remains at the top of deviant behaviors in the American society. This is now a clear fact to me as my experiment supports what other reading sources have said in the past. It is also interesting that tough nobody can explain why sloppy eating is received with such contempt; everybody agrees that this is a behavior that simply should not be carried out by any decent member of the society.

Open Document