A theoretical perspective that emphasizes the role of power and coercion in producing social order is the sociological definition of conflict theory. This theory is portrayed throughout society in everyday life, as well as television shows and movies. One show that portrays conflict theory throughout almost every episode is ABCs Grey’s Anatomy. "Grey’s Anatomy is a female-driven drama that allows its characters to make mistakes, attain success, be sexual, be emotional, and just generally be”. "It is rare for an advertisement of an ensemble cast to feature more women than men, especially in a show about doctors (the fields of medicine are still abundantly male-centric). But the figures of Grey’s Anatomy are generally of the female anatomy, where their bodies are tools for medicine instead of just tools for men."1
In Grey’s Anatomy nurses are mostly shown in the background. They never speak unless spoken too, and they only do work when a doctor tells them too. The nurses on this show are both very young and attractive, or older and unattractive. The attractive nurses are all also portrayed as sex objects. Most of them have slept with one or more of the residents and attendings at the hospital. 'Overall, nurses remain relatively invisible on this hit ABC show, which “reinforces a
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If the female characters act in traditionally feminine, stereotypical ways, at least they are members of a culturally diverse team, an image of a more equal America where dreams can come true irrespective of your gender, ethnicity or sexuality. In this sense, perhaps, it is the unspoken assumptions underlying the format of Grey’s Anatomy that make it a show for our times; Rhimes has created an old-fashioned medical drama that seeks to reassure us that in matters of life and death, it really is not important who gives the kiss of life as long as someone
The movie “The Blind Side” represents the conflict theory of sociological perspective. This movie is based on the story of Michael Oher, who was thirteen-year, homeless, African American teenager. His mother was a drug addict and he did not know his real father. He is taken by a white well to do family Touhys’ who helped him to fulfill his potential. The other hand, his presence leads Touhys’ family lives leads to some insightful self-discoveries of their own.
While watching royal pains, one thing in particular about the show is gender roles. The men in almost every circumstance, has the powerful job and reputation while the women, are interested in parties, their looks, and friends. This idea is further touched on via the main characters of the show. The main female characters of the show Paige Collins and Divya Katdare are never in as powerful positions as their counterparts, the two brothers Hank and Evan Lawson. Divya has yet to reach full status as a physician and Paige is forever in the shadow of her very politically powerful father. Neither has reached their full potential nor has
The media is known to have immense influences on the public perception from body images to what kind of car people should buy. And the nursing image is not immune to these influences. What Hollywood transmits to the public about nurse’s works much like an advertising industry. Television has represented nurses in varying degrees and not all of them are flattering. We have been portrayed as
With the shift of gender roles in American culture, comes the shift in how Americans portray characters in certain television and media shows. While the cultural norms and beliefs change as a country, so do the way people perceive the roles of males and females. In the 1950’s, it was normal for a female to be working on and at the home, taking care of the kids, and doing the tedious chores around the house. All while the male is at work, making the money to support the family. In today’s time, with many advances in women’s rights and cultural acceptance, these roles are not so specific to a gender.
There are roughly 800,000 people living within the United States that is under the protection of an executive order during the Obama administration called Deferred Action Against Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. These children, commonly referred to as “Dreamers,” have grown up in the United States. They attended elementary school here, many graduated high school here, and many went on to become successful adults living in the United States, but as of September 5th, 2017 the DACA program was shut down by the Trump administration, pending a trial in Congress. This means that those hundreds of thousands of individuals living under the DACA arm will no longer be legal residents in the United States.
Strucutral functionalism is a form of functional analysis. Functional analysis (or functionalism) is one of the major theoretical perspectives in sociology. In fact, many of the early giants of sociology, such as Spencer, Comte, and Durkheim were functionalists. Essentially, this perspective sees society as comprised of many parts that contribute in unique ways to the operation of the whole society.
Media has an immense effect on societal views, and cultural norms. It is not surprising then, that media influences the public view of the nursing profession (McHugh, 2012). Negative portrayal of nursing in media is detrimental, these stereotypes undermine the profession which leads to less resources and a negative image of nursing among nursing students (Anonymous, 2010). For these reasons the image of nursing in media is something that needs to be explored, to understand how the nursing image in media affects both public and personal perception of the profession (Anonymous, 2010). Nurse Jackie is a controversial television show about an Emergency room nurse named Jackie (Hudis & Zisk, 2009). In this series Jackie is middle aged, married, mother of two, and while she is depicted as being loving with her family, she is having an affair with the pharmacist for her department. As a nurse Jackie is caring, and compassionate towards her patients, while also exhibiting unethical and inappropriate behaviours both within and outside of her working environment (Sorrell, 2009). Jackie is a complex character who exhibits both positive and negative nursing behaviours.
Julia was criticized for constructing a “white negro.” The show “played it safe” to not scare away any white viewers by sugarcoating its messages. As a medical show Julia suggests that the networks have not been responding to black’s desires to be seen as much as they are responding to what and how much white viewers want to see of black life. However, Matthew Fogal author of “‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Goes Color Blind,” makes the point that “Grey’s Anatomy has differentiated itself [from other medical shows] by creating a diverse world of doctors - almost half the cast are men and women of color - and then never acknowledging it” (Fogel 2005).
Grey’s Anatomy is a television medical drama that has been running for a little over a decade. This show is known to have one of the most diverse cast in the history of American television. Actors include white, black,
It is often said that the media and the arts are an accurate reflection of any given community. This is especially true in American pop-culture, where television shows depict the various stereotypes attributed to men and women and the roles they play in society. House, a highly popular medical drama that revolves around Dr. Gregory House and his diagnostic team, is a particularly good example as it represents the true state of the traditional gender roles in American culture today by, both, redefining and reinforcing them over the course of the show.
When people think about nurses, many ideas come to mind. They think of the hideous old starched, white uniforms, a doctor’s handmaiden, the sexy or naughty nurse, or a torturer. The media and society have manipulated the identity and role of nurses. None of these ideas truly portray nurses and what they do. Nurses are with the patients more than the doctors. People do not realize how little they will encounter the doctor in the hospital until they are actually in the hospital. People quickly realize how important nurses are. Because nurses interact with their patients constantly, nurses are the ones who know the patients best.
The contemporary social issue I have selected is the discrimination of Muslims in America. I selected this issue because it appears to be a growing problem in the United States, and I believe it is rooted in racism, making it a two-part issue. Muslim is not a race, but in many Middle Eastern countries, Islam is the majority religion. Even though anyone from any race could be Muslim, it is only Middle Eastern Muslims that are targeted. As someone who is in the social work field, it is distressing for me to see a group of people be treated unjustly and experience many societal challenges based on their faith and race. Conflict theory is one theory that can improve people’s understanding of this issue. One of the main concepts of conflict theory is that “power is unequally divided and some groups dominate others” (Overview of Theories, 2008). In the social issue I chose, white Christians are the dominant group, and they hold more power than Middle Eastern Muslims. Power is not
Orange is the new black is a Netflix original series about the functional ability of a woman's prison in upstate New York. Integrity, power, and privilege all work together to create many of the situations that arise. Litchfield prison is made up of white male officers, and different racial groups that are clearly divided. For each race, loosely made up of: blacks, latinos, whites, “others”, and a group of older women known as “the golden girls”, there is a sector of living. Blacks in one block, with a bathroom only for them, whites in another, etc. Conflict theory and symbolic interactionism are both excellent theories to examine this series by. Conflict theory, a multi-part theory about both race and gender, is applicable to Orange Is The New Black because of the degrading treatment of the women and the denial of their basic feminine needs. Symbolic interactionism can be applied to most situations that occur in the show. Through these theories social interactions in Orange Is The New Black can be looked at and better understood.
It holds that social order is maintained by domination and power, rather than consensus and conformity. conflict theory is the view that different social and historical situations give rise to very different group experiences and theories about those experiences. Some of the factors in this theory include physical location, interests, Access to discourses, and social organizations of knowledge production. This theory is very relevant for a feminist perspective in social location. In many societies all across the world, women are considered inferior to men. The conflict theory supports what feminist theorist Sandra Harding calls strong objectivity, or the notion that the perspectives of marginalized and/or oppressed individuals can help to create more objective accounts of the world. With the push for equal pay for women in politics being very relevant still in the nation today, this theory argues how important it is for women and all other minorities to be treated
Nursing is universal in the sense that nurses can be found almost in all countries around the world (Henderson, 1978). They are in the hospitals, in school clinics, in the community centres, residential homes and even play major roles in some of the popular soap operas in television. There are even television shows that mainly revolve around nurses and which chronicles what they do at work - both the positive and the negative. It is one of the most visible and easily identifiable occupations as compared for example to other occupations such as engineers, managers or even pharmacists, medical technologists and other health related occupations. This is partly because of what nurses do and most especially how nurses look - with some still