Is Deviance And The Deviant Label That Is Put Upon Female Athletes?

Deviance is in every society in one form or another. It will always exist in this world but it also shapes us, the people around us, and society in general. Deviance plays an important role in all of our lives, we are either constantly trying not to deviate norms or we spend every minute figuring out new ways to deviate norms. It is different throughout time periods, cultures, societies, and age groups and what is considered deviant is always changing. I have always been a person that tried not to stray too far from what society says is acceptable but and that’s how I have always been.

“Deviance in sociological context describes actions or behaviors that violate cultural norms including formally-enacted rules (e.g., crime) as well as informal violations of social norms.”

Once a person is labelled as a deviant, it is hard to remove that label. The Labeling Theory basically says that no behavior is deeply rooted on its own. It is society’s reaction to the behavior that makes the act deviant or not. Labeling is to give someone or something to a category and is usually given mistakenly. The people who usually doing the labeling have statues, numbers, power and authority. People with low status, power and authority are the ones that are being labeled.

Deviance differ from culture to culture and person to person, it is hard to pinpoint what is considered deviant to the masses and what is not. For example. a single culture may accept the idea of marrying off their daughter at a young age as acceptable, but other cultures may not and might find this to be a heinous act. While there are different forms of deviants ranging from criminal, sexual, to even a persons lifestyle, theories have been reformed throughout the decades to better explain the basis of these ‘abnormal’ acts.

When an individual begins to commit crimes because of the label that was attached to them by society, it becomes known as secondary deviance. A possible explanation for this is that the individual has fully integrated the label into their master status and starts to commit crimes because they feel that is what they are expected to do. One of the individuals who have contributed much knowledge regarding labeling theory noted that acts which are not visible to the public have a greater chance of occurring but not having a label attached to the deviant individual and this would include acts such as sexual deviation (Higgens and Marcum, 2016). The inverse of the previous thought can also hold true as acts committed that have high social visibility are going to be noticed more by members of society and there becomes a higher chance for a label to be affixed.

“Deviancy is not a quality of the act a person commits but rather a consequence of the application by others of rules and sanctions to an ‘offender’. Deviant behaviour is behaviour that people so label.”

Deviance is a word that has instinctively bad connotations around it, to know someone that is deviant is to know someone who has acted

3. Deviance is defined by modes of action that do not conform to the norms of value held by most member s of a group or society. Forms of behavior that are highly esteemed by one group are regarded negatively by others. I think labeling theory is the reason why crime rates are so high. An approach to the study of deviance that suggests people become deviant, because of the label that was put on them of behavior by political authorities and others.

The authors states that there was an assumption that person with deviant behavior are the one who violating social norm. However, recent theory about labeling reject that theory. Labeling theory define that people who are labeled as having abnormal behavior,in truth, just reflected what society expect them to be, not what they really did. In some cases, people who get labeled might adjust themselves to the labeled they assigned to, depending on the society and environment where the behavior take place. Therefore, it should be assume that people surround the labeled person commit themselves by providing the environment that suitable for encourageing the deviant behavior of the subject too.

The predominant idea about humanity is that it evolves over the due course of time. What was a taboo in the past may not be a taboo anymore as time runs; it may even gradually change into an accepted norm. The way society perceives ideas, norms, behaviours and social relationships will also change over the course of time. For instance, homosexuality was accepted as a part of social life in the early Greek City States like Salamis and Sparta. However, over the period of time under the influence of the Judeo-Christian traditions, homosexuality became a taboo. This notion remained till the late 20th century and even today, the acceptance of the so called ‘deviants’ is a matter of social debate; people treat them with social stigma and often isolates

In today's society the male figure dominate in most aspects, especially in sports. They receive a great amount of media attention, far greater than female athletes. Young kids grow up watching male sports being dominant which causes stereotypes around female and sports. While boys have something to look up to, young girls do not receive the same image.Feminist movements made enormous improvement on the status of female athletes since the early twentyth century. Before the feminists movements, female athletes had to manouver in poorer circumstances, different rules, and with stricter dress codes. Society has regularly segregated and disregarded female competitors, expressing that they were manly and gay person. Likewise, hindering ladies from taking an interest in games. After this issues were highlighted, society has attempted to invert these separations and improved open doors for female competitors to champion.

Deviance is a violation of a social norm in a society. In the sociological perspective, it is not one’s individual characteristics that lead to deviant behavior but rather the social interactions, structures, and processes that lead to one’s deviant behavior. In turn, deviance is socially constructed by a society or group itself. A group dictates what is the norm in their community and what is abnormal, or deviant, in their eyes. Deviance is functional in a society.

Deviance is defined as the violation of social norms. Someone who is deviant usually breaks a rule and is engaged even in a small negative act such as a fistfight. Deviant acts can be considered serious offenses in our society, but may be tolerated in another. Let’s say for example, an earthquake hits the United States and the victims steal bread, water, clothes or any such thing to feed their families, this act is deviant but understandable. Different groups of people define deviant acts differently from one another. For example, a parent may define their 16 year old as deviant for smoking, meanwhile their son defines his best friend as deviant for not smoking. “Deviance is socially constructed and dependent on the time and social context.” (Page 147. Ballatine,Roberts,Korgen)

Some people don’t agree with label and try to separate with this label. In my opinion, people who identify with the deviant label will be isolated by this society, because people believe they are very deviant; however, for the people who disagree with this label, they will lost their actual self and follow like sheep. Therefore, it is easy to see that labeling can have a long-lasting effect on the individual who is labeled a deviant.

Throughout history people have been trying to determine whether certain actions are criminal or just deviant. Everyone has a different opinion on the subject which is mostly why laws vary from state to state and from country to country. Part of the problem lies with the fact that people don’t know the difference between the two. The definition of deviance according to the textbook is, “Behavior that departs from the social norm but is not necessarily criminal.” (Siegel, 2011) This is not always entirely true however. For example, pornography is considered obscene and deviant, some people think it is criminal; but, you can’t exactly say it isn’t a norm because a large percent of the population