Social Norms And Its Effects On Society Essay

From the moment a child is born, the society in which they are born into begins to teach the child what is normal, and what is not. If the aforementioned child has a vagina, they will be labeled a girl and assumed to be heterosexual, and the same principle applies if the child has a penis. Yet the human world is not as simple as this established gender binary. For example, there are people who identify with a gender other than the sex assigned at birth.1 There are also people who are not sexually attracted strictly to the opposite gender, or at all. Such diversions from societal normality are more often than not greeted with opposition, as what is considered normal is also deemed right. The LGBT community has had to deal with fierce societal

Every day in the United States, a young person, under the age of eighteen faces homelessness, and most often it’s because of others. In a report by The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, it was noted that 26% of LGBTQ youth were kicked out of their homes when they came out (Ray, 2006). The Urban Justice League reports numbers as high as 78% of LGBTQ youth that “were removed from or left their foster care placements because they were un-welcoming or hostile towards their sexual orientation and/or gender identity ” (Feinstein, Greenblatt, Hass, Kohn, & Rana, 2001). The United States is an independent, individualistic country; we prize the freedom of expression, but do we really? One of the most significant, if not the most important, social structures is the family. Gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals who are aware of their sexuality, must create an alternative self to present to family and friends, especially if there is an understanding, verbalized or implicit, that homosexuality is not tolerated, or simply wrong. Many gay, lesbian and bisexual men and women would rather go with the flow, assimilate, not make waves, rather than to express their own gay identity, and risk ostracism.

To and extent I agree with Sharon Jayson and what she has to say about millennials not conforming to society's standards as well as their approval. It is true that our social norms are unraveling, however I choose to see it as unraveling to create something new. The social norms are adapting to fit the new society that is changing the normal and becoming something different. The world is changing, people no longer care to please others and achieve their approval. We wear what we want to wear, we say what we want to say, we do what we want to do, and we do it all with pride posting it on social media to share with anyone who chooses to view it. Of course not all what people say or do is for the best, but there’s a difference between the last

For my breaching project, I will be breaking the social norm of wearing shoes. I believe it is a social norm to wear shoes when outside. From my observation, around Bluffton University, it is normal for students and professors to wear some sort of footwear while in the classroom or outside. I realize there is a group of students on campus who already do not wear shoes, so to differentiate myself I will be wearing only socks. I choose this norm project because it was something subtle since I am a somewhat quiet person. Also, this is a small campus and I am a freshman, so I would rather not do something that people will remember me by. I plan to do this on Bluffton’s campus throughout the day Friday, September 29th. I will be conducting

Around the age of three, children start establishing their gender identity. Humans involved in their life usually inform of material such as: Girls have long hair, boys have short hair, girls wear dresses, and boys wear pants. However, if one of these children discovers that they belong to the homosexual portion of our country during their post-adolescence time period, they will fail to obtain mutual respect from their peers because the elderly figures in their peers’ lives have educated them on how the “regular”girl or guy

This phenomena would be explained by an order theorist by focusing on the deviants themselves. An order theorist would look at their social and psychological backgrounds and with whom they associate themselves with. If an individual is part of a gang or grew up in an environment that has conflicting value systems, those are key aspects that could point to their imprisonment. In the eyes of an order theorist, those who are imprisoned are there because they did not follow the social norms and values. The solution to this is to rehabilitate deviants so that they will conform to the societal norms.

In every society there are social norms, rules and expectations as to how people, or groups of people should behave. There are many ways that people can influence our behavior, but perhaps one of the most important aspects of social norms and mores, is that in the presence of others, we seem to set up expectations as how people should look and behave. We have learned that culture is a big influence in how society deems how we should look and also behave. When we come in contact to a different group of people that we consider radical we experience “culture shock” because they challenge our basic assumptions of what is right, what we consider taboo, ugly, or beautiful.

In society, children are taught expectations as to what is sociably acceptable: who to like, what to wear, and where to live, based on of the environment they grew up in. As children grow up, and go on through life, they then begin to impose these expectations onto the people around them. More often than not these societal expectations conform with that of a heteronormative mindset1. In a modern western context, heteronormativity is the notion that people fall into distinct genders, male and female, and lead natural roles in life all while conforming to the ideology of traditional binary gender roles. Such heteronormative bias asserts that traditional binary gender

This is the most important factor influencing the choice of family planning among couples. This includes: community norms, religious belief and gender role.

Before I was born into this hectic society, I was assigned the specific gender of “female” based solely on the genitals I possessed. From then on, I was instructed and socialized by the ones I love and trust how to dress, love, carry myself, and act amongst others solely based off my gender assignment. My family was always trying to put me in cute dresses and put all sorts of bows in my hair. I remember them telling me, “You are going to make a man very happy one day,” or “Just wait till you get married to the man of your dreams.” This type of heterosexual enforcement continued to be encouraged in church and throughout the media by socializing and teaching me to believe that one day I would find one man that I would marry and continue to pass on the cycle of heterosexual socialization to my children. Due to all of this exposure, heterosexuality became natural and thus, normal to me; however, this type of heterosexual socialization and heteronormativity is often unrealistic to those who desire a different relationship or family, causing them to feel excluded by a majority of society. This kind of exclusion has made people realize that this type of socialization is dangerous because it makes those who do not fit into this idealistic society feel trapped. It is also seen as unnecessary due to the immense amount of pressure it creates on everyone to live up to society’s expectations and is simply inconsistent with today’s diverse social and familial formations that people

Society, without even saying a word, has given us rules and guidelines that we have to abide. Social norms are rules or guidelines regarding what kinds of behavior are acceptable or appropriate within a culture. They are so embedded within our daily life that often we do not notice them. Because norms are so ingrained within our society, deviation of social norms can lead to be ostracized or even arrested depending on the situation. Violating norms, like promoting hate message about poor people, in society can be explained through the functionalism theory.

When one is raised in a society that polices bodies into fitting a certain “acceptable norm,” adhering to that norm is expected and not adhering is punished (at least potentially). Considering that the current majority is heterosexual, the watched are constantly inundated with heteronormative ideals and standards to follow. Adhering to these standards cause a varying level of responses. For some, it is no issue; however, for others, adhering, though doable, might cause a difficult to name discomfort—some level of “off ”ness, and for some, adhering to the standards might prove to be extremely harmful and

bar was not busy, as most of the staff was male except for a lone,

In today’s world, controversies are everywhere, and impossible to avoid in regular day-to-day interactions. When you educate yourself on a controversial subject, you often discover how uneducated and occasionally bigoted other people can be. One such subject is sexuality. As time goes on, sexuality gains more visibility as a growing number of people come out as gay, transgender, and other sexual gender orientations. The LGBT+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans* plus) community is a supposed safe place for those who identify as queer or trans* (umbrella terms referring to those who don’t identify with heterosexuality and those whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth, respectively). However, as with any rule, people will make exceptions. Though many offenders deny, obvious discrimination is seen against minority sexualities, such as asexuality and bisexuality, in forms of jokes and mockeries, invisibility, mislabelling, prejudice, and in some cases, innocent lack of knowledge, from both inside and outside the LGBT+ community.

People express themselves in a number of different ways, such as their fashion, personality, mannerisms, and actions. Together, all of these different ways of expression can create a never ending amount of identities that are developed over time as people mature and grow. However, all of these expressions, for the most part, are still expected to fit within the gender norms of society. For example, it is still extremely taboo for a boy to wear a dress or speak in a voice that is considered “too high pitch” for his gender. Rebelling against these gender norms can lead to an attack on one’s sexuality and gender identification; it is not uncommon for a boy who had either of these traits to be called “gay” or be told that he behaves “like a girl”. Once again, society has constructed an image of what people should look and behave like simply because they were born with a certain set of body parts. Suppressing gender and sexuality exploration and expression is just as harmful to someone as suppressing their personality because it takes away their ability to express themselves as who they want to be. The suppression of these traits are once again based off of the idea of what is “normal” from a heteronormative view. For example, there is nothing natural about not being able to wear a dress if you have a penis; it is completely physically possible for a male to wear a dress and the reason it is frowned upon for him to do so is a socially constructed idea that certain body parts