Why Is She With Him?

In America, men and women all over are desperately obsessed with their beauty and personal image. However, it is not as much sometimes their selves they are urging to impress. It is completely unfortunate how many people base their opinions, friendships and relationships, if they like you, if they do not, all upon the way you may look or what brand your jeans are. American Standards of beauty put unnecessary pressure on men and women every day by choosing relationships based on physical body appearances, women making ultimate sacrifices because of judgement, men being ridiculed by their friends because of dress wear, and higher pay raise for taller people is cruel and should not be tolerated.

As a society, we feed off of each other for what a proper response to something may be. As children, we first look to see our mother’s reaction after falling down; if she is calm, I should also be. We look to each other for what a definition of things should be, as well. In the 1950’s, it was generally obscene for a woman on television to show her belly button, whereas today we will show nude breasts on primetime programming. This follows the sociological theory of symbolic interactionism, where society and individual social interaction provides a subjective meaning to deviant behavior. Many social definitions change for the better, however some change for the worse. One such example was once viewed as normal, with no second thoughts given to it, but now is seen as an actual social problem affecting some groups aversely. This is the topic of homosexuality, a subject that has been on the receiving end of both accepting and discriminating cultures for thousands of years.

I decided for my social observation the mall would be a good place to start. I came there on a Friday evening when there should be plenty of people to watch. I also sat in the Barnes and Noble café after that to observe. I expected to see a lot of people shopping and conversing. A few things did stand out to me within the few hours I was there. Some things I didn’t expect to see. We are expected to behave a certain way in public determined by our culture as to what is acceptable. Some people stay well within the lines while some might stray outside the norms but never too far typically. Usually the ones to travel to the extremes are adolescents and teenagers. This is what I observed.

Throughout history, women have been victims of oppression no matter what religion or background they come from. They have learned from a young age, that their appearance is important to fundamentally be happy in their life. The topic of oppression in woman leads to controversial discussion not only to scholars but women of all parts of the world. How a woman presents herself through appearance and clothing targets her in a society obsessed with each other’s business. In today’s society, whether we can help it or not, men are treated differently than women. There seems to be different “rules” associated with the acceptable ways they should dress as opposed to the strict rules that apply to women. Women who are westernized

There are various perceptions of gay and lesbian couples that they represent a more egalitarian relationship. (Civettini 2015:1) However, when same-sex couples are observed there is still a tendency to believe that the relationship contains a masculine and feminine figure following the heterosexual model. So, it is necessary to address both how these couples deviate from society’s norms as gay individuals but might still be reproducing the same behaviors as heterosexual couples because the ideologies are so deeply rooted in social institutions. The stereotypical connotations of masculinity and femininity influence all aspects of American society and gender display relies heavily on meeting those given expectations. So, in the case of this article, the author Civettini views a connection between sex, gender, and sexual orientation when it comes to displaying

In many day-to-day experiences people tend to view or prejudge people based on only how they are dressed or wear their hair. As a personal example, a friend knew someone covered with tattoos and piercings, he tended not to associate with him until he gained the curiosity to sit down and have a conversation. Afterwards, he learned that behind all of the tattoos and piercings he had an interesting

It has always been mankind’s nature to be equal or better than one another; as a society, as a group, or as an individual. We have evolved greatly over thousands of years, however we remain as a society with some bad habits. This is shown in the novel Uglies, model’s participating in annual Victoria’s Secret fashion shows, and the hit T.V show Botched. In today’s modern society, individuals or the majority of people will alter the way they appear or act in order to fit in with present day “Beauty”.

There are some who argue that when a woman decides to dress in a way that shows off her skin, she is asking for negative attention from men. This reason is why the ‘locker room’ behavior of men is borderline accepted in primarily American culture. When women are told that the way that they dress puts themselves in danger with men, it shames females into thinking that their freedom to dress is less important because they have to worry about how they are going to be treated. Though I concede that there is no reason to show off inappropriate areas of the body publicly, I still insist that a woman should be able to choose to wear what she wants without being afraid of the consequences. After all, clothes are just clothes.

But individuals in our world think that if you wear a certain piece of clothing you are weird, or don’t fit in. Let’s say this girl started dressing like a boy, people would automatically assume she was a lesbian. But maybe she likes the way boys clothes fit. For another example, I know a person who likes to wear the color black. People assume she’s gothic people she wears black all the time.

Noticing the reactions of others is similar to research such as the Milgram study, because my research along with the Milgram study allowed people to make interpretations of the situation and also to make a decision as whether or not to respond to my norm violation. The interpretation processes that the people on the bus applied were fundamental attribution, as a result of looking and rolling their eyes at me. Most of the people who looked at me singing, I can see that they wanted to do something more than just tell me to stop singing, or to just simply tell me to stop

Society ultimately is the main source for the modern day “normal”. As humans, we tend to feel obligated to fit in with the crowd or society. There was a day where I decided to break the society’s outlook on the “normal”, which is the day I decided to walk around a public mall in my wrestling singlet. Normally people usually wear clothing that doesn’t reveal or even show as much as a singlet does, which is the reason I decided to violate this norm.

Throughout my ‘through the wardrobe’ interview i came across many different themes in which i wanted to explore, one of these themes was the link between gender and dress, how dress can be used to alter or express ones gender. gender is one of the most talked about controversies of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, mainly the fight for equality. gender refers to the socially and culturally constructed differences between a male and a female and fashion is a device that can be used to reject, explore, portray define confirm your gender, sexuality and personality. through dress we can communicate who we are or who we want to be, even the lack of fashion can say something about us. i wish to explore gender boundaries; how they have changed

A bug bite was my greeting as I walked into a warm blast of air, promptly, I looked up only to see a ceiling that never seemed to end with the words Wal-Mart written all over it. Without delay, I darted for the frozen food section in hopes of finding my favorite food, Sushi. While searching through the aisles I couldn’t help but realize something very peculiar, everyone I laid eyes on was either dressed in an appropriate or inappropriate manner. After realizing that many people in the store dressed inappropriately for public spaces, I began to question my own dress code. This pattern has gained recognition not only by me, but also by the media. According to an article in the CNN Living, dressing up in public has become something of the past,

No matter what a woman is wearing, no means no. The amount of clothing a woman is wearing does not justify a man’s actions. Telling a girl to cover up is degrading and wrong. Every single girl in America has most likely been told at some point in their lives that what they are wearing is inappropriate. When society starts body-shaming the way young girls, it already sets them up to be insecure about their bodies before they even reach junior high. Women are expected to have a certain body image in order for boys to like them, but when they feel comfortable enough in showing their body, they are shamed for it. There is no happy medium in how to dress as a woman. No matter what, women are going to be judged for what they wear by someone. There is a lot of gray area as to what is appropriate and what is not. When a girl has a more curvy body, she is judged more frequently than a girl with less curves. Girls cannot help if they have curves or not, and they should not be penalized for something completely out of their control. Society needs to let girls be comfortable with their bodies and stop body shaming. Women should not be told what to wear so boys aren’t “distracted”. Boys need to be taught how to control their hormones and respect a woman’s body no matter what she is wearing. We should not look at a girl’s body as a sexual object. No matter how little of clothes a woman is wearing, if she does not want to be touched, she should not be touched. Asking a rape victim what she was wearing when she was assaulted is promoting

What if they want to wear certain clothes and do a certain style because it builds their confidence or that they just like it. When and where we can wear fancy clothes also seems to be a problem. Some individual wears fancy clothes on casual nights, and others wear casual clothes on select nights. When we don’t wear “appropriate” clothes for an event, it comes off as disrespectful. Based on appearance only, we also determine how attractive someone is, and this is taken into consideration when we approach a potential spouse. We tend to focus on how they look and not who they are, which could lead to problems later on in a marriage.