DuBois Sumblog 7

“Forget about the reasons and

The treasons we are seeking

Forget about the notion that your emotions can be

Wept away, kept at bay

Forget about being guilty, I am innocent instead

For soon we will all find our lives swept away” – Dave Matthews Band: Seek Up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhvJrNfgTfE

W.E.B. DuBois was a sociologist during a very trivial period of American history. He was born shortly after the 13^th amendment came into effect. His sociological perspective was one of the first forms of symbolic interactionism. This is a micro-perspective, which has overlapping factors with psychology. His two key concepts are the ideas of the “veil” and “double-consciousness.” DuBois described the veil as something that hides potential. We take for granted the status quo- for example racial inequality. African Americans are able to exist in society, but don’t view this society from the same perspective due to this veil that is placed upon them. The consequence of this idea of the “veil” is called double-consciousness or twoness. This means that there is one person with two different identities. This concept is largely due to the differences between majority and minority cultures, there is a schism between the two. African Americans are being fed the same beliefs and traditions that are inherent in the majority culture, but are unable to incorporate their own within their society. This in turn sets them apart from the rest of society and produces the idea of a double-consciousness. To help explain DuBois’s ideas of the veil and double-consciousness I chose a song called “Seek Up.” I think the lyrics above clearly depict how people who are feeling these two differing identities within themselves need to find a sense of peace amongst all of the inner turmoil. We are all here for a limited amount of time, and to live in a constant struggle can be very harmful and taxing on one’s self. This song basically says, those even though one may be going through hell, keep fighting, and make the most of what you have. 

Gilman Sumblog 6

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was an active female social thinker in the late 19^th century. She is most famously known for her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Gilman’s sociology focused on three main ideas: sexuo-economic relation, an androcentric culture, and public vs. private spheres. She stated that there was a great deal of inequality between the sexuo-economic relations. She felt that all social life was economically interdependent. “As long as what I get is obtained by what I give, I am economically independent.” Gilman felt that women were economic factors in society; she also stated that a horse was as well. They both help produce more wealth, but have no means to create money for themselves. Another interesting topic Gilman talked about was the origin of gender stratification. She felt that it derived primarily from an androcentric culture. This means that people view all things in a society from a males’ perspective. Meaning, men have more power and greater access to power. Gilman contextualized this inequality by describing the differences of power in public and private spheres. She said that males dominate the public sphere through economics. Where as private spheres such as the home, where you’re surrounded by people you know very well were characterized as more feminine places. A prime example of androcentrism in our society today would be sports. Male athletes get more airtime, recognition, and even better wages for performing the same sports. A video I found below helps to demonstrate this core idea of how many people view the world through a male perspective. A Japanese man and woman are playing a game. When the woman hits the man, she does it once and he is able to put a helmet of sorts on before she hits him. When it is the male’s turn to hit her he literally stands up and just starts hitting her as many times as he can before the official has to pull him away. There is a level of inequality between these two players that is evident.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB-uVhYKlHU

Happiness Sumblog 5

           Happiness to me means a feeling of comfort in my environment. This is a vague definition, but simply it means that wherever I am and whatever I am doing I feel secure, content, and involved. This week we studied Harriet Martineau, she is known as “sociology’s founding mother” according to the article we read for class. It’s nice to learn about a female social thinker, honestly this is the first woman sociologist I have studied thus far in my classes at UWSP. She overcame many challenges in life such as, deafness, oppression, and inequalities due to being a female.

Martineau had a different approach to studying sociology than many of the other male sociologist’s we have discussed thus far. She felt that the law of social life-human happiness, was the most important component to studying sociology. Although Martineau’s definition of happiness was never truly explained she provided a few methods of how to study this idea. Through this she described morals and manners that help us achieve happiness. Martineau defined morals as shared norms or values of a society and manners were the actions a person displays based on these morals. One example we discussed in class was the topic of money. Does money really provide happiness or not? Personally, I don’t think so. Yes, money helps to pay the bills and provide for luxuries, but at the end of the day it’s not the amount in my bank account which makes me truly happy.

An example, I enjoy to help describe happiness is the move Little Miss Sunshine. This movie helps to show that even though life can be rough in a lot of ways, the bond of family can overcome anything. The characters in this movie are all going through very different life obstacles such as, financial success, depression, and trying to win a beauty pageant. They all unite together to help the youngest daughter succeed in a state beauty pageant, in doing so they have to take a road trip in their not-so-reliable Volkswagen van. In the end it comes down to the fact that money or success don’t really guarantee happiness, but feeling the love and support of a caring family can really truly make you feel happy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWyH_twcMl0

Weber Sumblog 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0KKytKF6xE < Helps define ideal types 

Weber’s ideas on sociology stemmed from three main points, ideal types, power and authority, and bureacracy and rationalization. Weber’s thoughts on ideal types said, “In its conceptual purity, this mental construct…can’t be found empirically anywhere in reality.” This means that “They are analytical constructs that enable the researcher to develop hypotheses linking the types with the conditions that brought about the event, phenomena, or social structure, or with consequences that follow from its emergence” (website below). Ideal types focus on a certain concept, take capitalism for example, there are many different variations of it, but no perfect version. It can’t truly be found in reality, but it’s used as a model.

There are many different aspects of capitalism that could be looked at while viewing it as an ideal type. For example, free market and competition. There are various forms of both of these and in a perfect capitalistic society there would not be such a large division of social classes.

The video I chose helps explain how the concept of ideal types was formed. It was developed to help alleviate categorical thinking, which divides everything into more rigid categories. It helps to understand large social realities from multiple perspectives. One part I particularly enjoyed was at 3:50 when they used the picture of social perspectives as a lookout on a large ship. They are at a higher vantage point and therefore are able to see more, similar to the idea of multiple perspectives. This video says that society is too complex to view it from one way. Therefore we must use various ideal types as a tool to help understand our world.

I feel that the concept of ideal types is a difficult one to grasp, but find it very useful in terms of understanding social constructions today. As the video said so well, it is a tool to understand the modern world. I had a hard time explaining ideal types in my own words, but was able to find other resources that helped clearly define my thoughts.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Ideal_Type.aspx