Live Nude Girls Unite!-A film review

 

The main thesis of this film is a behind the scenes look at what dancers face in the sex work industry and the uphill battle of the ladies in fighting for safer worker conditions and basic job rights.  The main arguments in support of the thesis are the filmmaker is trying to show sex work as a legitimate job and by doing that the ladies of the Lusty Lady were the first strip club in the United States to fight and get a union.  The conditions these ladies work in are harsh and while this is only one facet of the sex work industry it shows how these girls are often victimized time and time again.  In the article Humanizing Sex Workers, the campaign in Canada worked to show sex work in a more human light, meaning that if they could identify a sex worker as being a mother, sister or daughter that it would help stop some of the violence against these women.  This relates to how we have been studying deviance all semester because when we decide someone is deviant then what happens to them after that isn’t important.  The same article the blogger talks about the women who were found in a mass grave and because they were prostitutes they were not looked for more thoroughly.  I found many arguments in this film convincing.  If a woman chooses to work in this industry then she should be given a safe work environment.  I found the union organization very inspiring and how they fought for the smallest victories such as a sick day which. In other jobs that are protected by a Human Resources department, these girls do not have that luxury.  I didn’t have any arguments that weren’t convincing. In the article, U.S. Sex Worker Advocates Expose Human Rights Violations Before UN,  by demonizing this women it makes their work environment less safe and by making some of these acts criminal then it makes the likelihood that they will ever be able to get out and find a different life and by not treating these women like human beings who are just trying to do a job, business owners put the support behind the “johns” or the “pimps”.  I would like to study a dancing establishment who chooses to foster a safe work environment without a union presence.  I would think you would attract a different kind of client and the women would feel protected and not exploited.  

Story of an Illness~Depression

 

            Most of us feel pressure every day of our lives.  It can be severe at times but we usually have developed coping mechanisms or tools to help elevate the feeling of being overwhelmed.  What happens when those tools fail?  Who do we look to for guidance to help out of this hole?  These questions should be easy to answer but they are not.  A physician or a psychiatrist should be our first line of defense but it is becoming more and more clear that they are merely part of a vicious cycle.  The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which is considered the “bible” to professionals in the medical industry defines depression in many broad categories. The category that I chose to focus on is Major Depressive Disorder (MDD).  MDD is very broad and encompasses many types of reasons for depression to occur such as alcohol or drug abuse, death of a loved one and stress.  All of us will feel depressed or sad but when that starts to interfere with daily life events for weeks at a time it changes to a major disorder. (U.S. National Library of Medicine)  The treatment options that are recommended for this are Cognitive Behavior Therapy and medication.  This is where ethical areas really begin to get murky.   

When I began research into this topic, every website that I came across had advertisements for prescription drug treatments attached.  “Feeling blue? Call your doctor today and try Cymbalta.  Ask for your free 30-day trial”.  If I was feeling depressed I would definitely want my problems taken away with a little pill, I should trust what the doctors are telling me right?  In the article, What’s a Mental Disorder? Even Experts Can’t Agree, Allen Frances talked about his idea to put Asperger’s in the DSM because there currently wasn’t a category to deal with a less severe form of Asperger’s and then the aftermath of that.  A sweeping diagnosis started to occur, and the drug companies were the direct benefactors.  The DSM is the direct controlling entity that advises doctors, schools and insurances where to allocate and who to diagnose.  In the film Generation RX, the research that was done in this documentary showed that nearly every person on the DSM advisory board had a contract with the prescription drug companies.  The very people who determine “sick labels” are making millions of dollars.  Have you ever turned the television on during the hours of 9:00am and 3:00pm?  Between the soap operas and the daily talk shows there are an abundance of prescription drug commercials talking about depression and the target of this depression label for the most part is women. 

 In the article We’re all Mad Here: Pharmaceutical Advertising and Messaging about Mental Illness, the author discusses that in most countries it is not legal for pharmaceutical companies to advertise on television and that the mass distribution of this advertising is plays a significant role on how the United States views mental health issues and the treatments needed especially where depression is concerned. (Bitch Media)  The combination of constant in your face advertising and the constant influence the pharmaceutical companies have on our physicians have perpetuated an era of distrust.  With that distrust  and the pharmaceutical companies boasting an “instant cure” (no matter the side effects), people who are diagnosed with depression are automatically put in a “sad box” and they are not allowed to deviate from it and when they do they are labeled not sick enough or sad enough to really be depressed.  We have arrived at a tricky predicament in this country where pharmaceutical companies are making the diagnosis and the doctor’s are taking the back seat.  The social stigma’s attached with depression and the label’s that can be attached are devastating and that is even before someone takes the risk on a medication.  Are we really depressed or is that what they want us to believe?

Word count: 701

 Works cited:

Image 1: Google Images; Depression.

Image 2: Google Images; Depression.

Image 3: Google Images; Depression.

Image 4: Google. Images; Depression.

Image 5: Google Images; Depression.

Image 6: Google Images; Depression.

Film. Generation RX.

Smith. S.E. 2011. We’re all Mad Here: Pharmaceutical Advertising and Messaging about Mental Illness. Bitch Media.

Spiegel, Alix. 2010. What’s a Mental Disorder? Even Experts Can’t Agree.

DSM5. http://www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevision/Pages/proposedrevision.aspx?rid=484; Date accessed. March 24, 2012.

U.S. National Library of Medicine. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001941/. Date accessed, March 24, 2012.

Generation Rx-A film review

 

The main thesis of this film explores the commercialization of mental disorders and the prescriptions used to treat them.  We also see the corrupt nature of the prescription drug entities and the government bodies that are supposed to regulate it but ultimately fail.  The main arguments of this film show how ill advised we are as consumers as well as who is feeding the information to the doctors that we are programmed to trust.  The film shows in great detail that companies are there to make a dollar (69 billion a year or 139,000 dollars per second) which shows greed as overwhelmingly taken over our moral compass.  This films ties into what we have been learning in this section about ADHD and the labeling that is happening to our youth.  In the article, Are some ADHD-labeled kids just young for their grade, we learn that at what age a child enters school changes the diagnosis rate of ADHD.  After watching the film and the full push that pharmaceutical companies were making for this diagnosis in our schools, it makes me wonder do any of our kids have ADHD and does it really exist?  The statistics given in the film that the United States consumes 90%  of the Redlin in the world leads me to believe as an educated consumer that something isn’t just wrong with the kids in the United States but that are powerful entities such as the panel of the DSM and the FDA are in the pockets of the pharmaceutical companies who are pushing their agendas down our throats and making billions and billions of dollars.  I found no arguments lacking in this film and the film made me think long and hard about the DSM and what it really entails.  The biggest point that sticks out to me and that I would like to study further is how many minority children are misdiagnosed with ADHD and put on to medicine that is mind altering.  I would also like to see the amount of children that go into our juvenile detention centers that are immediately medicated.  In the article, Pharmaceutical Advertising and Messaging about Mental Illness, the pills that are being sold are shown as a "cure all" pill and when the general public are not educated about these medications they cannot make a choice for their children.  I would like to see from a minority perspective because the education would be even more important.  This film was outstanding and I put it on my Facebook so that all parents I know can make informed choices.

Hoochie-Deviant Language

 

            What is a hoochie?  The term is thrown around the music and film industries as an identifier to women but what does it mean?  The Urban Dictionary defines hoochie as a “female who appears to match a set of characteristics including: trashy, often inappropriately tight dress (with or without pudge overflowing); eyebrows shaved and penciled back on in dramatic fashion; heavy mostly monotonic makeup with dark lipstick; large, gaudy, costume grade jewelry.  Frequently accompanied by multiple children from different fathers.”  If we analyze this definition, the media and entertainment world is labeling these women as low class, poor because she can’t afford high quality jewelry, could be fat and that is another label in its entirety and she sleeps around so she is obviously not so fat that she can’t land a man but what a shame, she can’t keep one.  

            Hoochie was a regular part of conversation in the hip-hop and rap community in the 1990’s.  One of the most memorable scenes of that genre was in the film Friday.  Craig, the main character played by Ice Cube, is confronted by his on again off again girlfriend and the song playing in the background is from 2 Live Crew singing that the girl ain’t nothing but a hoochie mama, hood rat, hood rat, hoochie mama, big booty ho.  Women of minorities are most often the ones that are stuck with this label because as a society we have underlying stereotypes that are already placed on women of color.  

 

The way we perceive and idolize the idea of masculinity in the United States is a direct catalyst to why women are labeled such derogatory names.  When women are labeled in this way it makes them less than human so it increases the risk of victimization. In the article Shame, Guilt and Violence, author James Gilligan explains that over his long career of interviewing men of why the committed a violent act the response was usually “because he disrespected me”.  (Gilligan 2003:1)  The ideal or what is expected of boys and men in this country is unattainable and when they fail violence is the solution and because of this unrealistic expectation, women are often in the crossfire. 

            If we stop perceiving women as sex objects and attaching labels that are derogatory, then we may have a chance to change the future.  In Kelly Osbourne’s blog post where she says she is going to stop using the word tranny and asks for everyone to stop using that word after she realized the hurt she caused the community.  I ask that we do the same for the word hoochie.  When we talked in class about what defines the ideal woman, the definition of hoochie is the polar opposite of that.  Why do we continue to demonize women for the same acts that men do and hold women to the unrealistic media standards of what a women should look like.  If you hear the word being used to describe someone, correct the person.  Tell them the word hoochie is not a label that should be stuck on someone.  Don’t be part of the objectification of women.

 

Word count: 570

Reference

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hoochie. Date accessed February 24, 2012.

Image 1. Google Images. Date accessed February 24, 2012.

Image 2. Google Images. Date accessed February 24, 2012.

Image 3. Google Images. Date accessed February 24, 2012.

Gilligan, James. 2003. Shame, Guilt and Violence. Social Research, Vol. 78, No. 4.

Osbourne, Kelly. I'm Retiring the Word "Tranny"...Will you Join Me?

Murderball-A film review

This film was the best we have seen so far!  I was humbled watching this show because the members on this rugby team have more drive and have achieved more than most able-bodied individuals.  I like how this film takes a look at how we as a society label and dehumanize persons who are disabled in some manner.  Mark Zupan, the main focus of this documentary gives real life advice on how a person who could walk one day and not the next deals with this new challenge. He takes the viewer through a timeline of coping and how it takes many years to deal emotionally and mentally what has happened to you and then you modify your life.  He is very inspirational not because he is in a wheelchair but his infectious attitude about life.  The film follows Team USA and Team Canada mostly and the competitive world of quad rugby.  The most powerful point that this film makes is the reference to ableism.  In the article, What is Ableist Language and Why Should You Care?, Thomas Hehir states that “Ableism is the devaluation of disability that results in societal attitudes that uncritically assert that it is better for a child to walk than to roll, speak than sign or read print than read Braille.” This is the message that is sold to us through the media and it takes films like Murderball to shatter these ridiculous notions that we have.  Like in the video Spinal Muscular Atrophy Doesn’t Define Me’ that we watched in Section 1.  Being disabled or having an illness doesn’t define you as a person.  It is not who you are or what you feel.  

Reference
Image Disability-Google Images
Spinal Muscular Atrophy 'Doesn't Define Me', Video, Sociology 360 Deviance Class Blog
Bitch Magazine. What is Ableist Language and Why Should You Care?
 

Film Review- "Middle Sexes"

 

The main thesis of “Middle Sexes” is the turmoil and discrimination transgender people face in different parts of the world.  The film shows the different levels of discrimination that they face including; violence that is geared toward transgender people, gender assignment at birth from their doctors and how different cultures and religions change the way society views transgender people.  The film aligns with what we have been studying from a less than human standpoint that society views people who are different than the norm.  Especially when sexuality is in question or a variation from the rigid boxes of man and woman, we as a puritan/Christian society in the United States cannot accept the differences. In Alice Dreger’s Gender Bender, where she talks about the changes the doctor’s make when they believe the sex is not distinguishable meaning the clitoris is too large or the penis is too small to be categorized in the safe boxes so they make the change causing destruction for years to come.  When we came upon Judy’s story in the film where he was classified a male hermaphrodite but the doctor decided to make it a clitoris and that he went years into adulthood as a female “with parts that didn’t look normal” according to the other girls and then to a relationship with a female.  He now is a man and I couldn’t help but think, if that doctor wouldn’t have made that choice for him how different and maybe less painful his early years would have been.  The topic I found most convincing is how transgender people are treated in different cultures.  When we came upon the Koata in Thailand, that made we think about because of certain religious beliefs that we demonize certain groups.  In the Buddhist faith, transgender is recognized and not categorized as bad.  With the 300,000 in Koata living in Thailand, they are often found in what we would consider in the United States as prestigious jobs such as the entertainment industry and the modeling industry.  In the video, “Looking Back, Pushing Forward: DSM and Gender Identity Disorder”, it looks at gender identity as an illness in the same book as multiple personalities or schizophrenia.  If we didn’t classify gender identity as a “disorder” in the United States would we look at it differently?  I believe we absolutely would.  I would have liked to have seen more examples of different cultures but I like the diversity they showed and the societal pressures that are inflicted.

Reference

Magnuson, Danielle. 2011. Alice Dreger, Gender Bender.  www.msblog.com

Looking Back, Pushing Forward: DSM and Gender Identity Disorder. Video accessed from Social Deviance 360 class blog.

Blog Post 2-I am not deviant

 

 I am conformity.  I am the norm.  I follow the rules.  I do not make waves. I am not deviant. When I think of my childhood and adolescence, the one thing that comes to mind is I never wanted to disappoint my Mother.  My high school years were conformity to the letter, I was a cheerleader, homecoming princess and I did not bend the institutionalized rules of my Mom or the educators.  I grew up in a town of 9,000 so I also felt the pressure of how I represented myself to the town. I didn’t drink because I was too afraid to get caught.  I never wanted to see my name in the paper in a negative light.  I was never going to be a criminal, I knew that then and I know that now.  I was so busy in high school that I just didn’t have time to step out of bounds. In the Differential Association Theory, it explains that the more you associate or see criminal behavior, the more likely you are to commit that behavior. (Sutherland and Cressey 1977:75) I was never allowed to associate with kids whose parents had been involved in crime so I had no exposure to those aspects that could have influenced my criminal behavior.  Labeling Theory states, “The deviant is one to who that label has successfully been applied, deviant behavior is behavior that people so label.” (Becker 1991: 39)  As we discussed in class, when a positive label is associated with a person it can have a different affect than when a negative label is associated.  I had the benefit of a positive label and even though it came with its set of pressures such as in Strain Theory, I chose at that time to conform and it was much easier to take the path of least resistance.  In Strain Theory, conformity is defined as the “conformity to both cultural goals and institutionalized means.” (Merton 1957: 21)

        

         For my deviant act, I chose to put “Goth” makeup on and go to my local Target store.  In the area that I live in near Camas, there are rarely people who look different from the considered norm.  I felt extremely uncomfortable when I arrived in the parking lot and I did not want to get out of my car.  As I walked into Target, I was immediately noticed and as I approached a lady she immediately walked as far away from me as she could get.  I started to feel so heavy and weighed down with emotion of how people were reacting to me.  I also noticed that as I was making my way around Target shopping that the security guard started to “show up” in many of the aisles I was in.  I had never experienced that in my entire life and started to feel like I was doing something criminal.  Around the 15-minute mark, I experienced my most embarrassing moment when a lady shielded her child away from me in the aisle.  I immediately felt ashamed of what I looked like and I was ready to escape the scrutiny. This experiment opened my eyes to what it feels like to look different than our assumed norm.  I will think again before I stare a little to long at someone that looks different than me.  I chanted a mantra when I went into Target that helped my bravery.  I am strong.  I am unique.  I will hold my head high and own it.  I was so emotionally exhausted when I finally sat in my car and felt extremely humbled that I do not have to experience this on a daily basis and what a disservice we cause to others that do.

Word count: 621

Reference

Merton, Robert K. 1957. Social Theory and Social Structure. The Free Press a division of Simon and Schuster Adult Publishing.

Sutherland, Edwin H and Donald R. Cressey. 1977. Criminology 9th ed. Philadelphia, PA.

Becker, Howard S. 1963. Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance. The Free Press an imprint of Simon and Schuster.

Image 1 from Google Images, Christine Park.
Image 2 from Google Images,  www.deviantart.com.
Image 3 from Google Images, conformity cartoons.