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.