Deviance

Deviance can be basically definied as do something that is against society's norms. While this is usually negative, deviance can be positive like buying a stranger a cup of coffee or thanking your teacher after class. But if you focus on negative deviance, what seperates the "Saints" from the "Roughnecks" is society's perception of their actions. The Roughnecks were poor minorities whose negative actions were often visible to everyone since they didn't have many options. The Saints were able to drive to the city or drive far away from campus so as not to be caught by people who knew them. And even if they weren't caught, their deviance would be seen as a mistake, a one time screw up, while the Roughnecks were typically thought of as having no future.
I think that while this sterotyping of people who commit deviant behavior is wrong, it comes down to are you willing to play the game. A student can "forget" to do their homework but apologize to the teacher and turn it in the next day and possibly not lose credit. This student knows how to play the game even though he might hate the class and have no desire to work.
Just something to think about... Is downloading media illegally really deviant behavior? Sure there are consequences, but is it that against social customs that you're looked down upon?

Nature v Nurture

We learned that as humans, we aren't able to become a "normal" part of society with only our nature. It's necesary to be nutured and learn from experiences and other humans in order to develop. These two qualities, nature and nurture, aren't mutually exclusive; they actually work together to shape who we are. In fact, our experiences, like always being stressed, can actaully be passed down from generation to generation.
We also talked about feral children and that their lack of nurture doesn't allowe them to fully develop. I think that I've been shaped by my parents a lot. I've noticed simple things that I do that some of my friends don't, that I think my parents taught me to do and has now just become habit. Like turning off the TV or the lights when I leave a room. The TV is always on at my girlfriend's house even if no one is watching or in the room. I think qualities like modesty and honesty are also taught by our parents, those aren't things ingrained in our genes.

Adulthood and Independence

It's tough to pinpoint one time when we become adults in our culture. The Somoans believe it's a continuous journey and everyone goes at their old pace. Nature says it's the time of puberty. We learned today that the average age that people are financially independent is around 27. We become legal adults at 18 and are legally responsible for our actions, but are we realyl adults? Could we really make it in the world? I guess if at 18 you had a full-time job, you could be independent. But that's not very realistic.
Tomorrow I'm visiting U of I, where I'll be going next year and will be expected to make my own decisions and balance my time. But am I an "adult"? Well my parents are paying for my education and odds are I'll be moving back in after gradutaion. True adulthood seems like a daunting idea, being truly independent, honestly, it's pretty scary. But I think that as time goes on we all learn enough to make it and be okay in our lives.

Women

With a title like the title of this post, anything can be said. But this week in class we talked about how genders are shaped. Even as little kids boys and girls are distinguished simply by their clothing but also in ways less obvious like which toys they play with. We had our own little show and tell and we observed that the girls' toys were typically soft and cuddly with warm colors while the boys' toys were about action and were typically bright colors. We looked at a kids' toy catalog and we saw that girls were typically seen playing indoors, a subliminal message about gender roles. Boys, on the other hand, were seen playing outdoors.
I see these gender gaps everyday. Even in our class, Jeff mentioned that guys don't go home and look in the mirror and degrade their body image while girls do. We learned about the images that magazines put out and how fake they are but that we still strive to be like that. I lift weights and have track practice everyday, while I love running, I know that because I work out, I'll have more of an athletic build. Before going on spring break, I worked on my abs more knowing that I would be swimming a lot and that it's important to look good, but these ideas are shaped by our society and thr idea that men should be muscular. I think it's important to be comfortable and happy with who we are and how we look.