Breaking the Folkway :
This week when I went grocery shopping, I saw something that I thought I would never see. At first I thought that the person was going to get in trouble. I quickly started to imagine all the the things that could go wrong. When I enter the grocery stored, I saw a girl wearing her rollerskates inside ALDI. The girl wearing the rollerskates remainded me of the time that I had to break a folkway. At first I was scared at breaking the folkway, but once I started to conduct the experiment, it was actually not so bad. So by seeing a folk way being broken and being remainded of the one that I broke kind of convince me to break another one.
I thought about the folkway that I was going to break thinking that it couldn't be too extreme in order to get in trouble. In the end, I couldn't decided which folkway to break, it was between going up to a random person and telling them all about my life and going into public bathrooms and asking for paper and than starting a conversation. I though that either one of those was going to be weird and creepy. In the ended I decided to do the paper toilet one, it seemed as if it was less nerve breaking and less creepy( since the person didn't know who I was). I decided to try and find out the same things that I was trying to find out when I was to break a foldway for a school project. I tried to find out what peoples reaction would be.
When I was in the process of conducting my, I once again got nervous. For my expirement, I decided to go to four places, portillos, kohls, walmart, and best buy. What I was going to do was try and start a conversation by asking for toilet paper. I thought that the conversation should be the same to get better results. The conversation revolved around economics (gas prices, cost of products, etc.), the weather, and teenagers.
A couple of people ignored me when I tried to ask them questions while in the bathroom, others, the minority actually went a long, which I thought was a bit weird. Their were three guys that actually told me to shut up, that it was weird to be talking in the bathroom. Their was one guy at kohls that actually continued the conversation ( I thought that this guy was weird). The guy kept the conversation going and actually started talking about different topics like his personal family and he was contrasting the past and the present ( I think that this person was an old man). The guy creeped me out so much that I actually told him that I was leaving ( ackward).
Overall, I think that the expirement went as I predicted, the majority of the people ignored me, and a very few actually started a conversation. Now I know that talking in the bathroom can get ackward and that most people don't talk or go along when they are in such a position.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
5/20/2011
I want to start by saying my condolences to families of the victims.......................
Well I can surely say that this week was the most interesting week I have had in a long time, I mean come on we went to jail and saw a trial without breaking any norms or being deviant or being members of the trial it self. Honestly I didn't think that jail was so bad, I thought that it was going to be way worse. I think that all the negative propaganda involving jail got to my head a bit to much. The trial was something else, something almost unrealistic. I still can't believe that people are allowed to go to trials like that, as if it was an invitation to snoop on other people's business. Just in general, I think that Tuesday was a day to remember.
To start with, I only went to one trial the whole time that I was at the Dupage County Court . The trial that I attended involved a double murder. The murder was Gary Shuning. The murder killed both his mom (Doris) and an "escort" that he hired. According to sources, Gary killed his mom after alledgely having an argument with her. He killed his mom by giving her multiple stabs all over her body and almost cutting her head off. When Doris was found, she was found with a blank covering her up. After having killed his mom, Gary still had the nerve to steal his mom's credit card and hire the escort (he called for more than one escort, but only one was killed) Gary's escort was in roughly the same condition. The escort was also stabbed multiple times, and she was found half naked. When policeman arrived at the scene of the crime, they found two dead bodies and multiple blood stains all over the house. The policeman didn't find any signs of forced entries.
The policeman would have never known about the crime if it hadn't been for the escort that was invaded into the house by Gary. A couple escorts entered the house, and only one didn't make out alive. The escort was killed by Gary after being stabbed multiple times. Gary killed the escort because she found knives that were covered with blood. I can only imagine the fear that ran through both Gary's and the escorts body when she found the knives filled with blood. I would imagine that Gary killed the escort fearing that she would call the police and fearing that he would have to go to jail for his actions. Before being killed, the escort made a called to her pimp telling him about the situation that she got her self into. The pimp ended the call with the escort and called the pollice. Minutes later, the police arrived at the scene of the crime. The only thing that the police found were two dead bodies and Gary pleading his defense.
I can only hope that Gary is found guilty for his actions and is sentence to life in prison. I find it unrealistic to hear that someone killed their mom, to have killed the peron that gave life to you, a person of your own blood.
P.S. The pimp got deported back to his home ( I think that it was in Africa somewhere)
Moving on to something a bit less depressing, JAIL. Like I mention before, I didn't find the jail to be as bad as people said that it would be. I would have to agree that prison is not a place where I would wish to be. The down side of being in prison is that you are stripped to nearly having nothing with you, one has no privacy, and I imagine that the food is nowhere near the food at portillos or bufallo wild wings, or even good old home cook meals. The policeman that taught us little bit more about jail, prisoners,etc. was a cool guy ( even though he picked at me, lol) one could see that he was really trying to educate us a bit more on the justice system, especially jails. He definatly taught me some new things that I didn't know before ( its not like if I knew a lot about jails, and the process that a prisoner has to go through). I found it interesting how policeman have to catogeries the prisoners into about three different categories. I also didn't know that if a prisoner was in extremely bad health, he was taken to a hospital, I thought tha a doctor was taken to the jail were the prisoner was being held.
Eating ouside of a jail and a court was something that I have never done, and I can honestly say that it was an interesting experience that I would definetly do again. I felt a bit ackward having people stare at you while they were passing by and we were eating, talk about ackward. To bad the weather wasn't coaporating.
Folkway: I think that we broke a folkway when we were eating outside and everybody was looking at us as they passed by us. ( I wish that their would have been some more people doing it, it would deminish the ackwardness a bit)
Law: Gary broke a law by killing two people.
Taboo: Gary not only broke a law but also a taboo. He broke a taboo by hiring escorts and than killing one of them. He also tried to
Nature: I think that violant video games, movies, and T.V shows contributed to an increase in the probability in him killing someone. ( probably wanting to know how it felt)
Felony: I think that Gary's case should be consider a felony since he killed two people and he almost killed himself.
Well I can surely say that this week was the most interesting week I have had in a long time, I mean come on we went to jail and saw a trial without breaking any norms or being deviant or being members of the trial it self. Honestly I didn't think that jail was so bad, I thought that it was going to be way worse. I think that all the negative propaganda involving jail got to my head a bit to much. The trial was something else, something almost unrealistic. I still can't believe that people are allowed to go to trials like that, as if it was an invitation to snoop on other people's business. Just in general, I think that Tuesday was a day to remember.
To start with, I only went to one trial the whole time that I was at the Dupage County Court . The trial that I attended involved a double murder. The murder was Gary Shuning. The murder killed both his mom (Doris) and an "escort" that he hired. According to sources, Gary killed his mom after alledgely having an argument with her. He killed his mom by giving her multiple stabs all over her body and almost cutting her head off. When Doris was found, she was found with a blank covering her up. After having killed his mom, Gary still had the nerve to steal his mom's credit card and hire the escort (he called for more than one escort, but only one was killed) Gary's escort was in roughly the same condition. The escort was also stabbed multiple times, and she was found half naked. When policeman arrived at the scene of the crime, they found two dead bodies and multiple blood stains all over the house. The policeman didn't find any signs of forced entries.
The policeman would have never known about the crime if it hadn't been for the escort that was invaded into the house by Gary. A couple escorts entered the house, and only one didn't make out alive. The escort was killed by Gary after being stabbed multiple times. Gary killed the escort because she found knives that were covered with blood. I can only imagine the fear that ran through both Gary's and the escorts body when she found the knives filled with blood. I would imagine that Gary killed the escort fearing that she would call the police and fearing that he would have to go to jail for his actions. Before being killed, the escort made a called to her pimp telling him about the situation that she got her self into. The pimp ended the call with the escort and called the pollice. Minutes later, the police arrived at the scene of the crime. The only thing that the police found were two dead bodies and Gary pleading his defense.
I can only hope that Gary is found guilty for his actions and is sentence to life in prison. I find it unrealistic to hear that someone killed their mom, to have killed the peron that gave life to you, a person of your own blood.
P.S. The pimp got deported back to his home ( I think that it was in Africa somewhere)
Moving on to something a bit less depressing, JAIL. Like I mention before, I didn't find the jail to be as bad as people said that it would be. I would have to agree that prison is not a place where I would wish to be. The down side of being in prison is that you are stripped to nearly having nothing with you, one has no privacy, and I imagine that the food is nowhere near the food at portillos or bufallo wild wings, or even good old home cook meals. The policeman that taught us little bit more about jail, prisoners,etc. was a cool guy ( even though he picked at me, lol) one could see that he was really trying to educate us a bit more on the justice system, especially jails. He definatly taught me some new things that I didn't know before ( its not like if I knew a lot about jails, and the process that a prisoner has to go through). I found it interesting how policeman have to catogeries the prisoners into about three different categories. I also didn't know that if a prisoner was in extremely bad health, he was taken to a hospital, I thought tha a doctor was taken to the jail were the prisoner was being held.
Eating ouside of a jail and a court was something that I have never done, and I can honestly say that it was an interesting experience that I would definetly do again. I felt a bit ackward having people stare at you while they were passing by and we were eating, talk about ackward. To bad the weather wasn't coaporating.
Folkway: I think that we broke a folkway when we were eating outside and everybody was looking at us as they passed by us. ( I wish that their would have been some more people doing it, it would deminish the ackwardness a bit)
Law: Gary broke a law by killing two people.
Taboo: Gary not only broke a law but also a taboo. He broke a taboo by hiring escorts and than killing one of them. He also tried to
Nature: I think that violant video games, movies, and T.V shows contributed to an increase in the probability in him killing someone. ( probably wanting to know how it felt)
Felony: I think that Gary's case should be consider a felony since he killed two people and he almost killed himself.
Monday, May 2, 2011
3/29/2011
Its been a short but at the same time a long week.
Just yesterday my mom and I were talking about the different taboos that America has compare to the ones that Mexico has. For two tremendous bodies of land being so close to one another, they are very different.
Walking home from school, I saw a little boy drop his lolipop and than pick it up and try to put it on his mouth (Five second rule :). His mom quickly stopped him and quickly jerked the lolipop off of his hand. The mom told him not to eat because it fell on the ground and that it was now dirty and contaminated with bacteria and viruses. People from America are used to throwing things into the garbage once it falls on the ground, and not putting them into their mouth. Growing up, my mom would always tell me not to put things in my mouth once they have touched the floor. To people in America , eating something that has touched the floor could be seen as a folkway.
On the other hand, in Mexico, people are used to the complete opposite, one could repeatedly see kids eat or put food in their mouths after it has fallen. I remember that on my last visit to Mexico, one of my cousins was eating chicken wings, and before he knew, a chicken wing has fallen to the ground. He quickly picked it up and once again put it on his plate ( he finish eating everything on his plate). Before he eat the chicken wing that fell on the floor, I asked him if he was going to seriously eat, after it fell on the ground. He said that he was and that it was normal to do such a thing in Mexico. I told him that in America once food touches the floor, the majority of the time, one will throw that food away.
I wonder if someone from America was to go to Mexico and follow their customs of throwing food away once it touches the floor, would they be seen as strangers and weirdos?
Would it be the same if someone from Mexico was to come to America and follow their customs of throwing food away once it touches the floor, would they be seen as strangers and weirdos?
Just yesterday my mom and I were talking about the different taboos that America has compare to the ones that Mexico has. For two tremendous bodies of land being so close to one another, they are very different.
Walking home from school, I saw a little boy drop his lolipop and than pick it up and try to put it on his mouth (Five second rule :). His mom quickly stopped him and quickly jerked the lolipop off of his hand. The mom told him not to eat because it fell on the ground and that it was now dirty and contaminated with bacteria and viruses. People from America are used to throwing things into the garbage once it falls on the ground, and not putting them into their mouth. Growing up, my mom would always tell me not to put things in my mouth once they have touched the floor. To people in America , eating something that has touched the floor could be seen as a folkway.
On the other hand, in Mexico, people are used to the complete opposite, one could repeatedly see kids eat or put food in their mouths after it has fallen. I remember that on my last visit to Mexico, one of my cousins was eating chicken wings, and before he knew, a chicken wing has fallen to the ground. He quickly picked it up and once again put it on his plate ( he finish eating everything on his plate). Before he eat the chicken wing that fell on the floor, I asked him if he was going to seriously eat, after it fell on the ground. He said that he was and that it was normal to do such a thing in Mexico. I told him that in America once food touches the floor, the majority of the time, one will throw that food away.
I wonder if someone from America was to go to Mexico and follow their customs of throwing food away once it touches the floor, would they be seen as strangers and weirdos?
Would it be the same if someone from Mexico was to come to America and follow their customs of throwing food away once it touches the floor, would they be seen as strangers and weirdos?
Saturday, April 23, 2011
3/23/11
What defines a boy?
What defines a girl?
In my opinion stereotypes are a set to put boundaries on people, pointless boundaries.
In the past a woman were viewed as weak, always having to look good, and fragile, over time things have started to change. Woman have started working outside the field that they were expected to work in,they work in construction, offices, and modeling and acting. and they've also started to join sports. Woman are viewed by the world has the person in any relationship that has to be kind, loving, soft , etc. Everything related to woman can fall into one if not more of the categories that describe a woman. For example one of my little cousins recently bought a barbie doll. The doll had pink clothes, blond hair and pink everything. I asked my little cousin why she choose the doll and she that it was because it had a lot of pink and because it was really pretty, just the way a girl should look. I was really surprise at her response because she was only seven and it seemed like if she has been exposed to the real world way to early, (in my opinion). My mom always said that in a family the female always thinks with their heart.
On the other hand, males are viewed the complete opposite, males are viewed as the strong ones, the ones that most provided the needs for a family. In the past the man were suppose to go out an work, bring food for the family, and still this traditions remain so. Man are viewed as the strongest of both genders, the ones that aren't suppose to show emotions. The color read, blue, muscle, pride, reputation, they are all things that describe a man. One of my uncles has two kids, and both of them are males (boys). Its weird how the only toys that they have in their house are action figures and cars, not even a bear ( to me a bear is a neutral toy). I asked the youngest of my cousins if he would like a teddy bear for his birthday ( he is only four years old), without hesitation he told me no. I asked him why and he said that teddy bears are for girls. My mom always said that the male in the family must think with his brain.
In the end, both of my cousins knew what stereotypes they were supposed to follow according to their gender. I think that young kids are getting exposed to stereotypes and such things way to early in life. In the end I think that stereotypes hurt more than they help.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
3/14/2011
Wow, not going to class for two days can really leave someone speechless.
Today we made a project that made me really confused, the project was that we were suppose to take stereotypes that people had on genders and switch them. I think that this project could surely open the ideas of people that still hang to the same stereotypes. In the past stereotypes were part of the taboos that kept people (or in this case man and woman) in their place in regards of what they could and couldn't do. In the past, stereotypes were viewed with more seriousness than they do at this time. In todays world, many stereotypes that people had of one another have slowly started to fade away. Many people don't have the time to think of such things.
A well known stereotype that is directed towards woman is that they are suppose to stay home and cook, take care of the children, and clean the house. People in the past were really closed minded. Families today need both the mom and dad to be working in order to be well put in society. In my family, both my mom and dad work in order to give a good life to my siblings and I. All of my aunts whether they are in Mexico or here in America, they are all working. In todays fast pace, parents, both moms and dads need to work, need to earn some money in order to keep up with societies needs.
A well known stereotype that is directed towards man is, how they aren't suppose to show any emotion, and how they are the only ones that are suppose to put food on the table. I think that this stereotype is really dumb because its prohibiting people from expressing their emotions and this stereotype eventually is passed down from generation to generation. At a school that I went to for my job, a kid started to cry( kid was 6, boy, Hispanic) because someone was calling him names. The kid went to the dad and the dad told him to stop crying, to be a man and to stop crying. The kid got even worse and started to cry even more. After the dad left I asked him why he kept on crying and he said that his dad didn't love him because he wouldn't stop crying.
I think that stereotypes are useless and pointless. It doesn't matter if one is a male or a female, one should be able to do anything that they want. I think that in todays society, stereotypes of the past have started to diminish while other new stereotypes have started to arouse. Some of the new stereotypes seemed to be worse than the ones that people had back than.
I hope that in some near future, stereotypes would cease to exist since they don't really serve a good purpose other than to draw pointless boundaries that affect people both emotionally, mentally, and physically.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
4/7/2011
This week in sociology we discussed what makes us who we are, is it Nature or is it Nurture. In my opinion I think that we are who we are taking a lit bit of both Nature and Nurture ( but leaning I bit more towards Nurture) . Nature covers the biological factor of the human (what we are born with), and Nurture covers what we are taught, what we learn from out surroundings.
EX. I have a little cousin who is really outgoing and talented at sports, she is really straight forward. Both my uncles are per say shy. Both of them like to keep to themselves and don't like to have confrontations with people. I think that my little cousin learn to be outgoing from his surroundings (Nurture) instead of his biological inheritance (Nature). My cousin is currently ten years old, when she was seven, she started to play sports (soccer) (she is really good). I think that she learn to be more outgoing from being involve in sports and socializing with other kids her own age. I think that many people learn from viewing and mimicking what others around them do ( kind of like observational learning).
On Thursday we read some articles that I found to be a bit misleading and not completely telling the truth. The article that I found to be the most misleading was the one that said that starting school early was bad for your child. I find it to be misleading because I have a younger cousin that only benefited from going to school at an early age. He is currently five years old, he started going to school at the age of three. At the age that he is right now I think that he is really smart. He can name you different shapes, colors, numbers, letters, he can also do a little bit of math and read (add and subtract) and he can do all of does things in both English and Spanish. He is also really social, he has no problems making friends. Currently he is in kindergarten and he really likes, he said that its his favorite part of the day. This is why I believe that the article that stated that having your kid start school early, is not real accurate.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
3/24/11
Wonder who makes the best parties, the Greeks or the Italians?
SPRING BREAK: Spring Break is coming up and all my friends are excited, yet no ones stops to think the that means that we are only a couple of months away from becoming Seniors, which means that we only have about one more year of High School :(. If 11:11 is real than I wish that my junior year wouldn't end so quickly. Life as a High School student sure is fun, but I know that once you cross the senior year age, fun ends and a new beginning awaits ..................... But still this spring break should be fun, I may go to a wedding ( should be interesting and scary, family weddings get a bit scary, interesting and out off control), o well you can't pick your family ( lol ). Hope that its fun.................
My mom's side of the family loved to party, they would have a party for just about any reason, it could be something as small as passing 2nd grade to celebrating for an anniversary. My uncle ( from my mom's side of the family) is the youngest of 15, since he was the youngest, everyone was expecting a final big wedding. All his siblings by this time were happily married and they have had a Big Fat Mexican Wedding ( lol ). In my mom's side of the family, weddings were of the most importance, every detail had to be noted and taken into consideration, their was no room for errors, basically my mom's side of the family was crazy when it came to weddings, to them weddings were sacred bonds that would last forever. On the other hand, my future to be aunt, didn't see the wedding the way that my family saw it. My future aunt had only one sibling, she said that her sisters wedding was small and it wasn't made into such an exaggeration,or at least as much as my family, and that was the way that she wanted. My future aunt wanted to have a very limited invite list for the church ceremony and she wanted their to be a maximum of 100 people at the after party. My grandparents weren't to please with the idea of having a small wedding, to them a wedding was something special that needed to be shared by all your love ones, which included cousins, siblings, aunts, uncles, second cousins, and ect. When it came down to the day of the wedding, things had been changed, the soon to be wife was convince to do a wedding the way that my grandparents had dreamed of making it. In the end, the wedding was AMAZING, a lot of family showed up at the church ceremony ( some people had to stand ), the limit that aunt placed for the after party was almost tripled. Overall the wedding was amazing and everybody enjoyed it, the best part is that its even almost 20 years since the wedding and people are still talking about it.
I wonder if when I get married, my wedding will turn out to be something as amazing as the wedding that my aunts and uncles have had.
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