Deviance: Who, What, When, Where, Why

 If there is one thing to be learned from this course, it is that there is an immense gray area in defining deviance.  As mentioned in my very first blog post, “deviance can be described as breaking a rule of society; doing something or acting in a way that can be considered out of ‘the norm.’ It can also provoke disapproval (Thio, Calhoun and Conyers).”   But deviance is much greater than that, or is it much smaller than that? One can interpret it either way. Deviance can be described as much greater than breaking a rule of society because there is a much variance based on who is committing the act, what they are doing, when they are doing it, where the act is being done, and the reasons why it is being done.  Here is an example of what I mean: If a teenager was drilling a whole in the pavement with a jackhammer, he would have police called on him but if an adult with a hard hat was doing it, people would assume he is a construction worker.  Going along with that same idea; if an adult with a hardhat was drilling a hole with a jackhammer in your neighborhood at 2:00am, people would think he is a lunatic but if an adult with a hard hat was drilling with a jackhammer on the state highway at 2:00am, people would drive by with caution knowing that this man is doing his job. Similarly, if a random teenage boy was drilling with a jackhammer in your neighborhood, he would get the police called on him but if a teenager was drilling on the pavement in front of his house with his father’s guidance, neighbors would talk about the importance of father and son bonding over a hard day’s work. So you see, this one act of using a jackhammer can be considered deviant based on who, what, when, where and why it is being done.

            

As I mentioned, deviance can be described as much smaller than that too because of the underlying social reasons for deviance. It is essentially a made up concept used to differentiate the “normal” from the “abnormal.” So essentially, deviance is only a big deal because society makes it a big deal. Here is an example: In this society, having a learning disability is considered deviant. It’s a big deal to be considered academically challenged and there is big social institution focused around identifying these deviants and classifying them on a different scale. Well what if that social construction did not exist? What if every student was accepted for who they from the time they enter school to the time they exit? What if students were not accepted to be at a certain level at a certain age and were instead allowed to learn at their own pace without being labeled or judged if they did not attain a desired score on a standardized test? If this were the case, “deviance” wouldn’t be that big of a deal because “saving” a student from getting labeled deviant wouldn’t be a priority and the idea of being different wouldn’t even occur to people. The whole concept of identifying a student with a disability to make sure that he is not considered deviant alienates the student and makes him get labeled as deviant anyway. 

          

  Unfortunately for us, we do not live in a society which accepts you for the content of your character but instead judges you on every aspect possible. We are exposed to a culture that systematically judges, alienates, and discriminates based on height, weight, sex, gender, cultural background, social class, education level, level of physical ability and anything else that can differentiate the “majority” from the “minority” and establish a group of “desired” and “undesired” individuals.  

This video demonstrates the sad reality of people’s perception about a man’s height. People have absolutely no control of how tall or how short they are but are forced to live with a label their whole life if they do not meet a certain height criteria. This label fallows you when you are trying to get a date, get a job or be taken seriously in your social circle. Looking beyond a person’s height, society seems to have a definition of a “real man” and a “real woman. 

As you can see, men in society have a very clear and distinct idea of what it means to be a man and they go to great lengths to be tough guys. It is these ideals that drive individuals in society to label others deviant if they do not fit the mold of what is defined.

This video displays the advertising schemes used to sell the mainstream image of “normal” as it pertains to what women should look like. The women portrayed in the media, in movies and advertisements, in commercials and billboards all across America are fictitious creations of Photoshop and airbrushing. The video explains how these ideals of beauty can never be achieved yet people are spending millions of dollars on products so that they can look like what they see on television.

The above cases are a small fraction of what deviance is, who and how someone may be considered deviant and some underlying roots as to why the system works the way it does. This is just the tip of the iceberg however considering there is a whole other side to deviance; a criminal side. People in a society that commit a crime as defined by that society are considered deviant and there are many theories that try to explain the concept of crime as a form of deviance.  Conflict theory says that people are continuously competing for resources; Feminist theory says that men and women commit different kinds of crime at different rates due to the social construction of each of their respective roles in society; labeling theory explains that deviance is a label given to a person or group that is the minority in displaying cultural norms (Thio, Calhoun and Conyers)

With all these theories, one can only wonder who is considered deviant, at what times, under what circumstances and why? Unfortunately, there is not a handbook that one can study so that they may know who is deviant and why but what is more unfortunate than that is that no one needs one because everyone already knows. Everyone reading this knows exactly what is deviant as soon as they see it. Why is that? Why do we alienate people as a society instead of being able to accept each other for our differences? It is sad to think that there are millions of people in the U.S. that are going through some type of emotional or psychological distress because they don’t feel accepted by society. It is sad to think that some of those people may resort to hurting themselves or others as a result of lashing out to the society that rejects them.

I challenge anyone who reads this to think about all the times you have labeled someone deviant weather it was vocalized or just mental. I challenge readers to think about every time you used the word fag or gay or queer and meant it in a negative way; to think about all of the times you judged someone, made fun of someone or rejected someone because they had a certain style or a certain hair cut or talked different or looked different. Some sociologists argue that we are all a product of our environments; well does that mean that we have to conform to the norms of our environments if they are wrong; if they instill hate and discomfort in our hearts when we see something that is abnormal to us? I Challenge everyone to look around at the culture and its teachings we are submerged in and exposed to and I challenge you to challenge everything that is wrong with it because that is the only way to make a positive change. 


Reffernces


Book: Readings in Deviant Behavior 


Videos taken from Class Blog:
Height and the perception of Success
Tough Guise
Killing them Softly 4: Advertising's image of women 


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