3 concepts about sociology in the narrative Living in McMinden - Essay Example

Living in McMinden Living in McMinden The first concept in sociology that I identified in the narrative “Living in McMinden” is the concept of gender socialization. This is one of the concepts espoused by sociologist James Henslin in his book, Sociology: A Down-To-Earth Approach (1999). Gender socialization is the tendency for boys and girls to be socialized differently. Boys are raised to conform to the male gender role, and girls are raised to conform to the female gender role. A gender role is a set of behaviors, attitudes, and personality characteristics expected and encouraged of a person based on his or her sex.

Gender socialization is often reinforced by the family, education, work and mass media. The statement in the narrative which exemplifies this concept was through the views of Suzanne Diedrich, a divorced mother. She said, “It is a rough world for both men and women, but men are supposed to be tough. I want my boys to be tough, like my Daddy was.” From this statement, it is obvious that Ms. Diedrich believed that boys are the “stronger” sex. Boys are viewed as the ones who are more physically active than girls.

Even in our daily lives, we can observe that boys are usually given balls or baseball bats as presents while girls are given dolls or kitchen toys. Here, we can clearly see that even as kids, the gender roles are already instilled in us so much so that when we grow up, we already perceive that women are in charge of the kitchen while the men are the ones who will engage in sports. Another concept in sociology which was presented in the narrative is the concept of culture lag. Culture lag is defined by sociologist, William Ogburn as “a common societal phenomenon due to the tendency of material culture to evolve and change rapidly and voluminously while non-material culture tends to resist change and remain fixed for a far longer period of time.

” This was shown in the statement by Jenny Rodriguez, a junior at McMinden high school, wherein she stated, “In a year, I’ll be gone from here. The people around here are so far behind the times that they won’t accept new things.” Culture lag can also be seen in the statement by Sam Votapka to her daughter when he said, “I told her get out, there’s nothing around here worth staying for. That’s what I still tell any young person.” These comments just show that the people of McMinden views their town as unable to adapt to the modern times.

Although there are already several technological advancements around them, the people of McMinden are not able to cope with the changing times. An example of this in our society today is how some old people still insist on using the typewriter instead of the computer. There is a seeming refusal to adapt to the modern technology of today. The third concept in sociology which I observed in the narrative is social distance. The concept of social distance was developed by Emory Bogardus who described it as “the degree of closeness or acceptance we feel towards a group.

This concept includes differences in social class, race/ethnicity or sexuality. In the narrative, this was portrayed in the story narrated by Jenny Rodriguez, who belongs to a Hispanic family. According to her, they were being asked to leave town because of their race. We can also see the concept of social distance in the description as to how the town was physically divided according to the social class. There was a subdivision around Lake Elmo for the rich people of the town, while another area is the Apple Hill where mostly the middle and working class live.

Societies all over the world still experience some sort of social distancing. There are communities where most rich people live and there are other communities for the lower class. In the United States, there are cities where Hispanics thrive and there are cities where Asians thrive. The concepts that I described are not directly related. Gender socialization deals with the perceived roles of men and women in society. On the other hand, culture lag is more concerned with the ability of a society to adapt to the changing times while social distance is concerned more with the idea of different groups not being able to socialize with each other.