Deviance

In class, we defined 'deviance' as something that breaks social norms. Standing in public for a short period of time would break social norms, or doing something nice for a complete stranger. Things that are caring or nice to someone else is so out of what our society is used to becuase most people are so absorbed into themselves that they dont take the time to help strangers for no reason. i took the train down town this weekend with my friends and when we got on the train it was almost full. there was a lot of us and we all wanted to sit near eachother so we walked up and downt he whole train looking for somewhere to sit. when we finall decided that we would all sit seperately, a couple stood up and told us to take their seats becuase there were enough empty ones around that seat for us all to sit. we were confused of why they were willing to do this. we had never met them before and we didnt do anything to help them but they were willing to give up their seats for complete strangers. it was just 2 nice people doing something good, but in our society its out of the norm to do so. i tried to think of a reason of why they did this for us. i realize now that there was no reason for it, they saw that we were having trouble finding a seat and they were willing to give us theirs out of the kindness of their hearts.

The Average Girl...

girls in magazines and on tv today are potrayed as perfect, beautiful, and skinny. Girls in the real world, especially teenagers, think they need to look like these girls on tv so they harm themselves in order to get the perfect image. i think our society needs to lighten up on the pressure we put on girls. no one should think the way the look is wrong. the girls in the media arent real people. they are average looking people who are made up to look perfect. i watched a show the other day called toddlers and tiaras. little girls from less than a year old to around 5 years old are made up to win a beautfy competition. it sends the girls a terrible message from a young age that looks will help you get ahead. i think its rediculous that our society puts so much into the way we look and it effects our lives in every aspect.

Jails

This week in class we watched a show and read an article about jails in the US. Almost everything we learned about the jails shocked me. I had the picture of jails in my head as a bed in a tiny space with bars and a guy being locked up inside the bars all day. It was completely different in the movie. There were tiny rooms with an actual door and 3 or 4 guys in a room. It was also shocking to me that most of the jails in the US don't have programs to help the criminals. They just lock them up and treat them badly, then let them back out onto the streets with nothing to help them improve. One jail in the show did have a program that tried to teach the criminals how to live their lives and not commit crimes, however, jails like that are fairly new and very rare. I think jail only worsens the problems of the criminals. Sitting all day and having nothing to do but think promotes them to want to do more illegal things. They have no brain stimulation whats so ever so they aren't motivated to change themselves. Our jail system is like a revolving door. Prisoners go to jail, spend their time thinking or more ways to break the laws, get out of jail, break more laws and go back into jail and start all over again. We need to fix the problem in jails by making all jails be required to provide help for the criminals. By helping them, we help ourselves because the more they follow the laws, the more we have to worry about them harming us.

Saints Vs. Roughnecks

I think stevenson is made up of mostly saints. We are mostly considered upper, middle class and we get away with most things. most students at shs have the money to get the cars to get them out of the public eye when they are doing things they shouldnt be doing. if we couldnt afford the cars, there would be more things occuring in town or in public and more chance of gettin g caught. most shs students come off as being really good at acidemics and sports and rarely breaking the rules. However, there are the occasional rougnecks that cause trouble and get consequences for it.