Story of an Illness

Jorge Turcios

Professor: Williams

Sociology 360

27 March 2012

Story of an Illness

Alcoholism

For my fourth post I would like to explore the problem with alcohol and the social construction around “alcoholism.” According to the United State Department of Agriculture, “Alcoholism is a term use to describe a medical condition of alcohol dependence” (United Department Of Agriculture).  Let me start by asking you the following question: What is considering normal drinking? This question is important because it makes us think about what society considers “normal” drinking. As we know “alcoholism” is seen by society as deviant, especially if a person becomes incapable to do his or her daily activities. Also, it is important to recognize that the label “alcoholic” is usually used if a person mostly drinks alone instead of drinking out with friends..

Alcohol is not the problem. It is the social construction and the labels that have been created around “alcoholism” affect many individuals and unable them. Socially an alcoholic person is seen as deviant he or she is not treated as a sick person that needs medical attention. The heavy alcohol consumption can lead to serious health problems such as high blood pressure, stroke, cardiovascular disease, liver disease, and sexual dysfunction (Center for Disease Control and Prevention). After this long list of problems the government decided to legalize alcohol.

Furthermore one of the reasons the government legalized alcohol was not because of the public interests but because they can make a lot of money due to alcohol consumption. The industry generates a lot of money which translates in power. According to Times, “State and local governments earn about $17 million annually from alcohols taxes” (The New York Times). The government agrees that alcohol consumption can have negative effects in someone’s life. Yet it is okay to sell it because of the large amount of revenue that provides to the government

In America society considers “normal” drinking if someone has two to five drinks during dinner, or goes out with friends to a bar and gets drunk. On the other hand, if a person drinks the same amount of alcohol at home alone, society automatically labels this person as sick because drinking alone, according to the standard is not normal. We assume that he or she is having problems and they may need medical attention, perhaps a prescription that helps them cope with their problems.

At the same time in America society, we condemn those individuals that are older and have drinking problems. We usually question their abilities, and we put them down because they cannot put their life together. American culture has socially constructed that if you are a younger age, 18 to 21, is okay to get drunk and act stupid. However, if the same behavior is done by an adult 30-40 years old the perception is different. Society expects more from an adult, therefore, getting drunk and acting stupid is considered deviant. It is interesting that according to Durkin on his article “Binge Drinking on College Campuses” he mentioned that men are more likely consume more alcohol than women, and that white students in comparison to other ethnicity are the ones that consume larger amounts of alcohol (Readings in Deviant Behavior, 213). The reason I mentioned this is because without the actual research people have the misconception that the people the drink the most are the people of color such as, African Americans or Hispanics. Furthermore the research show something else different that contradicts our view of the ideas that are created within our society.

            Many of us experience the need to liberate ourselves from the pressure of society and alcohol helps us forget about the norms and what is expected from us according to social standards. Misbehaving in public places, avoiding getting in to fights, and hooking up with strangers are some examples of the things we would not do because of social norms. Society encourages us to suppress our feelings and emotions. As a result, alcohol helps us liberate ourselves. The good thing about it is that as long you are under the influences of alcohol people do not label you deviant because it was a onetime rebellion that was caused by the alcohol consumption. Witch brings me to the Social Bond Theory that explains, “The motivation for deviant behavior is present in everyone but the motivation will lead to deviance only for some people – but not for others.” (Readings in Deviant Behavior, 213). The act of  itself drinking is not deviant, it is the society’s interpretation of the behavior the one that leads to the judge and label.

In conclusion, what we can see is that in most cases deviant behaviors are not the act itself that is consider deviant; it is the interpretation that society have given to the act. Drinking is not good for personal health issues, but everything in moderation is recommended by some doctors. However, society cannot limit someone’s ability to drink and condemn them if they drink five, six or seven alcoholic beverages, everyone is different and it is hard to draw a line to describe what is “normal” and what is deviant.
Credits: WC 854

Works Cited

“Alcohol Alert” U.S. Deparment of Health & Human Services. n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2012.

“Alcohol Abuse and Depandence” United State Department of Agriculture. n.d. Web. 23 Mar.

2012.

Center for Disease Control and Prevention. n.d Web. 28 Mar. 2012.

Durkin, Durkin., Wolfe, Scott., Lewis, Kara. “Binge Drinking on College Campuses.” Readings in Deviant Behavior. Alex Thio, Thomas C. Calhoun, Addrain Conyers. Boston: Pearson Education Inc., 2010. 213 – 216. Print.

Severson, Kim. “ States Putting Hopes in ‘Bottoms Up’ to Help the Bottom Line.” The New York Times 28 Sep. 2011. Web.

Williams, Meredith. “Do Drugs and Alcohol Make You Sick.” Social Deviance Sociology 360. Washington State University. 24 Mar. 2012. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.

Generation RX Movie Review

Jorge Turcios

Professor Williams

Sociology 360

11 March 2011

Generation RX Movie Review

 1. What is the main thesis of this film?

Generation RX is a documentary that focused on pharmaceutical industry, doctors, and teens. It focused primarily in the relationship between those institutions and the negative effects that are causing to teenagers by prescribing medication and ignoring the side effects that those are causing to kids and their families.

2. What were the main arguments in support of the thesis?

The main points are: 1. The relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and the group of people that in charge of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM). 2. Parents in their testimonies addressing the negative effects that some medications have had in their children’ Medications such as Zoloft, Prozac, Paxil, and many more drugs that are being prescribed by professionals. 3. How the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has covered up many of the labels addressing the negatives effects on these medication; for the profit that they can make out the sells of these products. 

3. How does the thesis of this film relate to the course?

The influences that social institutions have over society, and how they manipulated individuals with the use of the media to creates problems and provided solutions just to make money.

4. Which arguments/points did you find the most convincing?

They’re groups of people being diagnosed with some kind of mental or physical disease to support the pharmaceutical institutions.

Teenagers are the ones who are being target.

The government needs more enforcement and regulation on pharmaceutical institutions.

5. Which arguments/points did you find the least convincing?

That there are many children that need to be treated, and not be ignored that they suffer from some kind of mental disability, but that medication are not always the most efficient methods. Some children only need more attention and dedication to avoid intake prescriptions drugs.

6. Choose one argument, point or question that most stands out for you. How would you study this point? Briefly design a research study around that point.

The U.S. government has the power to investigate closely pharmaceutical industries, so my research will be to delegate of group of people that control the quality of this industries something like that FDA, however this group will be undercover to guarantee transparency to the consumers.

Tough Guise Movie Review

Jorge Turcios

Professor Williams

Sociology 360

04 March 2012

Tough Guise Movie Review

Though Guise is a story that addresses how American society has build cultural and sociological ideas about what is to be a man and how masculinity should be represented in our daily life. The media in particular has enforced the representation that a man should be respected and in order to earn that respect he must poses the following qualities, strong, independent, thought, and primarily detached himself from feelings or emotions because he will be seeing as weak, fragile, and worst case scenario called “faggot”. This offensive word is use by others, not on reference to a   sexual preference, but to put someone masculinity in question. Guilligan talks about it in his article “Shame, Guilt, and Violence”  He mentioned that while conducting his interview one of the main focus in the mind of most of the guys in prison was that they  value their “pride” That it the only thing they have left and their willing to protected.

            Through out the movie guys are being asked what they consider valuable as men. Many of them promote violent behaviors; winch can be supported by their necessity of power, control, and feeling superior. Fox and Levin touched on those topics in their article “Serial Murder: Popular Myths and Empirical Realities” They also mentioned how the media influences, even though not necessarily that every person that act on a violent behavior should be considered crazy or sick that there are many levels to that type of behavior and one that society and the media do not  take in consideration is the construction of masculinity and the overall expectations.

            The way this film to the course is the fact that we are studying deviant minds and how some behaviors are socially construct. How those constructed ideas influence in our daily activities and how they affect society in general. We see on television every day guys killing each other, man abusing man, women, and children, also, bullies in schools. All this problems are consequences of those social pressures that we consider important and valuable as a society.  

             I am agreed that social institutions should re consider the idea of masculinity and focus on a less violent approached to this issue. Since we are kids, our families start shaping us to become strong, independent, and successful at in early age. However, not every individual is equal, therefore not everyone should be expected to act the same way.

I was not agreed with the fact that violent creates more violent. It is the construction of this idea of masculinity that is embedded in our brains, but if we can change what society valued and change those concepts and ideas surrounding masculinity; we may help change the behaviors of some individuals.

Mainly I want to know the impact that television, video games, and movies have on influencing violent behaviors in teenagers. I will like to conduct an experiment that will having two groups of teenagers. Group one will be expose to sports, classical music, and social activities. Group two will be expose to violent behaviors through television, video games, and movies; after a few months will record those individuals behavior by  observation and how they socialize with other groups.

 Works Cited

Fox, James. Levin, Jack. “Serial Murder: Popular Myths And Empirical Realities.” Reading In Deviant Behavior. Eds. Alex Thio, Thomas Calhoun, Addrain Conyers. Boston, MA. 2010. 77-75. Print.

Gilligan, James. “Shame, Guilt, and Violance.” Social Research. Volume 70. Issue 2005. 1149-1180. Web. 3 Mar. 2012.

Kimmel, Michael. Mahler, Matthew. “What Triggers School Shootings?” Reading In Deviant Behavior. Eds. Alex Thio, Thomas Calhoun, Addrain Conyers. Boston, MA. 2010. 76-82. Print.

Though Guise. Dir. Sut Jhally. Perf. Steve Austin, Marlon Brandon, James Caan. Media Education Foundation. 1999. Film.

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