The National Anthem: The Influence Of Social Structures

Have you ever wondered why we assign the color pink to baby girls and the color blue to baby boys? From a young age, we are not fully aware of the severity in which society’s institutions impacts us. Since the moment we are born, social structures have paved paths for us to follow. For instance, the way we are supposed to behave in public, what we can accomplish in our lives based on our socioeconomic status, and even specific cultural traditions have all been created by societal norms. With all these principles of regulating behavior, one might feel the need to assimilate them. When this happens, the individual is being influenced by these social structures that have been created by our society’s old ways of thinking. Alongside these influences,

Well, social structures have played an important role in many societies since the beginning of time. Moreover, these structures have given birth to many ideas and beliefs that have transformed into becoming societal norms. Furthermore, what we consider to be “normal” in our society has actually been established by the individuals in it. Think about it, nearly a hundred years ago, the National Anthem was not played in the United States before every sporting event. However, singing this Anthem before every sporting event has become a norm in our society. So who exactly made this a normal thing to do? Well, the answer does not rely on one person, but rather on society as a

Whether it is from getting the right to vote many years after men had that privilege, to having forty-five presidents and not one of them being a woman, we are able to see a trend. Based on these observations, we can conclude that women appear to come second to men in our social hierarchy. This way of thinking affects the happiness and fulfillment of many individual women in our contemporary society. Women are led into thinking that they need to adhere to gender expectations on how they should live their daily lives. For example, contemporary society deems it normal for women to be “‘respected’ as ladies” (Faludi, 85). But what exactly does it mean to be a lady? Society imposes many guidelines on a woman in order to consider her actions ladylike. Some characteristics that exemplify lady-like qualities include not using foul language, wearing “decent” clothing that does not expose too much of the skin or even not having multiple sex partners. Therefore, when women do not abide by these guidelines, they often receive derogatory labels implemented by society. Consequently, a woman might not feel safe about having multiple sex partners, in fact, she might feel “some shame about her sexual desires and [fears] others might label her a ‘ho’ for acting on them” (Bell, 25). This influences the woman to divert from her sexual desires because she fears all the negative