What Does Sociology Mean To Me?

This paper will discuss what sociology means to me personally after having completed this class. To me, sociology is not just the study of society or social behavior. Sociology dives deeper and explores why society constantly changes, helps to teach about social issues that are becoming increasingly prevalent, and allows people to learn things about other people and their situations so they can better empathize. The three main concepts I will be discussing regarding this essay are culture, social stratification, and gender. The first main concept is culture. Culture is defined as the language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and material objects that characterize a group, and are passed from one generation to the next (Henslin 2016). The

Social stratification is defined as a socioeconomic system that divides society’s members into categories ranging from high to low, based on things such as wealth, power and prestige (Keirns et al. 2015) This concept is crucial when looking at sociology as a whole, since it is the basis of social class and the pros and cons that follow. Speaking of social class, that is the first term related to this concept. Social class is the ranking system mentioned in the definition of social stratification, and it consists of the lower, middle, and upper classes with some additions in between. I am fortunate enough to be born into the middle class and reap the benefits of being in this position. The consequences of social class, another factor, can be positive or negative. For example, I mentioned that my family is middle class. My personal consequences include my family paying for my education, my family pays for my gas, I do not need to have a job, I have access to good healthcare through my parents, and my family lives in a nice house. On the other hand, I had a friend in high school who was in the lower social class. She did not have the luxuries that I did so she had to work hard in school to get scholarships for college, she did not get her license because she did not have a car she could drive, she got a job very quickly to pay for herself and her family, and she lived in an apartment with many family members because they were

Gender socialization occurs before a baby is even born. After throwing over the top gender reveal parties, nurseries are decorated, and accessories and clothing are bought with a child’s gender in mind. Pink for a girl and blue for a boy. Kids also get an understanding of gender roles from watching their parents. Most households still have a Father who makes money while the Mother does chores around the house. That is not necessarily a negative thing, but it shows how kids understand roles from what they observe. The final factor in relation to gender is masculinity. I’ve talked a lot about how women have deeply ingrained expectations, but men have them too. Masculinity is defined as the properties and characteristics associated with men (Keirns et al. 2015). Many aspects of society’s view of masculinity are pretty toxic. If boys are into things that boys are not “supposed to” be into, they get called feminine and emasculating names. Men are often expected to be big and strong, hardworking so they can make money for their families. I’ve seen too often that men who are not straight are almost automatically thought of as less masculine than straight men simply because of their sexual orientation. Fortunately, society appears to be getting better regarding the views of men. I’d like to use my brother as an example. He’s your average teenage boy –