Discussion

Class- Deviant behavior

Despite the potential dangers to social health it seems as if the road of transition from the margins to the mainstream is paved and motivated by profits and public demand. When you watch the videos do proceed to read the submitted commentaries.

Question(s): Would you consider socially and self-destructive behaviors discussed in this section as a sociologically anomic response to rapidly changing society?

 In what way do the processes of deviance ascription reflect lifestyle class-based biases? Take into consideration how differences are socially constructed and defined; where street whores are bad but call girls not so bad and have a code of’ ethics’, crack ‘addiction’ is bad but cocaine ‘abuse’ is not so bad, human racialized preferences are color-coded etc...

 Is the imposition of mainstream standards unfair to marginal groups in light of the different conditions attached to social location and the resources that characterize non-mainstream social environments? Most significantly how do social boundaries and non-conformity functionally promote unity and simultaneously tear at the fabric that holds society together? In your opinion, does imposing a narrow and at times difficult to match expectation of normative conduct, achievement, and lifestyle tautologically create the grounds for exclusion and inequality that characterizes marginal lifestyles in a society characterized by diversity and individual sovereignty?