Excessive Sex-indulgence Damage

Charlotte Gilman talks about the “excessive sex-indulgence” disorder that is prevalent in society today and this can be seen in popular culture. The excessive sexual appetite that males have for females is a more exaggerated feature in humans than in other animals. This characteristic is increased directly in proportion to the extent in which females differentiate themselves from males. Women today exaggerate their bodies’ femininity more than ever before and this has caused great harm to the human race. Colored & big hair, massive amounts of make-up, leg and underarm shaving, and unnatural feminine clothing like stiletto pumps & push-up bras have all exaggerated societies’ idea of the “ideal” woman’s body to the point where a large percentage of men are disfuntionally addicted to sex and/or the act of sex itself.
20% of all Internet profits go to the porn industry. Prostitution flourishes wherever it is legal or not. Women are also very driven to glamorize their appearance in order to attract a life mate and they are trained at a very young age that pretty & sexy looks attract more spousal candidates, causing them to disfigure their bodies with anorexia and bulimia as well as breast implants liposuction, and face lifts.
How many of you choose your fashions in order to attract a mate? Do you see examples of this condition (excessive sex-indulgence) in the people you interact with daily?

White Consciousness

Du Bois argued that oppressive culture lead to double consciousness for oppressed populations, but a number of other thinkers including James Baldwin and Thandeka who speak of white guilt. This white guilt is the result of knowledge of benefit from a racist system or in other cases the inability to stop or intervene in blatantly racist acts (typically perpetrated by family members). Is this feeling of guilt a second form of consciousness for majority populations? Why or why not?

Connection with Emotions

Audre Lorde was a black lesbian writer who considers it necessary to think in depth about men and women’s roles in society. Although Lorde was a feminist as we can consider Gilman, she shares more characteristics with Du Bois’ ideas and academic writing style. For example, she justifies the connection with our emotions as a way to criticize current social gender agreements,"But as we come more in touch with our ancient, non-European consciousness of living as a situation to be experienced and interacted with, we learn more and more to cherish our feelings, and to respect those hidden sources of our power from where true knowledge and, therefore, lasting action comes" (Lorde 1984). Also, Lorde considers that the White academic style denies the use of artistic expressions in academic writing because white-men logic is not attuned enough with such language. Therefore women need to restore links with our inner emotional spaces to recover from and fight back men’s oppression over women. Du bois also prefers an academic style which lets him connect with his black folks emotions, “The style is tropical-African. This needs no apology. The blood of my fathers spoke through me and cast off the English restraint of my training and surroundings” (Du Bois 1904 as cited in Appelrouth & Edles, 2008, p. 276). Although emotions have been forbidden from the academic language, Lorde and Du Bois write their academic papers in that way because that helps them to express the oppression they were feeling and how they feel it. According to Du Bois and Lorde, “White” logic avoids people connection with their emotions because they can realize that the way things are told and explained in White society do not include dissident points of view.

Do you consider that to write from the standpoint of our emotions could it be a way to start breaking oppression?

Appelrouth Scott & Edles Laura. Clasical and Contemporary Sociological Theory. California: Pine Forge Press, 2008.
Lorde, Audre. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. California: Crossing Press, 1984.

Monetary systems and trust

According to Simmel, the presence of a strong, government-backed monetary system increases overall trust. This is due to both the fact that it inspires trust in a nebulous entity, and the fact that individuals with money receive the benefit of the trust that money inspires.

The recent collapse of the financial system in the United States has caused people to lose faith in those institutions, though trust in the almighty dollar still remains. However, many countries have monetary systems that do not inspire trust, as a result of enormous amounts of inflation, disinflation, deflation, or outright defaults on debt. This lack of trust in money results in less trust in business, which then serves to greatly hinder the economic development of that country.

Is it possible for a country or an economic system to develop a high level of trust, without a trustworthy monetary system?

Countering the ILLs of Urbanization

In Simmel’s view urbanization had both positive and negative effects (Allan, 2007). The overload of stimuli prompts a shutting off (a desensitized state) from the environment and more importantly a detachment from those persons around us in order for us to be able not just to cope with the bombardment to our senses but maybe even to be able to lead productive lives. This detachment, according to various theorists including Durkheim and Simmel, is bound to create an anomic state which can lead to conflict. In your view what forces, institutions, behaviors, innovations etc. are stepping up to counteract the ills that this urbanization (anomie) might bring?
Allan,K. 2007. The Social Lens: An Invitation to Social and Sociological Theory.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.

Change

According to Mead (as cited in Allan, 2007), symbols are abstract and arbitrary there is nothing “natural” to them it is we and our actions or responses that give meaning to these. For instance, a gun at first glance may be perceived as dangerous and thus a meaning of “weapon” is assigned to this object (social) or the gun may be seen as fun and defined as a sportsman’s tool (or toy). Prior experience (interactions) with the object of course will have much to say on how it is perceived by the individual. So the gun or any object for that matter has no intrinsic meaning or function it is up to us through our use of it that gives it a meaning. This “meaning assignment” also occurs in the way we perceive certain actions or behaviors we engage in, that is certain behaviors are deemed illegal in contemporary society that may not have been seen as such before (or that one day may not be seen as illegal/inappropriate). “We are continually changing our social system in some respects, and we are able to do that intelligently because we think…” (George Herbert Mead,1934 as cited in Appelrouth & Edles, 2008) Can you think of certain behaviors that were not illegal in the past but now are? How about current illegal actions that in the future may become legitimate or not seen as wrong?
Allan,K. 2007. The Social Lens: An Invitation to Social and Sociological Theory.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.

Applerouth, S. & Edles, L. D.2008.Classical and Contemporary Sociological Theory:

Text Readings.Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.

A More General, General Other

The final stage of Mead’s model is the creation of self through the role taking of the general other. This is an understandable statement, but introduce Simmel’s ideas of urbanization and there are distinct new implications. The formations of rational social networks, anomie, blasé attitudes, and lack of strong ties to others, among other things would doubtlessly shift both how we are able to relate to others as well as the manner we would perceive their reactions. This would clearly affect our manner to manipulate our actions for desired outcomes.

How would you suspect that Simmel’s ideas of urbanization would affect Mead’s ideas of the general other?