Blog Post 1: How Do You Spot a Deviant?

Within a culture, there are various aspects that depict what is considered “normal” and what is said to be “deviant” for that particular culture.  The degree in which certain things are perceived as normal or deviant differ from culture to culture, based on the messages portrayed throughout their society.  In America, television is a popular source for one to gather information about what is considered normal versus deviant.

            There are many different subgroups within television, and one that has been around since the 1900’s is cartoons.  When thinking about cartoons, most people think of the audience being children. More recently however, cartoons have taken on a role to entice more mature ages by using adult content in their show.  Shows like Family Guy, South Park, American Dad, and King of the Hill are all examples of these cartoons that are geared to reeling in a specific age group.  These types of shows take serious matters and depict them in a humorous way, over exaggerating situations, defining quite clearly what is accepted within American culture and what is looked down upon. The problem with this over exposed humor is that not only is it apparent in these cartoons, but in some cases, it is being policed and monitored by society in too close of a relationship to what is actually being depicted on television.

            When taking a sample of four cartoons, it is easily shown that the main characters within each show became the official “rule setters” of what was considered normal or deviant, and in all four, physical appearance was addressed.  In one episode of Family Guy, while out at the pool, somebody made a comment to Peter, the dad, about his son, Chris, saying “You can’t park your van on the diving board.”  This form of satire shows that it is unacceptable to by overweight, and while this show is making the sort of disgust towards overweight people in an overt way, society throws these sort of comments out both overtly and covertly quite frequently. When looking at "Hey, Fat Chick: Thin Privilege Checklist," one of the checklist statements is, " I can be sure that people aren't embarrassed to be seen with me because of the size of my body," and Chris is not allowed this privilege with the deviant stigma of being overweight.

  On the flip side to being overweight, in this show, Peter went to get liposuction, and it was portrayed as a beautiful thing.  His “master status”, the way people distinctly viewed him, changed from white, overweight male, to a white male who was considered beautiful and the “ideal” man. In reference to the article

"My Gay Lifestyle", where a gay man was describing everything he did as being gay, Peter’s ordinary everyday life things became beautiful. Even when his wife, Louis did not agree with this physical change, there was very overt sexual passes she would make at her husband because of his “new and improved” look. Physical appearance was one of the most reoccurring deviant portrayed situations found in these cartoons, although there were many other things addresses as well.

            Men drinking, women cooking, men showing off to girls, girls being sexual, and both men and women having a great amount of friends were all considered normal within these episodes.   People would go so far as to separate themselves from those considered to be deviant.  In an episode of South Park, one of the main characters, Kyle, befriended someone that had zero friends on Facebook, and because of his association with this person, his popularity began to decrease. Seen in "'Stigma' of Having Obese Friends," a man is negatively judged by his association with an obese woman, where in this episode someone was being negatively judged by his association with a specific person as well.. These negative judgments were justified within themselves, because each character thought that it would “save” them if they stayed clear from the deviant individuals.

 Throughout these four cartoons, deviant behavior was also justified in many cases as well.  This clip from Family Guy shows brings up a numerous amount of deviant scenarios, and justifies one, smoking weed, by making the others look more deviant.

This video also shows that showmanship can easily bring in the audience, which is why these societal norms and deviant behaviors are heavily associated in television.  What is deviant to some may not be to others, and I think this video describes how with certain persistency and power, one can easily determine what is considered normal and what is considered deviant and sway society to follow those definitions.

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References:
Scudera, Domenick. "My Gay Lifestyle." ANGEL Learning. Huffpost, 1 Nov. 2011. Web. 22 Jan. 2012. <https://lms.wsu.edu/section/content/default.asp?WCI=pgDisplay>.
"'Stigma' of Having Obese Friends." BBC News, 23 Oct. 2003. Web. 22 Jan. 2012. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3207087.stm>.
"Thin Privilege Checklist." Hey, Fat Chick! Tumblr. Web. 22 Jan. 2012. <http://heyfatchick.tumblr.com/post/1296446884>.