Dressed in a green and white hand-me-down onesie with football numbers on
the back, people gathered around and swooned over the new baby. “Oh, he’s so
handsome,” they’d say to the young parents, to my parents. My parents would
politely thank them and casually mention that this handsome young man was actually
a young girl -- she was me, and this was just the beginning.
Master Status: Female
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Since the day I was born, I have
been thrown into categories that are marked as not normal, or deviant. Deviance, as a broad term, according to Howard Becker in his article Outsiders: Defining Deviance, is considered to be, “anything
that varies too widely from the average.”
It started with little things, such as wearing my brothers old clothes
that made me look less feminine than the other female babies that were drowning
in pink frills. My gender was always
questioned by outsiders based on my appearance, and being bald till I was two
didn’t necessarily scream “female” to those on-lookers either. Comments about
my parents purposely “making” me more masculine were thrown around, and many
people disagreed with the way my parents chose to dress me. Even when I wasn’t in boys clothes, which
really wasn’t even that often, I still looked like a hairless baby boy. After putting up with everyone’s scrutiny, my
parents finally decided to get my ears pierced after I turned two, so people
would quit questioning my gender. Ears
pierced and wearing dresses; you’d assume that my supposed deviance would
wither away because I finally fit societies’ gender expectations, but that
quickly escaped me as I became older.
Master Status: Tomboy
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Growing up, males were more
prominent in my life, rather than females. I was constantly around my dad,
brothers, uncles, and male cousins, so naturally, for me anyways, what I
learned to be an “appropriate” way for me to act, differed from what society
expected from me. I had such a strong male upbringing as a child, and my actions
and attitude definitely reflected that. I was taught to be tough; our motto was
“no bones, no blood, no problem,” when it came to getting hurt. When it came to sticking to my own gender
roles and acting like society expected me to, I did the complete opposite. As a
female, I was expected to be dainty, clean, sweet, and innocent, but I did not
portray those societal valued attributes. When society was telling me to play
with Barbies, be a cheerleader, and have fancy tea parties, I was doing what my
brothers did; playing football, riding cars, and my favorite, playing in the
dirt.
Becker also states that, “Deviance is created by the responses of
people to particular kinds of behavior, by the labeling of that behavior as
deviant,” and the responses I were receiving were not positive. I was often times encouraged to stray away
from these behaviors that were considered not appropriate for my gender, but I
learned these behaviors by association with the males that were present in my
life and didn’t felt the need to change them to match societies’ standards.
According to Sutherland and
Cresseys’ Differential Association Theory, also known as Social Learning Theory
states that, “Criminal behavior is learned in interaction with other persons in
a process of communication” (Cressey 27).
Although doing boyish things was not a crime, it was still looked upon
as a deviant act due to the influences around me. To me, I didn’t really know,
at that age, that the way I was acting was considered deviant or wrong, it was
what I learned from watching those around me.
My tomboy persona was just how I was raised and what I was used to. What
was deviant to society was normal to me.
Master Status: Slut
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Entering into middle school, I
still spent most of my time being “one of the guys.” I was still into sports,
still didn’t dress super girly, and still felt comfortable in who I was, but
that changed rapidly. I went from being
the cool girl who could play sports with all of the boys at recess in elementary
school, to the girl who basically only had male friends, which quickly left me
with the stigma and label of being a “slut.” I was young and never even kissed
a boy, but here I was, being called crude names and was harshly judged just
because of the people I hung out with. I would constantly get people coming up
to me telling me that I needed to hang out with different people, that my
friends of choice were “wrong,” because they weren’t the same gender as myself. The constant nag of these people reminded me
of what John Braithwaite says about the shaming theory.
According to John Braithwaite, “Shaming
means all social process of expressing disapproval which have the intention or
effect of invoking remorse in the person being shamed and/or condemnation by others who become away of the shaming.” He then goes on to say it, “Sets out to
moralize with the offender to communicate reasons for the evil of her actions”
(Braithwaite 34). This statement is
portrays exactly what was going on at the time; I either needed to change my, oh
so deviant ways of hanging out with boys, or else I was considered having evil
actions and was a slut. Although, when a
boy hangs out with solely the opposite sex, they’re label can go two ways; they
are either labeled as a ladies’ man, or as being gay, but if a girl does the
same, they are instantly labeled things that hold negative connotations, like I
was. Society holds different genders to
different expectations and standards.
What is deviant for one, is praised for another. It wasn’t until high school that people realized
that how I was brought up had a lot of influence on who I chose to hang out
with, and how I chose to act, that I wasn’t just some incorrect label they had
placed on me.
Master Status: Overacheiver
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During my second year of high
school, my brother passed away in a motorcycle accident, and it completely
changed the way I acted as well as the way people viewed me. I was no longer attacked for who I hung out
with, I suddenly became viewed as fragile and everybody was walking on
eggshells around me. People treated me,
almost as if I couldn’t take care of myself.
It reminded me of Mark Zupan’s movie, Murderball, where people were trying to help him do things that he
did on a daily basis, when he could actually do them himself. In this case, I wasn’t in a wheelchair like
he is, but people were still acting like I wasn’t capable of doing what I
always do.
I used this time to focus on myself,
my schooling, and my faith. When everybody
was expecting me to break down and be fragile, I pushed myself even
further. I did anything I could to keep my mind off things. I got very involved in a youth
group, volunteering, and worked very hard to keep up my academics. Once this started, it was what everybody,
mainly my parents, kept expecting from me.
Becker’s labeling theory suggests that, “It sets in motion several
mechanisms which conspire to shape the person in the image people have of him”
(Becker 41), which is what I saw happening.
I was labeled as this overachieving individual, who had overcome many hardships, and the more this label was
placed on me, the more I started believing it and wanting to conform to it. I
found myself starting to embrace the labels I was given at this point.
Master Status: Fat vs. Thick
Throughout
my childhood, I have always been more on the heavy side, and it was always
viewed as a negative thing up until recently.
To the majority of society, being fat is not an ideal of beauty. In the article,
3 Strikes Against Curvy Women , it states, “ Yet another new study
hammers home the reality that tall, thin women (bonus for weensy waists and
long arms) are rated most attractive,” and I did not fit into that most
attractive category. Up until high
school, I was considered to be fluffy, chunky, plump, and any other word that
was supposed to kindly say “fat.” Once I
hit high school, this new term came about; “thick.” To me, this term seems just as silly as those
other “safe” words to call somebody fat, but to society it is became valued and
entailed positive meanings. Girls with curves that are appealing to men, hold a
sense of beauty and sex appeal, not being either fat or skinny, but thick. As I toned my body more throughout school, I
was often called “thick” rather than overweight, because it held a more
positive connotation, it was considered to be a compliment. As long as I had a big bust and big butt,
being chubby was okay, but if I had a big stomach, then the positive thick
label would go away.
Master Status: Modified (Good vs. Bad)
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As I’ve
gotten older, I have found more ways to outwardly define myself, other than
labels that I have gathered throughout the years from society and my peers. These definitions of character that I have
mustered up have gone against societal norms as well. Since a young age, I have been interested a
lot in body modifications, mainly tattoos and piercings, and have began to get
them myself. With such a strong
Christian background, this has been considered extremely deviant in the setting
and culture of the church, because being heavily pierced or having visible
tattoos holds numerous negative assumptions and connotations. In the article
Body Art, Deviance, and American College Students , a study
conducted showed that people with a great amount of tattoos or piercings were “substantively
and significantly” more likely to use marijuana regularly, use other illegal
drugs, be arrest for crime, cheat on college work, drink, and have multiple sex
partners. I feel like most of society
feels like this is true for the majority of modified people, that just because
they’re modified, they’re automatically lesser of a person or involved in
criminal behavior.
On the
first day of class, we did an exercise where we had to examine the person next
to us and answer specific questions without communicating, and my partner was
surprised to later find out that I was involved a lot with my church because my
outward appearance told her otherwise.
For me, this reassured the negative stereotype that belongs to these
deviant body declarations; that they’re associated negatively with the person
that posses them. It is interesting for
me to see how things that are so taboo here, are culture in other parts of the
world, such as the Mekranoti Tribe, Kayapo, where they embrace modifications as
a tradition.
Another
thing that is interesting to me is that within the negative stereotypes of
having body modifications, there are also ranges of acceptance. With piercings,
nipple and genital piercings are considered more deviant than others, which the
article
Body Art, Deviance, and American College Students also suggests. If
somebody has their ears stretched, that’s okay, but not too big or it’s considered
gross. Something that relates to me the
most is that the meaning behind tattoos change the level of deviance attached
on to them. All of my tattoos have
either personal meaning or religious affiliation behind them, and are more
accepted than someone who is tattooed with something considered random or something
that was done at the spur of the moment.
Within each and every stereotype, society also holds a view of what can
be justified within a given label, while others still remain more deviant.
Master Status: Student
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In this
social deviance course, I have learned a lot about what it means to be deviant
and how it is constructed by the way society molds beliefs and values pertaining
to certain things. Master statuses are
fluid with many factors, provided by society, that can expose them to change. They are put into place so that when society
sees you, they can make a quick judgment on how they relate to you, just like
the exercise on the first day of class showed. As I’ve grown up, I’ve gone
through many different master statuses, whether they be associated with the way
I look, the way I act, or the types of people I surround myself with. I’ve learned things about myself that I hadn’t
realized before I took this course, and with each different situation I
experience, I am exposed to new things that can alter my master status, in both
negative and positive ways.
Word Count: 2,129
References:
Becker, Howard S. "Labeling Theory." Readings In Deviant Behavior. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. 20120. 39-41.
Cressey, Donald R., and Edwin H. Sutherland. "Differential Association Theory." Readings In Deviant Behavior. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. 2010. 27-29.
