Tuesdays With Morrie   Watch here

We will watch "Tuesdays With Morrie" as an example of American culture.  As you watch this movie, the following topics below will stand out.  Take the time and consider some of these questions.

Love
Do you think that Americans are afraid to love each other, or show that they love each other? If we are afraid to love, why might that be? Does our culture socially construct our reality so that we are afraid to love? What values in our culture might make us feel this way? How can we overcome this? What is the difference between the value of “romantic love” and real love - the love Morrie talks about?

Work
What are some ways that Mitch values hard work, achievement, success? Is this true for you or your parents? Does this start in high school or even sooner?  How about this joke about an American businessman and a Mexican fisherman. 

Death
Are Americans afraid of death? Is death a taboo topic? Why do you think this is the case? How might our feelings about death be related to our materialism? I also think that our feelings about death are rooted in our culture's individualism.

The Sociology of MMA: MMA Compared to Pro Wrestling and Other Sports

Shane Logan has an interesting 15-minute presentation through TED on masculinity and MMA. There's some good sociology in the talk.  The question is "why would a rational human being sign up to be an MMA fighter?"   See the video, below:


Also, there's quite a few mentions of MMA being compared to a "fight to the death" kind of thing, or at least using that kind of sensationalized language.
And finally, the close noting that MMA is an escalation of violence from WWF/WWE is a bit premature. Are there really more injuries or deaths from sanctioned MMA than pro wrestling? More steroid use? Are the social messages expressed in MMA (harmful as they often are) more harmful than those expressed in professional wrestling?  Or you can answer the question "If MMA is the newest, fastest growing sport in the world, what will the next sport have to encompass in order to raise the level of masculinity in sporting events?"

Here is an example of an informal sanction.  Video of army recruiter picking up a prostitute.
Informal punishments by friends, family, and neighbors also deters crime as much, if not more, than formal punishments. These informal punishments can take many forms. A family member might express disapproval; a friend might cut off the friendship, and even passing strangers looking can prevent crime.

These informal social sanctions are part of daily life, and they aren’t necessarily planned ahead of time as a way of preventing crime.  The logic here is that people sometimes care deeply about their good reputation, and will avoid activities that would threaten it. As such, threatening reputations might be a way to influence peoples’ behavior more effectively than threatened jail time.








 The following video below is an extreme measure that a family undertook to formulate the behavior of their son.  Although extreme and voluntarily, it can show us an example of a positive sanction and/or a negative sanction based on gender.
 AC360 special report: "The Sissy Boy Experiment"
In final consideration about this video, we should keep in mind that everyone is subject to milder forms of sanctions on our gendered behaviors; boys (and even adult men) are often rewarded for supposedly masculine behavior while being shamed or even punished when they act ways deemed feminine (crying) (gestures, talk) (and of course, vice-versa for women). There is no doubt these experiences shape our gendered selves while reinforcing normative gendered behaviors.

So this experiment has led me to the controversial topic of gay therapy.  Read the following article if your not familiar with the topic.  What if Technology Made "Gay Conversion Therapy" Work?
Comment on my blog on your thoughts of 1)  Gay therapy and 2) The experiment above.

So we have been spending time studying culture.  Those who study culture should be able to identify values that Americans hold that make them unique. Kohl's "Values Americans Live By" spell out some American values. 



Robin Williams (The sociologist, not the actor), studied American culture in the 1970s and came up with his own list of values, which is largely still applicable today.  Look in your notes or books for them if you forgot.

I want you to come up with 5 values that are ingrained mostly (maybe daily) in your life.  You can use Kohls values from the link above or Robin Williams values from your notes.book.

 Can you apply any of these American values to your own life? Perhaps you can show how these values pervade your experience at school?  Note that the values are subtle but strong.  They affect you in so many subtle ways that you don't notice but you are shaped by them in a profound way.  Here is an example of how we are shaped as a culture in subtle ways:

Cultural Differences

We will watch a bit of the movie "God Grew Tired of Us."   Anyway, in the movie we see numerous cultural differences. Here is a website dedicated to the Lost Boys of Sudan in Chicago.
To speak about culture in a more measured way, think in terms of the way sociologists might break down culture. Culture is made up of material culture as well as the nonmaterial: gestures, language, norms, values. Did you see aspects of these cultural components in the movie? Have you ever met anyone from a different country? Did you notice or discuss any cultural differences? What component of culture (from the terms above) did those differences fall under? What are your overall reactions to what you watched?