The Lorber text takes a very direct route to social
construction based off of physical attributes and not so extreme instances as
are found in the Hanfler excerpt. Lorber uses sex (gender) as the basis for her
discussion and focuses on the generalization of men and women. Lorber focuses
on what some people may seem as extremist social views such as the skinheads,
punk, hip hop and heavy metal enthusiasts and even falling into the discussion of
virgins and their view on society.
The immediate assumption would be to think that skinheads
are racist and not good people, which in all honesty is what I thought before
reading the article. Hanfler however is able to explain that some skinheads
fight for the opposite of what you would assume most skinheads to fight for. “Not
only are SHARPs against racism they also tend to oppose sexism and homophobia,
reflecting the official stance of the ARA. There are even websites for queer
skinheads.” (Hanfler 23)
Young takes the approach of language and how people connect
hearing someone talk and what their race and land of origin might be. Many
people believe that if someone speaks a certain way they have to be of a
specific race or area of the world while that may not be entirely true. Another
comment made in the excerpt is how it is okay to talk however you want but only
in the safety of your own home. “Dominant language ideology also say peeps can
speak whateva the heck way they want to—BUT AT HOME!” (Young 111)
I see these things in my everyday life and I too can be
found guilty of some of these prejudices. My job requires me to understand
people as they bring their problems to me so I can explain a way to solve that
problem in a way they can understand. Lincoln is a very multicultural city with
people from the far east, the middle east, Africa, South America, and Europe.
The problem is, some of these people may have learned perfect English but
because they are from another part of the world their accent makes it difficult
to understand and I find myself wishing they knew how to speak English even
though they already do.
Matt,
ReplyDeleteYou bring up some very good quotes and ideas from the articles here! I'm really intrigued by the Young quote that you selected about only speaking one's native language when at home. Do you think there is a problem when English speakers, as a dominant language, have this idea that people who speak other language should only speak them when they are at home? I'm studying to be an English teacher but I definitely struggle with the idea that English is described as the "dominant" language. I understand that we are an English-speaking nation, but I continually wonder how we can accommodate and make the transition easier for families from other countries. The fact is we want them to be able to learn English but how do we do that in a way that does not devalue their culture and their language? I think it's super interesting that you bring up the fact that a different dialect of English can feel like a different language completely. I definitely agree! I think this shows the importance of accepting and embracing the diversity of accents and ways of speaking even in the U.S. The words we use and phrases we say depends a great deal on where we live. It can be easy to make assumptions and fall into prejudices based upon the way someone speaks. It's inevitable that we will notice these differences but my question is how do we keep them from becoming judgments about a person?
You have some very good points, I liked the middle section about language and race. I thought it was a very interesting example! What race do you think was portrayed in the example?
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