Rosenblum & Travis

Thesis: Difference is classified by the American conception of race, sex, gender, social class, and sexual orientation. In this chapter of Rosenblum and Travis it talks about all of the different ways and how people are looked at by the society.

Master Statuses- Race, sex, class, and sexual orientation. Master statuses are the ones that (in most or all social situations) dominate or over power any of the other social statuses.

Constructionist- Belief that conceptions have no meaning except that given by the observer.

Essentialist- That certain things exist in the world and we just simply observe them.

Stigma- A bodily sign designed to expose something unusual and bad about the moral status of an individual.

This chapter gives a variety of ways that society looks at people or groups and how our society is separated into statuses. Our society revolves around these things called statuses, which separates classes. These statuses consist of race, sex, gender, etc. There are also differences between the statuses such as the master status, which in whatever case overpowers the other statuses. This chapter then goes into this idea of essentialist and constructionist. The essentialists “are likely to view categories of people as essentially different in some important way; constructionist are likely to see these differences as socially created and arbitrary. Naming is another category which creates social conflict because what can really be classified as a name. If someone is white does that just mean that or are there other possibilities such as German, English, Gay, or British. Then there is this creation of categories or dichotomizing. This means that people are separated into certain groups or classes based on their appearance or other criteria. This leads to the construction of others such as aggregates which are the master statuses and they ignore the other statuses and their problems. The last thing is sanctioning of those who associate with the “other.” The best example would be those who marry outside their race, religion, or social class. This can lead to the person being placed in that category even if they accept it or not.

1. How can someone be identified as a certain category of race if they are split in half? (For example I am half Mexican and half white, but people don’t look at me as Mexican. But on the other hand someone can be half black and half white and they are considered black.)
2. For the physical disability idea how would someone be categorized if they are in a wheel chair or have other disability’s and they are rich?

I thought this article to be somewhat interesting. I kind of knew most of this stuff from learning it in my SOC class, but provided me with a little more in depth look. I didn’t realize that there were so many different ways people were categorized. I mean I heard of the basics but there are so many sub groups.