Blog Post 7

As I previously mentioned, I plan on writing about people who suffer from OCD. I want to mainly focus on texts from the people who actually have OCD, because I personally think it would be hard for anyone without it to really know what it's like. For my first text, I chose the following website:

http://www.adaa.org/living-with-anxiety/personal-stories/all-stories/2

This site has personal stories from many people who have OCD. I don't know exactly which story I will choose to focus on, because there's many interesting ones on this site.

Another text I want to use is an excerpt from the A&E TV show Obsessed. This show is about people who suffer from OCD and how they live their daily lives. The link below is from an episode uploaded on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-Tnf6_IX5M

Another possibility I am considering is using a text from someone who lives with a family member of friend with OCD. I think it would be interesting to use that perspective as well. But, I'm not entirely sure. What do you think about that? The following link could be a possible source for that idea:

http://iocdf.org/expert-opinions/expert-opinion-family-guidelines/

Blog Post 6

The "othered" community I am choosing to research are people who suffer from OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder). OCD is a anxiety disorder characterized by redundant thoughts and repetitive actions. This is a common type of anxiety and it effects many people. I am choosing this disorder because I find it very interesting. I have learned about this disease in several different psychology classes over the years. Approximately 2.3 percent of people are effected by OCD, and I would enjoy learning more about those who suffer from it.

There are so many text out there about this specific disorder. I want to mainly focus on texts from this othered community because I think it would be hard for people who are not diagnosed with this disorder to provide much information. There is a show on Netflix called "Obsessed" which follows the lives of many people with OCD. I definitely want to include some of what I've seen from that show into my paper. Beyond that, there are many other resources out there for my disposal. I don't have a clear plan set for this assignment thus far, but I think it'll be an interesting experience to learn more about something that interests me.

Social Construction 

Social construction is basically society labeling people and putting them into specific groups, (gender, race, age) and giving them meaning. Hanfler says "Constructionist theories emphasizes that what we label deviant depends on context and how we interpret the meaning of deviance". What that means is, each society has their own rules on what is deviant behavior, and therefore, they have their own way of socially constructing. The section of Hanfler's writing that we read focused on tattoos and how they're interpreted. For instance, Hanfler asks "When are tattoos considered "art" and when are they symbolic of gang membership or other identities?"

I most closely related this to the reading "The Social Construction of Gender" by Judith Lorber. Lorber focuses on the fact that gender is a learned thing, it’s not something you’re born with. She believes that social construction starts at birth, because parents dress and treat their children differently depending on their sex. The main connection between these two readings comes from this quote from Lorber, “Western societies have only two genders, "man" and "woman." Some societies have three genders- men, women, and berdaches or hiiras or xaniths. Berdaches, hijras, and xaniths are biological males who behave, dress, work, and are treated in most respects as social women; they are therefore not men, nor are they female women; they are, in our language, "male women." There are Mrican and American Indian societies that have a gender status called manly hearted Women- biological females who work, marry, and parent as men; their social status is "female men"”. This quote shows that some behavior we, in Western Cultures, would define as deviant and would socially construction in a negative way, is much more accepted in some other societies. Would our society be able to adapt to adding a third gender the way other societies do?

I think social construction will always be a problem. People shouldn’t be defined by matters out of their control such as race, age, and gender. There’s no real way to control these things because they’re so deeply engraved into our culture. The one text I didn’t agree with was, “Vershawn Ashanti Young: Should Writer’s Use They Own English?” I personally believe that the way you write in class or in a professional atmosphere, and the way you talk with your friends should be two distinctively separate dialects that shouldn’t intertwine unless that is what the assignment calls for. Also, when Young says “Lord, lord, lord! Where do I begin, cuz this man sho tryin to take the nation back to a time when we were less tolerant of linguistic and racial differences. Yeah, I said racial difference, tho my man Stan be talkin explicitly bout language differences. The two be intertwined” I disagree. I don’t believe that the way you write or talk has much to do with your race. Instead, I think the main factor is your level of education.