Houston Community College
Weekly Essay 1
Chapter 1
Pedro Saldana
Sociology 1306
The social problems discussed in this chapter is poverty and rape. They bring up points like “who is at fault for you being poor” or are there other factors like the economy that contribute to your state of being. One of the discussions in the chapter is over whether we should treat some problems as social instead of personal. The chart shows rape as the subject and describes the different routes that can be taken when dealing with it. The personal way deals with guilt and can end in little or no action against the problem. On the other hand, dealing with it as a social problem results in exposure and can inform and alert other of the situation.
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The problems addressed in the chapter have many ways they can be caused. For example, poverty can be spread due to the government programs not giving other ethnicities an equal chance at jobs. On the other hand, it can also be because of the social norms plastered around the internet of wealthy living lavish lifestyles that have no resemblance to the viewer. This can lead people to think they are just not meant to live a wealthy life and end up living a life of poverty.
Another one of the biggest social problems is rape, attackers usually blame their victims due to the way they’re dressed. Society acts as a platform for people to express themselves. Women as seen in movies and other pictures like comic books are often portrayed as objects created for men to use for their own personal pleasure. Women are constantly shown with revealing attire to attract male viewers.
An increase in crime can usually be traced to poverty due to the insufficient amounts of necessary items in someone’s family or life. People will usually take their problems into their own hands when it regards their family. This can result in crimes being committed by someone who is just trying to survive and help their family. There have been cases of people being sent to jail because they stole medicine from a pharmacy to help one of their loved ones.
There are many consequences to rape on both sides. The victim will never live in peace because they will fear for their life. After a horrible experience, people tend to shut themselves away and this can lead to suicide or depression. The attacker, on the other hand, can be incarcerated and will be tagged as a rapist for the rest of their life. This can lead to family and friends becoming distant from the attacker leading to anger and more cases. There is no doubt this topic is delicate but there are many consequences on both sides of the cases.
Poverty can affect the quality of life by not letting people be happy or feel free. When someone is living in poverty they can blame themselves for their state of being leading to depression. They will also be constantly worried about their survival and their loved ones. This can make someone feel like life is all about surviving instead of living. They will feel trapped in the economy causing drastic actions leading to crimes.
Women are constantly living in paranoia due to the many cases of rape and harassment around the world. In some parts of the world, women live with constant restrictions and are forced to do their husbands biding. This can make their life feel like a prison and can suck the fun out of life. When someone becomes a rape victim their whole life changes. In some cases, even their family changes due to the worry that it might happen again or to themselves.
Poverty has affected me because of the people surrounding me. Living near downtown where most of the poverty is located I see many people living on the streets and begging for money. Some of my friends live in poverty and have been struggling to climb out of their situation. It pains me to see some people around the world not having enough to feed themselves or their kids. People in some third world countries are struggling to survive due to an insufficient amount of food or money. Being the only man apart from my father makes me worry about the safety of my sisters and loved ones. It is scary to think that someone can be abducted at any time and go missing. When seeing rape cases on the news it instills worry and paranoia in my life.
Both social problems can be caused by the portrayal of others on social media or society. Poverty can be caused by someone not thinking they are good enough or fit to live a good life due to the major difference between them and someone wealthy on social media. Rape can be caused due to the way that women are objectified by female characters in movies or other pictures like comic books. This leads to attackers feeling like they have every right to take advantage of people in whatever form they want.
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I knew these problems existed before this assignment but this gave me the incentive to do extra research. I didn’t know about the different outcomes when treating some problems as social problems instead of personal ones. I can apply this to myself and others by spreading knowledge on how to deal with certain problems and how to analyze them. The different resources that I would need to use to solve poverty would be forming non-government programs that can give everyone an equal chance at bettering their situation. Giving someone the necessary resources to make their own business or to get a job is something a program can help with. Also, starting a funding program to help people struggling with necessary things like medicine and food. On the side of the rape problem, I can use resources like the police or social media to get the word out on who to watch out for and precautions you should take when going out. Social media is a great platform for alerts because most of the people in the country have some sort of social media.
The symbolic interactionism theory best fits my answers because it talks about interactions between people. This can be seen through social media or television ads sending a message on what is normal and what isn’t. It also deals with what the individual thinks of what they see. My answers deal with people not believing they are fit to live a certain way and people seeing things on social media that can lead to paranoia.
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My opinions on these social problems are mostly towards the wellbeing of the victims. I feel like they should be helped more due to the amount of stress laid on them by society. These problems can be easily fixed if people start paying more attention to them and use more funds to keep them at bay.
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I developed these opinions because of my surroundings, having people tell me experiences from their life made me realize that poverty needs to be fixed. Being in a family of all girls also made me realize how important it is to raise awareness for rape since most of the victims are females. My opinions are swayed by my own personal life but I feel like they are also the right opinions.
My opinion is based on the news and people who have experienced it first-hand. I feel like it is based on facts because I can count on both of those sources to be telling the truth.
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In the article, “What do we think poverty looks like?” the writer speaks about her almost not believing that she was fit for food stamps because white people usually don’t seem like they need them. This can be seen when she says “Having an implicit belief that poverty didn’t really happen to white people did me more harm than good, and nearly prevented me from seeking help I needed.” This relates to the assignment because it shows how poverty can be caused because of social norms. This can be believed due to the facts from that can be found in the “Lauer & Lauer” book that says “National polls found that 76 percent of whites but only 45 percent of African Americans believe that the latter have as good a chance as whites to get any kind of job for which they are qualified.”. Also in the article, it states “The best proxy for who we believe is poor is what we see in media. And media professionals tend to portray poverty as if it is rare for anyone but black Americans.” This statement shows that social media tends to plaster poverty with certain ethnicities leading others to believe that it can’t happen to them. They also blame the poor for living in poverty. This can be shown when the “Lauer & Lauer” book states “When asked why there is poverty in affluent America, a 31-year-old female bank teller said the poor themselves are to blame because most of them are lazy and unreliable.”
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Work Cited
Lauer, Robert H. and Jeanette T. Laurer. 2013. Social Problems and the Quality of Life: 13th Edition. 13th. New York City: McGraw-Hill. Accessed September 21, 2017.
Mcmillan, Tracie. “What Do We Think Poverty Looks Like?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 July 2017. Accessed 1 Oct. 2017.