Urban Legends- Candyman

Urban legends are a reflection of fears in society. In the movie, Candyman, a graduate student is doing a study on the urban legend of Candyman- a serial killer, explained here:

In the beginning of the movie, Helen walks into a lecture hall at the University of Chicago, during which the professor is talking about urban legends and the sociological concepts associated with them. Helen doesn’t believe in the legend of Candyman and is studying him to solve the crime and to further develop the theories out there about urban legends. Obviously, Helen doesn’t believe in Candyman, but the people she interviews do and the consequences of the serial killer and its legend are real. The people respond to the legend and the fear associated with it causes people to act differently. As Helen gets more involved with the legend and the people, the more personal it gets and she begins fearing Candyman herself. Once she fears Candyman, there are more consequences—and deaths. According to Joel Best and Gerald T Horiuchi, “Urban legends, like collective behavior and social problems construction, are responses to social strain, shaped by the perception of the threat and social organization.” The urban legend of Candyman is a response to the threat of the serial killer and deaths that occurred mostly in the projects in the Chicago area in the movie. That, and the movie is a scary movie which portrays the urban legend as real, potentially perpetuating society’s fears and urban legends.

Institutional Selves

Institutional selves- Psych episode

In this episode of “Psych”, Shawn (the psychic cop) goes undercover into a mental hospital as a patient in order to try to prove that another patient should not be ‘not guilty’ of murder by reason of insanity. As we discussed in class, it is difficult for a patient who has been committed into a mental institution (a Total Institution) to create their own identity. Rather, every action and behavior of the patient is used to support the “sick” identity placed on the patient by doctors and nurses. In Shawn’s case, even though he is not actually a patient, few people actually know this. His behavior is seen as outside of the norm and supports his (fake) diagnosis. At one point he is even put into isolation and strapped down because the nurses believe he is sick. Because he is in the institution, it is hard for him to keep his identity as sane and normal. When a murder happens on-site, Shawn tells the nurses that he is a cop, but because they believe he is insane, they believe this behavior is just part of him being sick and don’t believe Shawn, even though he is telling the truth. Similarly, it is even harder for Shawn to prove that the other patient is sane and faking sick because he has already been committed into the institution and given the identity of being insane. At the end of the episode, Shawn requires someone else to vouch for him and to explain that he really is a cop and is not insane.

Week 12: Gender, Race

C&S: Thorne 343-350, Tibbals 384-395; C&S: Weitz 351-365; C&S: Duran 297-310 BB:  Perry

Race and Gender are socially constructed and can contribute to the roles and identities of people. Both seem to be rooted biologically, but there is a lot more to both of them than genes and DNA.  The categories of Male, Female, Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, etc.  are constructed. In some other cultures, seven different genders are recognized instead of just the two we tend to recognize in the United States. Historically, who is considered Black has been constructed as well; there has been the rule that “one-drop” of African American blood can cause a person to be considered Black instead of White (or a different race). Why is President Barak Obama considered Black when he is just as much White as he is Black?

Through interaction and personal displays, we reproduce and challenge societal norms of gender. Kids on the playground engage in borderwork (as discussed by Thorne) to define who they are and their differences based on whether they are boys or girls. They interact and establish those differences, thereby recreating gender stereotypes. When interacting with one another, their group identities (boys or girls) seem to take precedence over their own identities as individuals with particular names.

 Women in the workplace also do things to resist and establish gender norms. They present themselves in certain ways, embracing what is feminine as they style their hair and dress themselves even as they try to resist gender expectations. Tibbals discusses how waitresses and servers wear trendy belts and modify their uniforms and take on traditional feminine behavior to resist degendered norms placed on them by their employers. Women also use their hair to show power and position in public. Weitz argues that they use it to resist the idea that they are subordinate, but that they are also limited in their displays and resistance because they use traditionally feminine styles.

            The idea that hair and bodily displays have meanings and reflect personal identities and status is reflected in pop culture. I found this online quiz (one of many) that tells what your hair says about you and what your ideal hairstyle is. It is interesting as it shows both power and limits, as Weitz describes in her article. The quiz can be found at http://www.allthetests.com/quiz06/dasquiztd.php3?testid=1058749295.

Week 11: Halloween/Urban Legends, Institutional Selves, Prejudice/Discrimination

BB: Best & Horiuchi; C&S: Goffman 399-407 BB: Fox; BB: Blumer

               Society works to construct the identity of others and others’ selves. In the case of Halloween and urban legends, one story needs only to be taken slightly out of context or exaggerated for people to imagine and create it. Best and Horiuchi discuss the “Halloween sadist” who supposedly poisons kids’ candy, puts razor blades in it, and commits other crimes on Halloween. He strikes fear into people. Though there are some short reports on things like that happening during Halloween, for the most part they were few and specifically directed crimes intended for specific individuals—not to cause havoc among many families and threaten all children. This social problem is socially constructed through word-of-mouth spreading of the stories, through the media, and through responses of other individuals such as politicians. Urban legends tend to reflect wider beliefs in society and have a purpose. The fear of the Halloween sadist reflects old fears of ghosts during Halloween and reinforces the fear of strangers in today’s modern society where we don’t know our neighbor as well.

               We discussed in class how our world is increasingly privatized as we stay indoors more often and look online more for our social interaction. We fear strangers. We don’t know our neighbors. The website Nextdoor, as discussed in the article “Nextdoor launches to bring your real neighborhood online” (http://gigaom.com/2011/10/26/nextdoor-social-network/), reflects this. It allows people to get to know their neighbors, who they can borrow a cup of sugar from, and figure out what to do in an emergency all without ever really meeting or talking face-to-face with the person across the street or next door.