Author: Andre Coleman

Suicide Rate Men

The suicide rate for young men is much higher than for young women in western developed countries. Discuss with reference to gender and competing explanations of suicide.

For many, a rational response in life is to fear death after all life is our most personal and valuable asset, and it is not surprising that a copious amount of research has been devoted to suicide. The functionalist Emile Durkheim was the first to put forth the study of suicide in a serious attempt to establish empiricism in sociology, believing what is traditionally regarded as the most individual of all acts to still be open to sociological investigation. Before attempting to discuss the question at hand it may seem obvious, however, necessary to define what is meant by suicide.

According to Durkheim “the term suicide is applied to all cases of death resulting directly or indirectly from a positive or negative act of the victim himself, which he knows will produce this result”. This definition is used to separate true suicides from accidental deaths ( Durkheim 1897 quoted in Thompson 1982:110).Suicide is a problem of considerable magnitude and is recognised as one of the main causes of premature mortality in young adults in western developed countries. In the United Kingdom alone there were 5554 suicides in adults aged 15 and over in 2006, according to the national statistics this represented almost one percent of the total of all deaths at ages 15 and over.

Gender differences in suicide rates become apparent when presented with data stating three quarters of the above 5554 suicides were by men and the highest rates were among the 15-44 age group (office for national statistics, 2006). Other research shows that for those males in the 15-34 age group suicide is the second most common cause of death (Charlton et al.,1992)2* Of all that is known about the phenomenon of suicide it is a general consensus that gender is a major factor in differential suicide rates, the main issue concerning this essay.

Although Durkheim wrote little about gender differences in suicide; primarily due to his claim that ‘women are not imaginative enough and intellectually complex enough to kill themselves’ ( a statement seriously lacking any empirical support) (Durkheim 1897 quoted in Maris 2000) it is important to note that he did lay the ground work for research to come. This essay will discuss the competing explanations of gender differences in suicide, specifically the statistical findings that the suicide rate for young men is much higher than for young women in western developed countries.

The first explanation that will be put forth is that the gender socialisation of males increases the likelihood of male suicide completion compared to that of women. This explanation will be discussed in relation to differences in help seeking behaviour, differences in choice of method and the relationship between alcohol/drug abuse and suicide in men. Following this, a further explanation to be analyzed is that of the ‘masculinity crises’ and its part to play in the alarming rate of male suicides.

Although the above will be presented as explanations for the title under discussion, all explanations put forth will be approached with caution and appropriately analyzed and evaluated. Finally having suggested explanations, I will question the methodology used in the study of suicide and whether this contributes to what may appear to be higher male suicide rates. In effect, do men really commit more suicide or is this simply based on unreliable data collection?

Socialisation and the social construction of gender are highly relevant in explaining the higher suicide rate in men. It is important to firstly explain what is meant by gender and to distinguish its meaning from sex. Sex refers to the biological and anatomical differences between ‘males’ and ‘females’ which includes a variation in hormones, chromosomes and genitals, Gender however, refers to the cultural classification of people as either ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’.

Many sociologists argue that gender is socially constructed through socialisation. Ann Oakley for example saw gender role socialisation taking place through manipulation, such as the dressing of girls in pink pretty clothing, through verbal appellations in telling boys only girls cry, through canalization for example directing boys toward more aggressive toys and girls toward dolls, finally by exposing boys and girls to different activities for example directing girls towards the more domestic tasks ( Oakley, 1972) *3.

In short it is thought that male socialisation in many respects increases the likelihood of suicide. Goldberg (1997) states that the socialisation of men in this way has created a ‘prescription for suicide’, through reinforcing the stereotype of masculinity permission is given to men to be inexpressive and more violent a combination which inevitably increase the risk of completed suicide. This notion can be used to explain why it is that although mental illness is more prevalent among women than men, men commit more suicide.

Depression specifically is regarded as one of the major risk factors for suicide mortality, around 30% of those who have committed suicide are reported to have suffered from depression (Bertolote et al, 2004)*5. It seems strange that although women display higher rates of mental illness than men (Foster 1995) 9* more men opt to take their own lives. It is argued that as a consequence of women’s learned gender roles they are more likely to seek professional help when experiencing problems which may lead to suicidal thoughts. Dohrenwend and Dohrenwend state that:

Sex differences in the seeking of help correspond to attitudinal differences: women are more likely to admit distress . . . to define their problems in mental-health terms . . . and to have favourable attitudes towards psychiatric treatment. (Dohrenwend and Dohrenwend 1977: 1338) 6*

Men on the other hand are encouraged from infancy to ‘tough it out’, to be silent and strong and to display independence and self reliance, consequently it is less socially acceptable for men to ask for help. This underlying social unacceptability results in mens reluctance to disclose suicidal thoughts and to discuss general emotional problems. The suicide in Avon study found that in the 4 weeks before death 80 per cent of men who had committed suicide had in fact had no contact with professional help, be it a GP or any other form of support organisation (Vassilas and Morgan1997) 7*.

It appears that gender socialisation to some extent contributes to the comparatively higher rate of male suicide completion. It should also be noted that stereotypical gender norms means women are more likely to be labelled as mentally ill. Some feminists argue that cultural sexism, coupled with specific sexism from professionals, makes women more susceptible to psychiatric labelling.

Furthermore women are labelled as mentally ill whether they conform to the female gender stereotype or whether they reject them (Chelter 1972:115) 8*. In this way the health service maybe deemed patriarchal and misogynistic, however, this increased likelihood of women being labelled mentally ill means help is quicker to be provided and suicidal thinking is quicker to be recognized in women in comparison to men.

Another way traditional male socialisation maybe partly to blame for the higher male suicide rate is in one’s choice of suicide method. Gender differences in the choice of suicide method have consistently been found, it is argued that the traditional male role is consistent with more aggressive thus more successful methods of suicides. Women tend to use methods of lower lethality than men, favouring poisons such as the deliberate overdose of pharmaceutical medication, this accounted for 26% of female suicides in 1996 compared to only 6% in males.

Men however use more violent methods such as firearms which accounted for 63% of male deaths in 1996 and hanging which accounted for 17% of all male suicides (Maris et al, 2000). Canetto and Sakinofsky (1998) have stated that in western society suicide completion appears to be more socially acceptable for men whereas a failed suicide attempt is deemed emasculating this in part has contributed to higher successful suicides in men in order to avoid the ridicule of their masculinity. The conventional Gender socialisation of men thus makes them more vulnerable to suicide completion, this may also explain why it is thought that women attempt more suicide than men yet more men die.

To critique the above claim one could argue that the choice of method is more complex than gender socialisation; it may have more to do with the availability of certain methods. In countries where there is greater access to firearms due to looser restrictions there is a higher use of that method in the attempting suicide. Nevertheless, one could still maintain that in western developed countries due to the adherence to female norms women are less likely to have access to guns and feel more comfortable with their use, resulting in an increase use of other methods such as prescription drugs.

Some have argued that the choice of method is far more complex than what has just been suggested; even if men and women opt for the same method (the method is held constant) men are still more likely to die. A study by Shneidman and Farberow (1957, cited in Lester and Lester 1971:88-90) of suicidal behaviour in Los Angeles found that out of 24 men who chose to jump from high places in an attempt to kill themselves 16 succeeded, this was compared with only 9 out of 20 women who succeeded by using the same method.

Further to this, an article titled ‘values destroyed by death’ noted that women are socialised more so than men to be more concerned with their physical appearance and this may even extend to their appearance after death. This may therefore influence their choice of suicide method, opting more for a method that would be less disfiguring, such methods are also more likely to be less lethal (Diggory and Rothman 1961 cited in Lester and Lester 1971:90).

This notion that women have a concern with their physical appearance even after death seems far fetch, nevertheless, many do hold a consensus that gender socialisation certainly does play its part in the choice of suicide method which manifests itself in higher male suicide completion.

The relationship between Alcohol and substance abuse and suicidal behaviour has long been recognized. Alcohol and drugs can affect a person’s ability to reason, their judgment and can act as a depressant. This increased depression over time and decreased inhibition makes a person vulnerable to attempting suicide especially with a history of mental illness.

According to research men are nine times more likely to abuse alcohol than women, and those men who are diagnosed as alcoholics are assigned a six times increase likelihood of suicide compared to the general population.( Harris et al ,1997) 12*. Once again this may be partly due to the notion that male gender socialisation results in men responding to stress and problems through distracting themselves by use of alcohol or drugs as this is more socially acceptable, in contrast women are more likely to talk about their problems as shown above.

In western society a man’s masculinity also renders itself open in measurement in relation to how much alcohol he can consume. All this in turn affects and increases the likelihood of suicidal thinking. However other studies such as that by Rossow (1993 cited in Maris et al 2000:358) 13* in Norway between 1911 and 1990 found that there was a positive relationship between alcohol and suicide in men but not for women. A similar outcome was found by Makela (1996 cited in Maris et al 2000:358) 14* in Finland. This shows that alcohol alone is not sufficient to be labelled an increase cause of suicide in all cases; the matter is complex in nature and requires a deeper understanding of its direct and relational affects in men.

Although all above explanations contribute some blame to traditional male socialisation it is important to note that many others argue that the differences between the two sexes are predominantly biological not social. They have claimed that higher amounts of testosterone and other androgens in males make them more aggressive and because suicide is considered to be violence or aggression turned toward one self it seems men are more biologically likely to take their own lives.

Studies of brain biochemistry specifically of serotonin metabolite CSF 5-HIAA (cerebrospinal fluid levels of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic) and its relationship to suicide specifically to violent suicide has shown that male suicidal subject have lower CSF 5-HIAA and account for the majority of violent suicides. Maris et al (2000) suggested that gender based biochemical differences may play a part in different suicidal behaviour.

Although from a sociological perspective one can not agree with the extreme view that biology is largely to blame for differences in suicide among men and women, it seems reasonable to speculate that it may have some part to play even if one is to conclude suicide to be a social phenomenon.

Another explanation that many sociologists have pointed to in explaining the alarming rate of young male suicides is the notion of a ‘masculinity crisis’. society has changed dramatically over the last thirty or so years, the western world has become less patriarchal as gender equality becomes more the norm.

Roles, in both the work place and at home are not as gender defined as they once were and it is now not uncommon to see men stay at home as househusbands whilst their wives go out to work in high paid employment. Platt and Hawton’s systematic review (2000) 20* shows a strong relationship between unemployment and suicide especially in men. If taking the UK as a prime example then it is clear that there has been a move away from heavy industries that have traditionally been seen as ‘masculine’ and a move towards more service and information sectors which are traditionally viewed as feminine jobs.

This has brought about many opportunities for women but at the same time has resulted in higher unemployment rates for men. The breadwinner mentality is still strong in the western world and not being able to provide for ones family is a major worry for many males, and to have been able to do so at one point but not anymore can have a devastating affect.

In a materialistic capitalist society, like those to be found in the Western World, material goods are symbols of wealth and prestige and if one is not able to provide them anymore, they can begin to see themselves as worthless. Arthur Britain ( 1989) *28 and Susan Faludi (1999) 27*, among many other sociologists often argue that men are experiencing more confusion they are not coping with the consequences of changes in the gender order.

The rise of feminist movements, the decline of heavy manual work as well as gay and black politics brought about a collapse of the legitimacy of patriarchal power. This can therefore be seen as a positive for many women increasing their independence as they no longer become soley reliant on their husbands for money. Men however have traditionally based their identity on their work and had a safe position as the head of the family as the breadwinner this gave then comfort and a sense of place, changes that upset this are seen to have a negative effect on men leaving them uncertain about their position in general.

They can no longer guarantee holding the highest power in their working lives whiles at home there is no certainty that they will be the breadwinner. Consequently there is a split between retributive man, those who assert traditional masculinity and the new man, these men don’t rigidly hold the traditional masculine stereotype and are regarded as more emotional and more concerned with their body image.

Those who maintain the traditional masculine identity, the breadwinner and head of household mentality find themselves in conflict with the changes in the gender social order, their position can lead to isolation and aggression, two emotions very much associated with suicide. On the other hand those who have adapted to these changes are less confused of their position and are less prone to suicide than the former.

It could however be that the new man may be in part a media myth and the existence of the myth has created further uncertainty amongst males about how best to be a man. It should also be noted that this notion of masculinity being in crisis is controversial as although the breakdown of such rigid stereotypes has had a negative effect on those who would have found solace and comfort in being the dominant figure it has had an equally positive affect on males who have found themselves in the past to be subordinate and exploited such as homosexuals.

There are also many men who have adapted happily and suffer no confusion as well as many who have maintained their position as the breadwinner. Others such as Kimmel (1987)15* have noted that as evident in historical research this alarming concern over the role of man is by no means a new occurrence, in this sense caution should be taken not treat it as so, as it becomes easier to associate and in part blame the rise in young male suicide with what may initially seem as a new crisis in men.

It should also be maintained that although there is much debate over this ‘masculinity crisis’ and the breakdown of gender roles many feminists believe that western society is still patriarchal and the exploitation of women is still present. In 1991 6.53 million women earned less than two thirds of median male earnings, were mostly engaged in part time work and comprised 65% of all low paid workers (Oppenheim,1993)29*.

Although such figures have improved in the last 17 years, progress has not been so drastic to warrant labelling the west as having broken-down patriarchal power. Some scholars particularly feminists have gone further and rejected the idea that a crisis in masculinity could even exists pointing to evidence like the above. Irene Bruegel’s (2000) 16* a feminist economist presents a sceptical account of the feminisation of the work force, she like many others is cynical that men are hard done by and maintains that women can still be seen to be the subordinate class.

The sociologist John Maclnnes (1998) 17* presents a more extreme view on the matter stating that ‘masculinity’ does not exist as the property, character trait or aspect of identity of individuals, as a result any theory that relates a ‘crisis in masculinity’ in its explanation such as that used by many sociologists to explain the higher suicide rate in males must be equally flawed. Another critical point to make regarding this so called ‘masculinity crisis’ is that it may be right that men have lost some power but it is wrong to see this power as a loss in relation to women, the collapse of the predominantly male employment industry may be more to blame.

It could therefore be suggested that this so called crisis may not be one of masculinity but one of the working class. If we are to acknowledge the existence of a ‘masculinity crisis’ then it is evident that this problem in masculinity is far more complicated and sophisticated than one may initially think, it seems strange that we talk of a crisis in masculinity but there is no such crisis in femininity considering the gender roles for both sexes have in part broken down.

The relationship between a masculinity crisis and suicide can appear to be a direct one but as it only affects such a small proportion of males, there must be other underlying factors which combine with this feeling to have such an immensely negative effect on ones life.

All these explanations can go some way to piecing together why exactly suicide is more common in males. Yet, because, they offer an opinion and evidence to back it up, does not mean they should be taken as definite arguments. The relationship between gender and suicide is complex as although the most consistent findings in sociology are sexual differences there are other important variants within these male, female based differences. Racial variations in gender differences are evident in many statistics, according to Maris et al (2000:149) in 1996 white males comprised 73% of all completed suicides, yet the ratio of male to female suicide is larger among blacks with 6:1 compared to 4.3:1 among whites. It also appears that white females are far more likely to commit suicide than black females.

Although this essay is specifically focused on the western world there are still variations within these different countries nevertheless the male suicide rate is consistently greater than that of females in most societies. An exception worth noting (although not part of the western world) is the People’s Republic of China where the suicide rate among women is far greater than among the men (Shiang 1998 cited in Maris et al 2000:148)18*. Sexual orientation is also a variant found in male and female differences in suicide. Some epidemiologists have found that homosexuals are at a higher risk of suicide, this is due to negative experiences they may encounter that are linked to their sexuality.

It is however gay and bisexual men that have been found to be at an increased risk of suicide as lesbian and bisexual women in such situations seem to report a desire to hurt themselves while gay and bisexual men have a greater desire to want to die (D’Augelli et al, 2001)21* However it is difficult to know the true risk of suicide for gay or bisexual men as sexual orientation is not recorded at the registration of death and due to stigma still attached to gay men that strongly conflicts with the traditional identity of a masculine man, same sex relationships are not necessarily made public (Remafedi et al,1998) 19*

To further evaluate the title itself it is important to mention the many methodological issues in the study of suicide, some of which may even lead one to question whether the statement under discussion is simply based on unreliable and problematic research. Firstly, most research on gender differences in suicide are based on official statistics which like any other statistics are socially constructed. Whether a sudden death is classified as a suicide is ultimately the coroner’s decision who is generally influenced by other people.

The relatives and friends of the deceased might persuade the coroner not to record the death as a suicide (Douglas,1967) 25*. Due to this J.Maxwell Atkinson (1978) 26* states that when positivists study suicide what they uncover are simply the commonsense theories of coroners for example their increased tendency to record the deaths of lonely people as suicides. Further to this in having argued that there are sex differences in the social acceptability of suicide there may also be sex differences in the willingness to record any death as a suicide.

The high rate of male suicides may be due to the fact that suicide is more socially acceptable for males and so more coroners are willing to classify them as such. Canetto (1992-3)22* suggests that our stereotypical views that ‘she died for love and he for glory’ also affects a coroner’s and societies interpretation of the reasons for suicidal behaviour, with women more likely to of committed suicide due to problems in their personal relationships, stress and mental illness whereas men do so because of threats to their public persona. Another problem which may affect the gender differences in suicide statistics are the method a person may choose in taking their own life.

It may be the case that some methods are more likely to lead to a classification of suicide. Platt et al (1988,220) 23* conducted research on suicides in Edinburgh between 1968 and 1983 and found that ‘suicide and undetermined deaths could not be differentiated by gender, marital status, previous psychiatric contact, age or social class’ the only important factor was method, with those opting for more severe active methods such as firearms or hanging being much more likely to be classified as suicides than those choosing passive methods such overdoses or poisoning. In this sense because active methods are more likely to be used by men, men appear to have a higher rate of suicide yet this may simply be because the methods they use are more likely to be classified as such.

Another problem with suicide statistics is that they tend to ignore attempted suicide and concentrate on the cases in which death occurs, has this created a moral panic in men as they appear to have higher rates of completed suicides? It could be argued that the very focus on the higher male suicide rate detracts from the fact that suicide attempts are much higher in women. On average the rate of female attempted suicide is 1.5 times higher than those for men with the highest rate found in those aged 15-24 (Hawton and Heeringen, 2000, 55-56) ADD IN BIB.

It could therefore be suggested that although suicide completion is much higher in men an equal focus should be assigned to the higher female attempted suicide rate, one should not mask or detract from the other. In this way it becomes more appropriate to describe suicidal behaviour as a problem of both young males and young females. One should however, take caution not to confuse self-harm with suicide attempts as some mental health professionals often use the terms interchangeably (Favazza and Rosenthal 1993 cited in Duffy and Ryan 2004)30*.

An attempted suicide is the direct intent to ends one’s life, self harm is not. Suicide statistics can be affected in this way; it may be the case that the lack of differentiation between the two terms has lead to an overrepresentation of attempted suicides, this is of course a speculation and further research is required to discover the extent to which this is true. It is evident that suicide; as a sociological subject is a complex phenomenon to study and this is not helped by its many ethical dilemmas.

Suicide is not something which many would be comfortable talking about with a reporter or filling in a questionnaire beforehand if they were feeling such a way and even after, if relatives or friends were to give their opinions on why the event occurred, there would be a strong tendency for bias- to either protect the deceased or to offer what they believed was the real reason. If we are to accept that males are more likely to cover up their emotions, then suicide is likely to be less expected and therefore the answer to the questions regarding why, are more difficult to come by.

Such ethical problems have lead to the consensus that suicide is grossly underreported and thus underestimated in official statistics. However, there has been some improvement in the gathering of statistical information and it is this that leads one to question whether changes in suicide rates such as the increasing male suicide rate is due to changes in suicide statistics not in the actual changes in suicide rates (Kelleher 1996) 31*.

In considering future research, it is important to mention that although there is an impressive body of quantitative research, this is not always the best method to use when in cases such as suicide and gender comparisons. Statistics highlight the facts; that males do commit suicide more than females. In such a subject, however, a deeper analysis is needed to explain why exactly this is and why although the figures evidently show males to kill themselves more, the reasoning’s behind this might not be at all dominated by gender based assumptions.

There is a need for more qualitative based research, such as individual case studies which will give a different angle and deeper insight into suicide. However, it is essential that care should taken not to compare men and women as though the two groups are homogeneous a flaw found in a lot of existing studies. It is therefore imperative to emphasize that not all men are the same what may be the case for one man may not apply to another, there is a diversity of masculinity and femininity and generalizations should be avoided.

In conclusion sociologists have debated greatly over why exactly suicide is more common in males than in females. In this essay it has been suggested that the socialisation of males in western society is partly to blame. Through the reinforcement of what society deems acceptable male behaviour men are less likely to ask for help professional or otherwise when experiencing suicidal thoughts or any illness which may lead to an increased likelihood of attempting suicide. Conventional Gender socialisation of males is also consistent with more aggressive thus more successful methods of completed suicides.

As stated above in western society suicide completion appears to be more socially acceptable for men whereas a failed suicide attempt is deemed emasculating. Alcohol and drug misuse also appears to have a stronger relationship with the socially constructed notion of ‘masculinity’, because the abuse of such substances is closely linked to suicide, men are thus more vulnerable to the taking of their own lives. The idea of a ‘masculinity crisis’ was also presented as a contributing factor to the higher male suicide rate.

Sociologists have suggested that society is now at odds with the basis of masculinity, with the partial break down in the roles of both men and women, men appear to be confused and more likely to commit suicide. It has however been strongly emphasised that all explanations that have been presented are simply suggestions to shed light on why young men appear to commit more suicide than young women in the western world, they are not definite reasons for the differences in the suicide rates between the two sexes.

Many males are subjected to western gender role socialisation or feel a lack of role in society but the percentage of those who commit suicide are so small that it suggests that there must be other factors or a combination of reasons for them to do so. It is on the whole difficult to make generalizations when the ultimate cause of suicide, even in cases where the event is likely or a note is left because the defining factor remains hidden. Individual actions often require individual research and understanding but this proves immensely difficult in the use of statistics because quantitative data focuses on generalisations.

Suicide statistics should therefore be approached with caution as in some cases they appear to show higher male suicide rates when this may not be the case. It should also be noted that suicide is for many a last resort. Although in some cases, death is the main intention; in many others it is often a cry for help- the intention is to live, to feel worthy and to highlight one’s pain and problems in the most extreme ways.

Bibliography
Thompson, Kenneth. 1982. Emile Durkheim. London: Tavistock Publications.
Sources: Office for National Statistics, General Register Office for Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency)
Lester G, Lester d (1971) Suicide The Gamble With Death. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall

Introduction

In this assignment, I have been asked to evaluate the main points of subcultural theories and critiques of them. In order to answer this question put to me, I will go on to describing exactly what a subculture is, I will then go on to state the different theorists who have given theories as to what subculture is, why it happens and how they may evaluate and apprehend it, showing their opinions throughout. I will then evaluate each theory and show the strengths and weaknesses of each, and throughout my evaluation I will be using plenty of references throughout to back up any points made, and finally go on to a concluding summary.

Firstly we must state what exactly culture is before we can delve in to any explanations of what exactly a subculture is. Williams suggests that there are many ways in which culture has been described and defined throughout history although the best way to define culture is that of ‘particular way of life which expressed certain meanings and values not only in art and learning, but also in institutions and ordinary behaviour’ (Williams 1961:pg 57). There can be said to be many different ways in which a selection of society can be seen as a subculture, the first is that of reactive subcultures in which people feel a direct oppression from mainstream society and react against all that is seen as the typical ‘norm’. There are also independent subcultures which are said to have complete separate, and that of their own, norms, values and beliefs than that of mainstream society.A Brake also suggests that the best way to define a subculture is to suggest that it is like a ‘culture inside of a culture'(Brake 1985). Further into his book he then goes on to suggest that ‘Subcultures exist where there is some form of organised and recognised constellation of values, behaviour and actions which responded to as differing from the prevailing set of norms.’ (Brake 1985:pg 8).

In some circumstances the norms and values we share in day to day life with all of society are followed but not in the same way by all, therefore creating these subcultures. From the day we are born, we are already surrounded by a subculture lead by class and the particular ways of life in which a working class family may have may be in complete comparison to that of an upper class family. We are all brought up with complete different values of life and some people may see it more as tradition within their family, which is to be followed religiously. One example of this can be seen with the subculture of gypsies, where it is tradition to get married mainly by the age of 16, they live in caravans, statics, shallays and it is tradition for gypsies to attend the Appleby fair every year and even though this is not seen as the norms and values of everyone, it is to them. You could say that there are so many subcultures out there that it is impossible to state every one. An example of this could be that of what type of person you see yourself as and you religiously wear certain clothes to ‘fit in’ with a particular group i.e. Chavs, Hippys, Goths, Emos, Punks, Geeks, Popular, Tom Boys etc the list goes on. Another way in which people could suggest to support different values are that of homosexuality and the religions which oppose it as a sin of God. Longhurst et al argues that subcultures also arose from hegemony and quotes Clarke et al’s statement that ‘hegemony refers to the moment when a ruling class is able, not only to coerce a subordinate class to conform to its interests, but to exert a hegemony or total social authority over subordinate classes.’ (Longhurst et al 2008:pg244). As this was due to the fact that after the second world war a lot of reconstruction of the country as well as the economy was going on and the government, who mainly consist of white middle and upper class men, where changing the ways in which the working class lived their lives, and they took into account Cohens view that labour was being polarised and this meant that the wealthy were getting ‘specialised, high tech, well paid jobs’ and the poor were being forced to stay poor as they were only able to secure themselves ‘dead-end, unskilled labour.’ (Longhurst et al 2008:pg 243). These quotes show and tell us that the wealthy could see their jobs as a job and a career, however the poorer people could only see themselves as labourers, which in some cases me be used as a more generous term for skivvy, lackey, slave etc where they earn less money for doing a ‘hard days graft’ as you will, but yet the highly paid jobs are more than likely to be quite an easy job to do. Society in those days needed hard workers to do the labour jobs as those were the areas which needed upkeep however the areas the wealthy seemed to have jobs in would more than likely have no effect on society if it were to keep going or stop all together and therefore many are meaningless jobs but they are getting more money to do them. This is the kind of subjects in which set off the rebellions and therefore there was the creations of these subcultures in other areas than just class, but against governmental choices and the decisions they may have made which had an adverse affect on one class as it did on another, causing further friction between classes and we still see this going on today.

One of the main theorists to evaluate subculture was that of Albert Cohen and he mainly shows his theory of the subculture functionalist through his book called Delinquent Boys : The culture of the gang. In this book, his main points are that it is the clashing between that of the middle class and the ‘delinquents’ which was a harsh term produced by middle classes to describe the poor in order to portray them as being non educated with no intelligence and no drive to have goals in their lives. His view was linked to that of Mertons Strain Theory and Cohen, as well as Merton, argue that everyone has the same goals in life however the working classes never get the opourtunity to actually go forward and achieve these goals. However where the two theorists differ, is how this revulsion of middle class culture leads to crime and law breaking behaviour. Merton has the view that because the working class do not get the chance to succeed in life, this then leads most down the path of crime and this is the main result of no success, suggesting that they have no choice in the matter, and that in order to survive they must turn to crim. Cohen on the other hand suggests that because the working class cannot have success in reaching goals in life, this then leads them to make up their own goals which involve crime and aggressive, law breaking behaviour (Cohen 1955 cite). Suggesting that they choose to break the law and commit crime and they see this as a way of life, and see nothing wrong with this. This subculture is reflected by Cohen to be the delinquent subculture with their own norms and values and their goals being to commit crime and it is seen as a positive thing to do, as if they reach their targets and goals by committing crime.A The main goal for this subculture which Cohen suggests is to gain that of status by any means necessary, whether that be good or bad publicity and they don’t care which way they are portrayed by the media and other sources, as long as they are publicised and he suggests that these peoples key features are ‘malice’, ‘negativistic’behaviourand ‘non-utilitarian’ behaviour (Cohen 1955 cite). ‘Malicious behaviours are committed out of spite….bullying of non delinquents….Negativistic by believing that their behaviour is right precisely because it is wrong according to the norms of society….Non-utilitarian as their activities do not produce a direct economic benefit.’ (Regoli et al 2009:pg192).He also suggests that they have traits such as being very ‘versatile’, ‘hedonists’ andA having great ‘group loyalty and autonomy’ never betraying one of the groups rules. ‘Versitility is shown in their tendancy to dabble in many delinquent activities – stealing, vandalism, trespassing, truancy and so on….Hedonism as delinquents are often impatient and impulsive…out for fun and don’t take kindly to rules, scheduals or organization, nor do they plan ahead, study or practice. Future gains and goals are of no importance to them….Group autonomy as they are close to other members of gang but hostile to outsiders.’ (Regoli et al 2009:pg192-193).

This delinquent subculture was also separated not only from middle class society through social exclusion from the norm, but they were separated by sex as Cohen states in his book that ‘male delinquency is at least four times as common as female delinquency.’ (Cohen 1955:pg45). He also suggests that even though there is this subculture group which is apparent in order to try to gain a voice within the middle class society and to stand up for what they believe in and their rights as an English Citizen, there still never seems to be no resolution and that this battle will go on forever more ‘some groups, which may sometimes be counted excessive, sub-cultural solutions may not emerge, or particular individuals may not participate in them, Nonetheless, the problems of adjustment may be sufficiently intense and persistent that they still press for some kind of change.’ (Cohen 1955:pg 71).

This dissertation explores the lives of eunuchs, the ‘third gender’, in contemporary India. It aims to bring out the several misconceptions harboured about this community and suggest measures to improve their living conditions.

“One day our descendants will think it incredible that we paid so much attention to things like the amount of melanin in our skin or the shape of our eyes or our gender instead of the unique identities of each of us as complex human beings.” – Anonymous

Over the years, the hijra or eunuch community has occupied an extremely marginalized position in Indian society. By and large, their presence has provoked mixed feelings of fear, awe and contempt from the general public. Over the last two decades, the community has captured the western scholarly imagination as an idyllic case in the transnational system of ‘alternative’ gender sexuality. When it comes to these type of analyses, as Rosalind Morris states, the ‘hijra’ becomes either,

“an interstitial gender occupying a liminal pace between male and female or a ‘drag queen’ who is a hero(ine) in a global sexual resistance”

Yet there exists a very different reality from that suggested by these theorists – a reality

based on rejection by family, cultural and societal isolation as well as neglect. Their identification as a uniquely positioned third sex becomes a lot more complicated when the hijra lifestyle is discussed with respect to this contemporary reality, instead of historical or mythical representation.

The community has been subjected to vicious abuse or a lack of empathy, on a mental or physical level from different sections of society at various levels. These sections include the lay person, law enforcers and worse, their own biological parents and relatives.

Lying at stake is the fundamental human right to be different, the right to recognition and choice of different pathways of sexuality, in other words a right to sexual orientation, a right to immunity from the oppressive and repressive derogatory labelling of despised sexuality.

Expressed in the form of narratives that were penned down after listening to a number of Hijras, this piece of work, at a very primary level, captures the lives of a few of the people from the community that we all choose to shun, despise or simply not bother about. It brings out and analyzes the many stereotypes and superstitions associated with this community. The testimonials of the Hijras and Kothis with whom I interacted bring alive the unimaginable and gruesome violence they are subjected to, especially, at the hands of the police. This dissertation also aims to bring out and deride the atrocities the hijras are subjected to, the injustice that has been meted out to them in various spheres of life and suggest developmental measures in this regard. Above all, this piece of work is dedicated towards creating a little more sensitivity and empathy for this community, that so far does not enjoy most of the basic human rights that we, the ‘normal’ people, take for granted.

THE HIJRAS: WHO WE ARE
The ‘hijras’ are generally considered to constitute a ‘third gender’, neither male nor female. Even in their own narratives, the hijras view themselves not simply as ‘neither man nor woman’, as the title of Nanda’s(1990) ethnography on the hijras suggests, but also as deficient in terms of masculinity and not completely feminine. Instead of taking a place outside the female-male binary, the Hijras have created a life somewhere in between, one that is restricted by deep-rooted cultural constructions of femininity and masculinity.

Largely, the community expresses a feminine gender identity, coming closest experientially to what would be referred to in the West as a transsexual, that is, ‘a female trapped in a male body.’ It is a socio-religious construct marked by extreme gender nonconformity in the sense that there is no correlation between their anatomical sex and gender identity.

In India, there is a widespread belief that hijras often pick up or kidnap infants and castrate them in order to increase the population of the community, but there are no statistics or factual evidences to support the same.

Most hijras in India live in groups that are organised into seven houses, known as ‘gharanas’, Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad being the more populous centres. Each house is

headed by a ‘nayak’. This person’s job is to appoint spiritual leaders or gurus who train their ‘chelas’ ( wards who are lower in rank) in ‘badhai’- the well known singing, dancing and blessing ritual. The guru’s responsibility is furthered to act as a protector of his chelas, both from within as well as outside the community. Any quarrels amongst hijras are decided within the community by the ‘nayak’ and senior gurus acting as law makers, the punishment ranging from imposing fines and expulsion from the community, if the offences were of a higher degree.

According to popular religious practice, they are believed to be endowed with special powers to confer fertility on newlyweds or new born children. According to tradition, they are expected to sing and dance at weddings as well as childbirth functions, and in lieu of their services they are rewarded with money, clothes, jewellery etc. Singing and dancing has a respectable status in the Hijra community; it gives them a sense of power as it reaffirms the fact that the people who asked them to sing and dance during the childbirth or any other functions, believe in their powers. The custom of hijras being called for dancing in weddings and childbirth is more prominent in the north, and therefore, sadly, the number of Hijras in the south who take to prostitution to earn money are much more than those in the northern parts of the country.

One of the more common Hijra complaints in the form of public appeals to the government is the non availability of decent jobs for them, hence they do not have any choice but to take to prostitution to earn their livelihood.

The Kothis

Kothis like hijras are transgender persons who identify themselves with the feminine gender. The kep difference lies in the fact that hijras usually settle into a fixed gender role after the castration process, whereas kothis display an ambiguous dual gender identity that swings between the masculine role of the husband demanded in the marriage relationship and the feminine role in the same-sex relationship outside. In simpler words, a kothi can be

described as a male homosexual who takes a feminine role in sex with other men. They, largely and essentially belong to a non-English speaking lower middle-class background and feel marginalized in all contexts, whether in terms of economic status, language, education,

or sexuality. Due to the pressure extended by family as well as society to conform to ‘normal’ norms like marriage and reproducing, many kothis marry and raise families , but continue to have same-sex relationships outside, often under hidden and covert circumstances. Economic problems within families as well as non acceptance of this ‘abnormal’ member within the family drives many other kothis to sex work.

Sadly, even when they do make an effort to seek employment in more ‘decent’ professions, both hijras and kothis are very often subject to sexual harassment at the workplace which makes it impossible for them to continue working there.

There exists a visible, symbiotic relationship between hijras and kothis that is strengthened in the face of oppression, due to the lack of support systems for kothis in cities and towns. This has led kothis to depend upon hijra subcultures for both assistance and support – emotional as well as otherwise. Hence due to the existence of such a relationship, there is a constant, perpetual exchange of languages, behaviour, mythologies between the hijra and the other homosexual subcultures.

The early years, the young transgender – confused; and the attitude of parents:

Typically, when they are young and born into so called ‘normal’ families, initially the parents humour the boy child if he behaves like a girl. But as he grows up, once he turns eleven or twelve, the parents start getting irritated at the child’s behaviour. By the time he is in his teens, the father typically starts abusing and beating the child. Such an attitude displayed by the parent is more pronounced in villages and small towns since here awareness is less. The transgender child himself does not realize the reasons behind his behaviour; he cannot understand why he feels like a female inside, and gets more frustrated with the constant chastising by the parents. Soon he runs away, usually with the aid of a sympathetic elder in the village, who directs him to a hijra community in some other village.

The hijra community and the first signs of awareness by the individual about his own biology:

When he reaches there, the hijra community welcomes him and explains to him the reasons behind his so called ‘queer’ behaviour. They give him the option of becoming a part of their community after the conversion process into a transsexual, castration followed by surgical regeneration of the vagina, or to remain as he is and explore the world by himself. In most instances, the individual at that moment decides to stay as he is, and goes into the village to seek employment opportunities. As most hijras testify, very soon the transgender individual is then raped, in most cases by policemen who arrest them on the supposed grounds that they are homosexual. It is tragic to know that the law enforcers are usually the ones who sexually violate these individuals first. After being abused multiple times, sexually as well as physically, the broken individual returns to the hijra community and asks for acceptance into their family.

The castration process is never smooth in nature, usually carried out without the aid of modern anaesthesia or antibiotics. The operation costs for the surgical reconstruction of the female biological organs (such as the vagina) range from a minimum of seven thousand rupees (no anaesthesia) to a high of fifty thousand rupees. Since most of these individuals are poor, they settle for the operation that requires lesser costs. Depending upon the money, the expertise, and the success of the operation, the surgical reconstruction varies from being partially to fully complete. In many cases, if the surgery goes wrong, it might lead to blockage in the urinary passage and this could be terribly painful for the individual.

The hijra family:

A hijra family comprises ‘daughters’, ‘sisters’ and ‘mothers’ – no males. After being rejected by their own biological families, the hijra family becomes the first and only source of emotional support. They are strong, close knit and provide safety and security for the abandoned people.

However, due to poverty, discrimination, lack of education and skills, many of them have no means of earning money. So, they engage in commercial sex work and begging. Most hijras do not think twice about joining the sex trade, what with being abused physically and mentally multiple times.

Transgender, Transsexual and Intersexual:

At the most basic level, we take a look at the meanings of terms, ‘transgender’, ‘transsexual’, ‘intersexual’ and ‘androgyne’. A Transgender is a person who is assigned a gender at birth based on his/her genitals, but feels that the assigned gender is a false representation of himself/ herself. Such a person’s identity does not conform unambiguously to conventional notions of male or female gender roles, but combines or moves between these roles. ‘Gender-queer’, ‘third gender’ are also names given to transgender individuals.

According to The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health (ICD), “Trans-sexuality is a need that certain individuals have to live and be acknowledged as a member of the opposite sex, usually accompanied by a sense of discomfort with one’s one’s current sex, and a desire to have hormonal and surgical treatment to make one’s body conform as much as possible with one’s preferred sex.” On the removal of the sexual organs he/she was born with, a transgender becomes a transsexual. In simpler words, Transsexual men and women desire to establish themselves permanently as a member of the gender with which they identify, often using medical help for the same.

One out of every two thousand births is an ‘intersex’ child, and usually the birth leaves the parents of the child frustrated, confused and depressed. It also leaves them with a dilemma as to which gender the child belongs. ‘Intersexed’ individuals do not have all the regular combinations of physical features; they have some chromosomal, genital anomalies. In simpler terms, such individuals may have biological characteristics of both males and females, i.e, these individuals have some parts of males and some of females. In some cases, an intersex person might look unambiguous sexually, but internally the sex anatomy is mixed, i.e he may have AIS – complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome and therefore, even though he has a Y chromosome and testes, the individual is otherwise completely female on the outside. Thus the fundamental difference between an intersex individual and a transgender is that unlike an intersex individual, a transgendered person is born with the conventional male or female anatomy.

All the same, unlike other ‘normal’ humans, he feels himself/herself to be a gender different from the one he/she born as.

Discrimination against hijras: Education, health, employment

The highly populated country that India is, with several different castes, religions, languages, the hijra community becomes an almost invisible minority. Biases against hijras are prevalent in our society in all walks of life. They are not granted education in schools, colleges or universities. Over ninety percent of the hijras have not even completed their secondary education. Hence, they do not get jobs, and in the rare occurrence that they do get employed, the salaries they receive are minimal. Due to the harsh economic conditions, they resort to sex work and begging. Hygienic activities are not practiced by those who are in the flesh trade. Even though the usage of condoms is insisted by them to protect themselves as well as their clients from HIV/STD, the people involved in this trade are still prone to getting other diseases like skin diseases due to lack of hygienic and safe practices. Even in hospitals and clinics, many transgender and transsexual people are discriminated against, and not given the respect or dignity that every human being deserves.

Most of the transgender and transsexual people live in slums. Even if they have the monetary power to rent a house, due to the misconceptions about their lifestyle, most people refuse to give them a house on rent. Contempt, hatred and fear form a major part of the general impression about this unfortunate ‘third gender’. Even in public places like bus stations, railways stations, theatres, temples, offices, malls, even in public toilets, hijras are abused.

A LOOK THROUGH HISTORY:

Most hijras believe their origins to date back to the period of the Mahabharata. In it, Arjuna has to hide himself for a year. He decides to dress up as a woman as this is completely opposite to his till then great warrior status. During this period when he is a ‘drag’, he is a dancer in the king’s court, and also a wedding singer.

Then later, during the Kaurava Pandava war, the pandavas want to make a human sacrifice, believing that it would ensure victory in the war. No one is ready to volunteer, till finally, Aravan, the son of Arjun comes forward and offers himself for sacrifice. He has only one condition, that, he should enjoy one night of marital bliss before the sacrifice. This proves to be a difficult situation since no king is willing to marry his daughter to Aravan, knowing fully well that she would be widowed the next day. Finally, Lord Krishna takes a female form and spends one night of marital bliss with Aravan. Aravan is duly sacrificed the next day. The story has become more and more popular through the ages and now, every year, in the village of Koovagam in Villupuram district in Tamil Nadu, there is a temple festival and thousands of hijras travel through the breadth of the country to attend it. Aravan is the temple’s main deity and thousands of hijras pay homage, or in a mock ceremony get married to his idol, and in the process become ‘Aravanis’. One night before the festival ends, the hijras enjoy a night of ‘marital bliss’ with their lovers and the next day, a massive effigy of Aravan is taken through the streets of Koovagam and then the body is set to flames.

There is a passage in Zia Jaffrey’s book, ‘The Invisibles: a tale of eunuchs in India’, that talks about the Ramayana. According to legend, when Rama went to the forest, many people followed him. Rama then asks all the ‘men and women’ to go back. The hijras, being neither ‘men nor women’ stay put and wait for Rama to return for fourteen years. On Rama’s return, he is touched by their devotion and blesses them for their loyalty by sanctioning them the power to grant blessings on auspicious occasions like childbirth, marriage, and other functions – hence the custom of ‘badhai’, in which hijras sing, dance and confer blessings.

The hijras also worship ‘Bahuchara mata’. As legend goes, a woman, Bahuchara was travelling through a forest in Gujarat. She is accosted by some dacoits who threaten to rape her. She cuts off her breast and offers it to them, in exchange asking them not to touch her. She then dies and becomes an earth goddess. During the ‘conversion’ process, i.e, the castration process, a hijra midwife cuts a coconut to see if the process should continue. If Bahuchara mata agrees, the coconut will slice into two clean halves. The hijra who is undergoing the castration process, mutters ‘mata mata mata’ until the process is complete. As legend goes, Bahuchara mata appears in front of impotent men and orders them to cut off their genitals and become her slaves. If they do not agree, they would become impotent for the next seven generations.

According to another popular legend, a king in Gujarat fell madly in love with ‘Bahucharimatha’, a beautiful goddess who rode a peacock. The king wanted to marry her, but she was not ready to have a sexual relationship. When he continued to persist in his endeavours, she relented but told him to first have a bath in a pond. On coming out of the pond, he was aghast to discover that he was emasculated, and would not be able to consummate his union with the goddess. The goddess pacified him by saying that he would soon find a community of people who would voluntarily castrate themselves in his honour.

Around the world

Eunuchs were a part of the Egyptian court, during the time when the Assyrian empire was ruling the country.

In Rome, Emperor Constantine had a number of eunuchs tending to him for haircuts, baths, dressing and other functions.

In the Byzantine royal court too, there were a number of eunuchs employed to handle domestic and administrative work.

The Ottoman Empire had two categories of eunuchs taking care of the harem. The black eunuchs served the officers with maids of lower ranks, whereas the white eunuchs (those brought from the Balkan states) served those who were recruited in the Palace school.

In India, eunuchs were employed by kings to take care of the ladies’ palaces, serve as guards and messengers for the royal ladies.

LITERATURE REVIEW

After getting a general understanding of the hijras, the categories, their lives, their history, I would now proceed to examine the literature that has been devoted to them.

The Invisibles: A tale of Eunuchs in India is a bold, beautifully written, thought provoking book about the hijras of India by Zia Jaffrey. In the book, Anita, a hermaphrodite is handed over to the hijra community by her parents when she is just four years old because they cannot accept the fact that they do not have a ‘normal’ child and are crushed by what they see. Another character, Kamal, born as a male, believes herself to be a female and castrates herself, while a third character Jagoman is kidnapped in Delhi, drugged and then castrated against his will. In the book, Jaffrey takes us on a journey throughout the country to find out who the hijras really are, why the subject has not been researched on much and why is it taboo, and why their history was never recorded. The book gives a detailed description of the lives, practices, culture and history of this unfortunate gender; raises pertinent questions about society’s attitude and in many ways illuminates not just the grim world of the eunuchs but also that of India, itself.

‘Neither Man, nor Woman: The hijras of India’ is an astounding piece of writing by Serena Nanda. Initially, it aims at correcting the common misconception that all hijras are men who undergo a ritual castration, thereby removing their genitals and becoming hijras. The book informs us that the hijras might have come from various sexual ambiguous backgrounds – some may have been born as intersex, while others would have been born as male or female but failed to develop at puberty, or males who continued living as hijras without ever getting castrated. Nanda goes on to make comparisons of Indian hijras with other alternative gender roles belonging to other cultures, such as the transsexuals living in many Western societies and also with the ‘Berdache’ of native North America. What is intriguing but all the same extremely interesting to note is that although most societies, especially the Asian, accept the ambiguity of gender by creating a third gender role, Western society seems extremely adamant on the theory that a person can be either male or female only. In fact, even the homosexuals and transsexuals in these societies are considered to be a member of either of the two above genders.

‘Transgender Rights’, as the title suggests, is a book on the transgender rights movement that started in the United States of America thirty years back and is still going strong. The book assesses the victories and failures of the movement, the future challenges as well as opportunities. The movement fought for the rights of transgenders and transsexuals. The book is, in essence, a collection of articles that covered the rights movement, offering new perspectives and it examines important topics like employment opportunities, public health, economics, and grassroots organizing. This path breaking book is an essential resource in the fight for the freedom and equality of those who cross gender boundaries

‘Changing Sex and Bending Gender’, edited by Alison Shaw and Shirley Ardener is a compilation of nine essays about the cultural and historical construction and deconstruction of sex and gender. The initial chapters speak about the definitions of sex and gender; and that even though sex is based on biological characteristics and gender on social classifications, the definitions do not stand fixed across cultures. The next two chapters discuss the cultural pressures in the sex classification when a child is born. With 1.6 percent of children all over the world being born with ambiguous genitalia, the book offers several examples of the response to this, across cultures. As expected, the reactions do not vary much across cultures. The final three chapters deal with the lay man’s interpretations and misconceptions about other alternative genders. The objective of the book is to bring out the fact that sex and gender are not ‘fixed’ concepts and what happens when individuals push these two concepts beyond the point that society has defined as permissible. The book is an excellent read, especially for people who want to pursue anthropology or gender studies.

‘The Female Eunuch’ by Germaine Greer is one of the most popular and widely read books on feminism. Published in 1970, it became an international bestseller and was translated in over ten languages. It is a passionate, almost furious, hard hitting book on the present standing of women as compared to men, in the world. The book, at that time, served as a wakeup call to all women. It contends that sexual freedom is the key to women’s liberation. It compares the psychological differences resulting from years of social conditioning, with the biological differences that are present between men and women. A section has been attributed to society, of its origins, its development over the years and where it currently stands. Through this book, Greer exposes the nature of inequalities that exist when it comes to gender rights and issues, and suggests strategies that could help improve the situation, if anyone chose to do so.

‘The Autobiography of a Sex Worker’ by Nalini Jameela is an extremely personal, honest account of the life of Nalini. The book gives deep insights about the life of sex workers, and the circumstances in which they make their choices. Brought up in an Ezhava family, in her early years, Nalini works in the clay mines. Through the course of the book, we notice the slow yet gradual changes in society. Being extremely poor, and having children to support, she decides to resort to commercial sex work to earn money. The story goes back to the dark days of Emergency, when the police used to routinely arrest and torture innocent people, most of them who were poor and whose voices could not be heard. She recounts her interactions with the police in a chillingly, honest manner. Over the years, with the advent of organizations that worked for social rights, gender rights etc, the situation improved even though there were still innocent people who were jailed. The account is neither cynical, nor does it have any traces of self pity. Nalini understood that to take care of her children, she would need to sell her body. The love that she displays for her daughter is heart warming. The book is an important read, one that helps us to understand that society can be exploitive, unforgiving and it has multiple layers, many of which are hidden to the naked, believing eye.

KNOWLEDGE GAP:

At the most basic level, there exists a lack of knowledge amongst the lay man about hijras. The first step, therefore, should be to create basic awareness in the minds of people, to sensitize them, to reach a stage where hijras can also expect a life of dignity.

There are too many misconceptions and stereotypes related to hijras. This has led to a lot of social stigma being attached to this gender.

Lack of opportunities, be it education, employment, health.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

The objective of my research methodology would be to illustrate the social marginalization of eunuchs by pointing out, statistically and otherwise, their absence in social, legal and political organizations.

This will be done through,

Analysis of secondary data

A review of works on the subject by authors, academic as well as non academic literature, news reports, blogs and websites.

Primary Research

Taking interviews of hijras, first-hand accounts to verify conclusions derived from the secondary data. Also, conducting interviews of individuals working in social organizations, devoted to improving the conditions of hijras.

Empirical Observations
EXPECTED CONTRIBUTION:

My thesis does not claim to have a tangible and substantial measurable contribution but adds to the domains of human sensitivity, sensibility and conscientization. A postmodern condition, such as the one we claim to have arrived at, cannot be complete unless all its participants have equal access to what constitutes a minimum ‘life of dignity’

However, the objective of my research, studies and thesis, does comprise suggesting measures that, if implemented, would ensure that the hijras can enjoy a life with certain rights that every human being deserves. These would include sustainable and feasible proposals for employment, education and healthcare opportunities.

THE CONTEXT OF MARGINALIZATION:

Indian society is deeply divided along the lines of gender, caste, religion, class, language, education, all of which intersect with sexuality to create deeper divides and

oppressions. While hijras are despised and treated with contempt in most societies, they are supposed to have a sanctioned place in Hindu society (especially in weddings, births and festivals) as a recognized ‘third gender’, accommodating gender variation, ambiguity and contradictions. There is an arguement that says that unlike other sexual minorities such as ‘bisexuals’, ‘gays’ and ‘lesbians’ – all that largely remain closeted, the hijras overall are a visible force , and part of an organized community. Despite this supposedly elevated status amongst the sexual minorities, reality is starkly harsh. All over the country, in any part where the Hijras reside, their lives are physically, mentally and emotionally scarred by experiences of shame, dishonour and gruesome violence. In the contemporary scenario, it’s not just the ambiguous gender but also the class dimension of the hijra and kothi community that has a severe impact on issues which the upper class so conveniently take for granted, such as access to education, employment etc. The violence that they suffer on a daily basis is something that no other community in this country faces.

Imagine yourself in a situation where practically the entire world looks down upon you, a mere look at you is met with contempt, imagine a world where you do not even enjoy basic privileges like education, a job, a life. Imagine a world where not even your parents and siblings can accept you for who you are and choose to hate you for no apparent fault of yours. Imagine being beaten up every day by random men. Imagine being penetrated physically, mentally every day by random men. Imagine crying every day.
Welcome to the world of Hijras.

In most of South India, the hijras do not even have the cultural role that their counterparts have in the northern parts of the country. Most employers are not ready to hire them for available jobs. Often, they resort to hiding their gender identity but if found out, in most cases, they are thrown out from their positions. Therefore sex work becomes, in most cases, the only form of employment. They usually run bath houses, also known as ‘Hamams’. The Hamams are generally visited by working class men and the police. Of course, most of these men are married. It is an extremely dangerous profession, as they are often subjected to the sadistic whims, fancies and atrocities of cruel customers.

Narrated below are the testimonies given by some of the hijras I had the privilege of meeting and speaking to. As is clear, kothis and hijras take up sex work for a variety of reasons. One reason involves the pragmatic consideration of supporting the family. There is also the pride which comes from being able to support the family. Another reason has to do with the

self-acceptance of being a hijra and with the related discovery of a certain kind of freedom that living in the hijra community can provide. Many hijras and kothis fiercely assert that there is nothing disreputable about being a sex worker and it is as legitimate a piece of work as any other.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Journals & Publications

People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Karnataka(2000).Human rights violations against sexuality minorities in India report (first edition).PUCL KARNATAKA.

People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Karnataka(2007).Human rights violations against sexuality minorities in India report (second edition).PUCL KARNATAKA.

Bodies That Don’t Matter: The Discursive

Some people in the society believe homosexuality to be an illness and that it could be rectified. But most of of the processes of round the revolve psychological therapies which expects to change homosexual sexuality to heterosexual), the world’s largest association of psychologists American Psychological Association (APA), stated that;

But the strongly religion believes that homosexuality is a sinful act which is against the bible and is and has a direct breach of the bible and other religious books.

Moreover, some two founders of a ministry put to finish homosexuals later described their programme as ‘ineffective since not even one person was changed.

The issue of eradicating homosexuality has became a political debate in America, with Christian political organisations supporting the slogan of changing homosexuality through force of will alone. They argue that many people are leaving their homosexual lifestyles due to sexual celibacy and marriage issues.

Optionally, homosexual rights organisations argue that the views about gays and lesbians views misunderstand the meaning of a gay,and this sprouts to discrimination against the gay and lesbian people. additionally, the American Psychological Association(APA) has carried out a systematic research, which have resulted to that the psychological strategies are neither effective nor do they at any time change the sexual orientation, however instead they can cause a considerable harm.

The views of the society on homosexuality

The research shows that the views concerning homosexuality are specifically very delicate.in the society it depends on the culture and religios backgrounds.it is viewed that diffent people view the issue differently according to the cultural values of their society.gays and lesbians have civil rights which support their acts.however the religion does not agree wioth the acts since it views it as a sin and against the laws of the bible and any other holy book.but in the recent past individuals have tried to negotiate religion inorder for them to be accomondated in the society.

Due to the fact that homosexuality is genetically inherited then some persons thing its bad to call the action sinful.because this is untrue conclusion, and for important reasons. Firstly, being wrongly prounounced, it stems up the the debate off course. The founders and staters of the Church deal with certain acts and doings but though not with such wrong terms as “homosexuality.” The question that rises in this is if homosexual traits are genetic, then how logical is to accuse such person of engaging in a sinful actions of homosexuality?.The issue that arises here are that homosexuality should be given a better wording despite the fact that the action is considered wrong.

Despite the fact that largen sexual performance may be due to the genetic composition of our bodies this do not gurantee that such persons with such large sexual needs committing fornication is not sinfil but the fact remains that such actions are sinful before the holy book of God and its something to be shunnerd in the society and such acts are just like any other sin commitrted by a Christian. Sometimes the people’s genetic composition might make/lead them to violent disposition and this is sinning meaning that inclining is sinning just like when such a person commits murder or treats people with violence in the society

Generally, homosexual is considered as a deviance and behavior that do not comply with the social norms and values of the society, hence therefore is socially created. Since many persons in the United States society believes that homosexuality is wrongful, society has made and highlighted homosexuality to be a a moral wrong. Since moral wrong is relative and not absolute to a society.

Homosexuality is not a universal form of sexual immorality. There are most cultures that allow and support this forms of homosexuality. The Western society defy it though, and mostly this has lead to the non-accepting view resulting to discrimination towards homosexuals. But despite all this they should understand that homosexuality is a way of survival for some persons even if minority in the society and they should be accepted and accomondated the way they are and not isolating the in the society.

The Church also encourages those who endure from the feel and passion of homosexuality. Additionally, the Church can usually and surely do a admierable work with this minority group that exists within her flock, moreover it can also reach out and accomondate them since such people, have much compassion especially when dealing with peoples who suffer from different sexual passions. Mo More so the Church is still should considers such sexual behaviors as passions even in the presence of modern scientific research that shows how homosexuality in particular have a genetic origin also. (Camperio-Ciani ).

Problems of homosexuality

the moral, religious and legal attitudes in trials to curb sexual behavior have interfeared with a clear view of the medical and psychological aspects of homosexuality. This phenomenon is probably much less destructive of social aspects of our society and culture than is generally believed, since it is actually more widespread than is generally acknowledged.( Norman Reider, pp 381-384)

Homosexuality usually has hormonal,social and psychological factors,where the latter of which are the only ones which can be worked with successfully in our present state . A general practitioner’s task is to aid those who wish and need help with this problem in finding psychiatric treatment in the same way that persons with any other emotional disturbance are referred. This should be carried out without bias just as with any other emotional disturbance.( Norman Reider pp 381-384).

Increase in the divorce cases due to increased engagement in the among gays and lesbian marriage hence reduced number of heterosexual marriages.also there is a significant number of unmarried men and women in the society.

Also Homosexuals are unproductive in character this poses a threat to the society’s survival -in the homosexual marriages the acts involved do not lead to production and this stems oup the issue of the society since this will lead to no tomorrows generation in the society hence therefore thi act is considered immoral in the society and harmful.

The recent studies and researches show that the homosexuals have a greater chance of getting psychiatric problems than the heterosexual.such problems are accompanied by some instances such as high rates of suicide,depressin and antisocial personality disorders also use of drugs or substance abuse.( By N.E. Whitehead, Ph.D. Author of “My Genes Me Do It”)

Homosexuals pose a threat to children-the presence of few homosexuals who do not exercise their normalities. These persons sin against the creator and there is no doubt that they are leading to total destruction of the both the family and our nation. I Pat opposed homosexuals and will do he said that he could do everything he could to restrict the freedom of these people to spread their contagious infection to the youth of our nation.( Pat Robertson, May 24, 1994 letter).

Homosexuality is a sad and disillusioning lifestyle-this lifestyle is full of stressfull moments hence things are always stressfull;homosexuality poses and brings about the increased incidences of suicide among gay teenagers,the issues of isolation ,discrimination and the cases of violences increase in the society

Homosexuality causes AIDS and other sexually transimited diseases which are and deadly-hence it does not argue whether homosexuality immensely affects the society or not because homosexuals since AIDS more than heterosexuals; this is due to the fact that the same sex are mo prone to such diseases. infact, it is successful to examine the kind of character s that are favourable to HIV infection, and such traits are shown and noticeable by and on the gays

Homosexuals needs unique political rights and systems.-Different homosexuals want various things in the real life of politics but there should be equality under the law implying that no special or unique or specific treatments or a favours should be performed to a certain unique group of persons alone but just incase such happens then the same should be granted to the othern persons in the same society.The most important areas specifically concerning homosexuality is, marriage laws and government discrimination.

Homosexuality undermines religion therefore leading to stability in the society-The argument stems up problems in some several areas in the society,such areas are such as: Firstly, many of people think its highly beneficial if religion is undermined and we furthermore think its not correct to compare the widespread of religion with “stability” (whatever that is; probably, the definition is tautological, such that stability is defined as following some religion). As is clear from several essays on morality on my atheism page, it is quite possible to have a well-functioning society with caring individuals without any religion at all.

Homosexual behavior is also linked with higher rates of promiscuity, physical disease, mental illness, substance abuse, child sexual abuse and domestic violence–all things that impact society negatively. Don’t try to say homosexual behavior doesn’t hurt society–it is a major force that tears down society and harms children.

Causes of homosexuality

The causes of homosexuality in the modern society maybe due to:genetics inheritance where t where,he baby is born with the gene of homosexuality u in him/her especially from the X-gene from the mother mostly.hormonal imbalance

During birth-.here the boy is born with features that are some common with the homosexuals than in the population. such traits might be inherited (genetic), while others might have been caused by the change in the hormones Jeffrey suggests that someone without these traits will be somewhat less likely to become homosexual later than someone with the( Jeffrey Satinover,M.D. )

Environmental factors.

This comes on various developmental growth needs children kids have, needs for friendship with the parent of the same sex and age-mates of the same sex.Its through this that we understand that the children are not simply born with a sense of their own gender built is formed through the connections and friendships they form with the others, mostly the age bracket of the same sex age-mates.the children always look upon the parent of the same sex first and then to same peers to form their own sexul groupings inorder to understand how they suit in,and the value they own whether male or female.If this connection lacks then children don’t form a healthy same sex bond and such needs for same sex go unsatisfied then they intensify and take another form. (Satinover, 1996).

The developmental factors combined with genetic temperament, impacts perceptions, which all go to the development of homosexuality.

Sexual abuse (molestation) or traumatic experiences.

They contribute to the development of same-sex affection(attractions). personal choice,prenatal hormone defect,lack of bondage between the child and the parent of the same sex.

Reincarnation

Is homosexual judged harshly?

Yes, homosexuals are treated with hostility in the societyaˆ¦the reasons to show this discrimination are given below:-

It is said that gays are not natural. And real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.
The society things that gay marriage encourage people to be gays since the behaviuor of people affect others,
It is ctritisiced that encouraging gays to marry will lead open all kinds of crazy behaviors. And even people may even decide to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.
Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn’t changed at all like many of the principles on which this great country was founded; women are still property, blacks still can’t marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.
Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of marriages like Britney Spears’ 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.
Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn’t be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren’t full yet, and the world needs more children.
It’s also assumed that obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.
Religion do not support marriage of gays . since in many countries the cultures and religions do not sccept such even in the country.
It’s also criticized that children cannot succeed without the role models of the both sexes. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That’s why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.
Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven’t adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans

The church which is expected to act as the guide to the society about the issue of homosexuality provides the guidelines for such other than the society being so harsh to the people with such minor traits.The church gives the guide lines on the issue-

The church says that homosexuality is supposed to be seen as the result of humanity’s rebellion against God, against his own nature and well-being and and its not supposed to be seen as a way of surviving and acting for men and women who are created in the likeness and the image of God’s.
It also says that the people with homosexual tendencies are supposed to seek assistance in discovering the specific causes of their homosexual orientation, and to work toward overcoming its harmful effects in their lives.
The church also provides that homesexual persons who accept the Orthodox faith and everyone else who believes and struggles,instructed and counseled in the Orthodox Christian doctrine and ascetical life hence therefore the persons still in need to justify their behavioral traits in the society may not be included and accomondated in the Church’s sacramental processes,this is due to the fact that the sct of doing so would not assist them but rather harm them.
It also suggests that the psychiatrists who are involved and deal with persons with homosexual orientation should be given assistance inorder to help such peoples in their thoughts,actions and feelings with theb regard on the issue of homosexuality. Such assistance will be ideal especially if given to the necessary parents, relatives and friends of the affected individuals in the society.additionally, It is certainly necessary for pastors and church workers also to be given such assistance to be too involved in the rehabilitation of the same.

These affirmations on marriage, family, sexuality, and the sanctity of life are issued by the Holy Synod of Bishops on the occasion of the Tenth All-American Council of the Orthodox Church in America (Miami, Florida, July, 1992)

Conclusion

Its evident that in all societal moral disorders,therefore it follows that homosexuality too leads to the prevention of one’s self fulfillment of goals and objectives and the joy experienced by acting and complying with the creativity and the enduring wisdom of the god the almighty and the moral values in the society.

The Church, and the society in complete objection of the different erroneous opinions on the issue concerning homosexuality, do not by any means reduce neither does it limit but rather defends and selfishly oppresses the personal freedom and dignity realistically and authentically understood.

Moreover the church is looked upto to regulate the societal moral values and the peoples behavior but at the same time it should leave a room for the minorities with contrary opinions in the society.

Some argue that Britain is the most unequal society in Western Europe, Research conducted by Sutton Trust from 2010 suggests that poverty affects children’s ability to do well in schools, the study indicates that just 45 per cent of children from poorest fifth of families were ready to read daily by the age of three compared to 78 per cent of children from richest fifth of families. This proves that British society is unequal; there are social groups that have access to better standards of living than others.

In order for Inequality to take place, some people need to have more than others, creating boundaries in society that stop some people from getting equal status despite their work and effort.

There are several ways of measuring social class, subjective method simply is based on people’s perception of what social class they should be in. However it is quite vague as some people may be middle class and have a lot of money whereas other might have education, lifestyle and manners of the middle class but are poor. Where objective method takes things into account like occupation, unemployment, income, education and so on therefore it is more reliable way of measuring social class. In order to measure social class effectively, stratification is needed to enable evaluation of inequalities; best way to do it is consider morbidity and mortality factors as unemployment or income are not always accurate way of measuring it. Taking someone’s occupation into an account is might have problems too, as someone could have good profession and be unemployed and therefore struggling financially. The Registrar General is used by the government to objectively measure social class. It concentrates mainly on occupation.

Education is an important factor when social class is concerned; it is believed that children’s social class is important when it comes to their exam success. Education is the best way to predict if the child would get high earning middle-class job. The link between education and earnings has been found using analyses of the Labour Force Survey, They have found that, men who have attained 1-4 GCSEs at grade A-C have higher earnings by 17%, 5 or more GCSEs at grade A-C increases earnings by 41%. A levels increase earnings by 67% and degree increases earnings by 111% compared to someone with no formal qualifications at all.

Researchers from Joseph Row tree Foundation put forward an argument that ‘Children growing up in poorer families emerge from school with substantially lower levels of educational attainment’ they believe that this is major factor affecting social mobility and poverty. They have found that children from poor backgrounds are brought up in less caring environment than those from richer families; the study suggests that mother’s attitude is different depending on their social class. 81% of mothers from rich families hope their 9 year old will go to university compared to just 37% from poor families. Such attitude to education of mothers from poor families is closely associated with lower educational attainment at the age of 11. That factor is contributed to the %6 gap between children from rich and poor families attainment at the age of 11.

The difference in attainment at school grows quickly during the primary school education and is noticeable by the age of 11, when only around three quarters of children from the poorest fifth of family manage to reach the government’s expected level at key stage 2, compared to 97% of children from the richest fifth. At secondary school the gap between poorest and richest children is not as significant as at the primary school however GCSE’s results show that only 21% of poorest fifth manage to get five good GCSE’s at grades A-C compered with 75% of richest fifth; it is a staggering 54%.

There are two main social statuses in society; ascribed and achieved, they both indicate how people fit into the society. Ascribed status is given at birth; it does not take any attributes or abilities into an account, like being male or born into the slavery, whilst achieved status is determined by an effort and performance like becoming a doctor or a lawyer

There are many things that are assigned to humans at birth, like gender, race, or position in a family. Those things could be crucial in development and chances of success one might have.

Good example of an ascribed status is gender. It is widely considered that men have it easier in life. In many countries around the world girls and boys education is approached differently, they concentrate on educating boys more than girls as it is believed they will be bread winners and girls will be housewives. Inequalities between men and women have been tackled for decades and there are still differences in earnings, conditions of work or positions in most of those cases men are on top.

Women have gone to work in larger numbers since the 1960s, although their occupations have been determined depending on how masculine or feminine the job is. For example postmen, bus drivers are usually jobs done by men where teachers, nurses, secretaries, have more become female dominated. Most jobs in service sector are done by women however most jobs at manager level are done by men. That represents traditional approach and therefore reinforces gender inequalities in society.

Every year hundreds of women get discriminated against because they are pregnant. The gap in pay for the same job for men and women is thought of to be at about 13% below there are some statistics that would explore it a bit further.

The research by Labour Force survey conducted in 2005 outlines how average salaries are different between men and women taking into consideration education.

They divided participants of this particular survey into age groups and compared the differences in salaries between men in women taking into account their educational background. This survey reveals that in each category men earn more than women. That accounts for all jobs. Average weekly male salaries per week from all group ages and all education backgrounds were ?42 higher than women.

Average gross weekly earnings: by sex, highest qualification attained and age, 20051
United Kingdom

? per week

16-24

25-34

35-44

45-54

55-59/64

All working age

Men

Degree or equivalent

356

619

810

862

732

726

Higher education below degree level

366

501

588

619

583

554

GCE A level or equivalent

290

446

545

536

436

470

GCSE grades A* to C or equivalent

253

410

469

463

503

410

Other (including GCSE below grade C)

253

389

453

435

417

407

No qualifications

250

325

359

366

335

342

All men2

283

483

574

575

487

506

Women

Degree or equivalent

319

528

627

679

651

561

Higher education below degree level

267

384

464

491

488

440

GCE A level or equivalent

250

353

421

364

390

347

GCSE grades A* to C or equivalent

227

330

331

329

309

308

Other (including GCSE below grade C)

187

378

299

315

302

313

No qualifications

182

300

235

262

259

251

All women2

253

425

433

424

381

397

All working age2

270

459

524

515

457

464

1 At spring. Data are not seasonally adjusted and have been adjusted in line with population estimates published in spring 2003. See Appendix, Part 4: LFS reweighting. Males aged 16 to 64, females aged 16 to 59.

2 Includes people who did not state their highest qualification.

Source: Labour Force Survey, Office for National Statistics

Social mobility is the movement of people within the society over time. It refers to individuals and their change in income. Intergenerational Social mobility measures to which extend people’s social status has changed between generations and intragenerational measures how peoples social class changes within their lifetime.

The beginning a rapid increase of UK income inequality is thought of to started in late 1970’s. It was described as meritocratic society where poor could become rich if they worked hard. However Jo Blanden, Paul Gregg and Stephen Machin conducted a study in 2005 and they believe that social mobility in the UK is not only declining but is also lower than in many other developed countries. They argue that there has been a decline in social mobility in the UK in the last decades and children to poor families are less likely to succeed as they were in the past. Their research shows that UK has lower social mobility levels than many other countries including Canada, Germany and Scandinavian countries. ‘Children from poorer families in Australia and Canada have a much greater chance of doing well at school, getting into university and earning more in later in life than children in the United States and the United Kingdom’ was the purpose of 2012 two-day summit on social mobility organized by the Sutton Trust and Carnegie Corporation of New York. They compared levels of social mobility in 4 major English speaking countries. The research states that Australia and Canada are around twice as mobile as the UK and the US, the findings were analysed by professor Miles Corak who is world’s leading expert on mobility. The evidence suggests that children in the UK and US are at least twice as likely to be born to teenage mothers as children in Australia and Canada. It also shows that in the UK students from higher social class are three times more likely to go to the universities than those from the lowest classes. There is a %46 gap in England between the %65 of students from richer families going to university and the %19 from poorer families. In America the gap is %36 while in Australia it is %32.

Karl Marx is famous for his analysis of Capitalism; his research has led to development of sociology and social sciences. Many of his ideas are attributed to political movements in 20th century including communism in Former Soviet Union or China.

Marx’s theory concentrates on two main social classes in society, the property owners (Bourgeoisie) and the workers (Proletariat). The Capitalist society required long working hours and new discipline from the workers so they Capitalists could gain more profits out of the labour. The Productivity and profits of the business were really high however it came at the cost of the workers who were being exploited.

Marx believed that Capitalism would be responsible for creation of Communism that was initiated by dissatisfaction of the workers who would develop class-consciousness (an awareness of them being exploited). In Communistic society private properties are taken over by the Government. Communism would have all the benefits of Capitalist system where the government dictates how things should be and where there is only one social class which is working class(Proletariat) and Government who rules them(Bourgeoisie).

Marx’s theory of Capitalism has been important for the sociology. He defined social structures that were in favour of few but was disadvantageous for the majority of people. Marx believed that Revolution was going to happen in the Capitalist societies like Great Britain or Germany, however first country where revolution took place was Russia which was relatively undeveloped when it comes to Capitalism. Russia wasn’t egalitarian society that Marx hoped for but it was fully controlled by the Russian Communist Party.

Karl Marx encountered some criticism in his theory of Capitalism; his main critic was another German sociologist Max weber who argued that Capitalist societies could be divided into 4 main social classes (the propertied upper class, the property-less white collar workers, the petty Bourgeoisie and the manual working class) as opposed to two that Marx has described in his research. Weber believed that those divisions within these social classes were greater than Marx had expected therefore suggesting that such divisions could mean that working class wouldn’t unite and anti-capitalist revolution would not take place. Weber believed that within social classes there are divisions itself, Marx thought of working class as an economic concept where Weber had argued that within these social classes there are statuses, it could of meant that black people had less status than white or women has less status than men and these differences would mean that it would be difficult to unite working classes.

Davis and Moore, their theory is an explanation of social stratification (hierarchical arrangement of social classes) . It outlines that different positions in the society require different skills and abilities to achieve high performance therefore society needs to select best people to fill those positions. Right people need to be encouraged and trained to achieve highest efficiency. They believed best way to encourage people to obtain required positions would be by motivating them by offering bonuses or commission. They believed that in order to measure how much particular person would get is based on how unique their job is.

This theory has met some criticism, one sociologist who argued with it was Tumin who suggested that their measurement of functional importance of position was inadequate, he disagreed with their statement that highly rewarded positions are most important; he believed that unskilled workers in the factory are as important as the engineers who also work there. Tumin questioned Davis and Moore’s belief that only limited number of individuals have talent to obtain skills for important positions, he assumed that their method of measuring talent has not been thought of properly as there is no evidence suggesting that exceptional talents are needed for high positions and that there might be more talent out there than Davis and Moore have assumed.

Tumin also suggested that social stratification that Davis and More had developed might not be adequate to the functions they had assigned to it. He argued that those born into lower hierarchy of the scale don’t have the same opportunities in succeeding as those born to the higher hierarchy of the scale. He concluded that members of the lower social class might feel excluded from being part of the larger society.

Poverty doesn’t have fixed definition; therefore it is difficult to measure it. However it is based on measurement of the absolute minimum a person needs to survive, things like food, water, shelter, clothing. It varies from country to country and even in the UK in different regions what is considered poor is different.

Poverty can be defined as absolute and relative, Ronwtree used definitions of absolute poverty in his research made in York in 1899, the study had found that over 20.000 people in York were living in poverty. It is roughly 28 per cent of population that had not enough necessities to get by. It raised an issue of huge poverty in Britain. Rowntree’s report contributed to reforms in the government between 1906 to 1912, these included free school meals, sickness and unemployment insurance and first state pensions. Further research was conducted by Rowntree in 1936 and 1950 that revealed steady decline in poverty in York. What has helped it was the introduction of Welfare Stare in 1943 that brought range of benefits to help those in need.

In the UK absolute poverty is really low or virtually non-existent therefore it is not usually used to measure poverty, relative poverty is more commonly used as it gives more accurate indication of the poverty in the UK. There has been many studies conducted on relative poverty, one pioneer in this field was Professor Peter Townsend who defined relative poverty as when someone’s ‘resources are so seriously below those commanded by the average individual or family that they are, in effect, excluded from ordinary living patterns, customs and activities’ Relative poverty is usually measured by the family’s income, each household’s income adjusted for family size and then compared to median income( it is middle income, half people have less and half have more) Those people who have less than 60 per cent of median income are considered poor, that poverty line is agreed internationally throughout the European Union.

In 2009 Joseph Rowntree Foundation had published their report based on public’s perception of what is needed to achieve acceptable standard of living. The research had found that a single person in the UK needs to earn at least ?13.900 before tax is deducted in order to obtain acceptable standard of living. The minimum household budget (not including mortgage of running a car) has risen by about 5 per cent with general inflation rate. Working-age people who are on benefits still remain below minimum income standard. People asked in this survey had expressed that minimum standard of living should allow people not just to survive but fully enjoy part in society.

There are few theories supporting why poverty exists. The concept of culture of poverty was initiated by Oscar Lewis who speculated that people living within poor communities have certain traits that are passed on from generation to generation that prevent them from gaining success. Individuals feel marginalised and develop attitude that it is fate to be poor.

The culture of dependency is when an individual depends on the government welfare for their existence. Murray in his research had described people who rely on state welfare as underclass. People who do not participate in social activities where they live, they have little or not all incentive to work and fail to take responsibility for their families; they usually are also involved in crime activities.

In some way this could be related to functionalism where people need to be connected to and responsible for the others, therefore an underclass in excluded from the main stream society as it is not integrated through work or other social activities. However their social attitude and behaviour (child neglect, criminal behaviour and high levels of illegitimacy) have influence on main stream society.

To conclude the evidence given in this paper suggests that inequalities within British society still exist and leaves open door for further investigation.

References list

Chris Livesey,Tony Lawson (2005). As Sociology for AQA. London : Hodder Arnold. p23-24.

Stepehe Moore,Steve Chapman,Dave Aiken (2001). Sociology for As-level . London: harpercollins publishers limited. p56-58.

Anthony Giddens (2009). Sociology. 6th ed. Cambridge: John Wiley & Sons. p450-456.

James fulcher, John scott (2006). Sociology. New York: Routledge. p100-105.

Amelia Gentleman, Helene Mulholland . (2010). Unequal Britain: richest 10% are now 100 times better off than the poorest. Available: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/jan/27/unequal-britain-report. Last accessed 10th Nov 2012.

Alan Milburn . (2009). The UK is an unequal society in which class background too often determines life chances. Available: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/jul/19/alan-milburn-uk-unequal-society. Last accessed 12th Nov 2012.

Lizzie Cocker. (2010). Britain ‘most unequal society in western Europe’. Available: http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/86828. Last accessed 15th Nov 2012.

Jo Blanden, Paul Gregg, Stephen Machin. (2005). Social mobility in Britain: low and falling. Available: http://cep.lse.ac.uk/centrepiece/v10i1/blanden.pdf. Last accessed 10th Nov 2012.

The Sutton Trust. (2012). UK and US much less socially mobile than Australia and Canada. Available: http://www.suttontrust.com/news/news/uk-and-us-much-less-socially-mobile-than-australia-and-canada/. Last accessed 15 Nov 2012.

Women’s Resource Centre . (2012). Facts and statistics on women’s inequality in the UK. Available: http://www.wrc.org.uk/resources/facts_and_statistics_on_womens_inequality_in_the_uk.aspx. Last accessed 14 Nov 2012

The Sutton Trust. (2012). Social Mobility and Education Gaps in the Four Major Anglophone Countries. Available: http://www.suttontrust.com/public/documents/social-mobility-summit2012.pdf. Last accessed 16 Nov 2012.

Alissa Goodman, Paul Gregg. (2010). Poorer children’s educational attainment: how important are attitudes and behaviour. Available: http://www.jrf.org.uk/system/files/poorer-children-education-full.pdf. Last accessed 12 Nov 2012.

Jo Sparkes. (1999). Schools, Education and Social Exclusion. Available: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/6482/1/Schools,_Education_and_Social_Exclusion.pdf. Last accessed 10 Nov 2012.

Donald Hirsch, Abigail Davis, Noel Smith. (2009). A minimum income standard for Britain in 2009. Available: http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/minimum-income-2009. Last accessed 11th Nov 2012.

S-cool. (2011). Definitions of Poverty, Adapted from: Developments in Sociology, Volume 7, A. Walker, 1990. Available: http://www.s-cool.co.uk/a-level/sociology/poverty/revise-it/definitions-of-poverty. Last accessed 12th Nov 2012.

Earlhamsociologypages. (2012). Marxist Theory and Capitalist Class Structures . Available: http://www.earlhamsociologypages.co.uk/marxclasscap.htm. Last accessed 14th Nov 2012.

Historylearningsite. (2012). Stratification.,Courtesy of Lee Bryant, Director of Sixth Form, Anglo-European School, Ingatestone, Essex. Available: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/stratification.htm. Last accessed 15th Nov 2012.

This short study discusses the theory of social constructionism, with special regard to its implications for social workers and how its use can help them to understand human behaviour.

Social constructionism represents a sociological theory of knowledge that studies the development of various sociological phenomena in social contexts. The theory, simply put, questions widely held assumptions about inherent qualities of items, concepts, or issues, and instead brings attention to the dependence of such qualities upon the contingent rationale of our social sense. It helps us in realising that human perceptions of reality and the world, of things, concepts and ideas, are shaped by deliberate human choices and linguistic reinforcement, rather than by natural laws or divine intention.

A social construct, the anchor of this theory, represents the artefact of a specific group. To illustrate, intangible words like talent or brilliance, which in the overwhelming majority of cases represent little else than greater effort or the achievement of proficiency, are imbued with special significance and then tagged on to specific people separate them from the hoi polloi, resulting in the alteration of perceptions and behaviour of the masses towards such individuals. To be hard working is to be commonplace, to be brilliant is to be extraordinary. And to be called brilliant is even better. Language, as is obvious, plays a key role in the development of social constructs.

The origins of present day social constructionist theories go back to the writings of Immanuel Kant. Kant argued for the existence of a world that was independent of human minds, thus implying that humans should not assert that they created the world. This world, he said, is without structure and is not divided into things and facts. Structure is imposed on the world by perceiving it and thinking of it in specific ways, as also by the adoption of particular, (rather than other), sets of beliefs about it.

Vivine Burr (2003, p 2) and other advocates of social constructionist theory put forth the view that knowledge of constructionism enables individuals to adopt critical attitudes towards their conventional lenses for perceiving and understanding the world and their own selves. It provides humans with fresh ways of assessing ideas and things that are otherwise considered to be commonplace and accepted without demur. Numerous things like money, newspapers or citizenship are socially constructed and would not obviously have existed in the absence of society. Each of them furthermore could have well been differently constructed.

This essay analyses and critiques the use of social constructionism by social workers in the understanding human behaviour. Specific emphasis has been given to the role of constructionism use in analysing commonly held perceptions and attitudes towards mental disorders. The study is segregated into three sections that sequentially take up the use of social constructionism for social workers in understanding human behaviour, its relevance in understanding mental disorders, and its areas of ambiguity and possible misuse.

The Use of Social Constructionism to Understand Human Behaviour

Social workers have two fundamental objectives, namely, (a) the strengthening of the ability of individuals and groups to cope with the many difficulties and challenges they confront in life and (b) the bringing about of improvements in various social and environmental circumstances in order to improve the satisfaction of human needs; especially of people from underprivileged and oppressed social segments.

Social workers plan and attempt their various interventions through their understanding of environmental circumstances, the various reasons for development of such conditions, and the client system. Such knowledge and the consequent adoption of theoretic approaches significantly influence the point, the tool, and the nature of social work intervention. It becomes evident that understanding of the reality of the client environment is crucial, both to social work theory and to its practice.

Theories of classical empiricism assert that the truth about the world is established and is independent of the individual. Social constructionism conversely puts forth the viewpoint that such truth, far from being independent of individuals, actually depends upon their thoughts, perceptions and beliefs. Whilst empiricists state that reality cannot be known separately from our elucidation of it, social constructionism messages that reality is constructed socially, with language being critical for the interpretation and construction of commonly accepted “reality”. It encourages people to question the widely held perception that conventional and accepted knowledge has sprung from objective and impartial examination of the world. It is in this sense opposed to the positivist epistemology of traditional science and spurs thinking individuals to constantly question their assumptions about the appearance of their environment and its various components.

Objectivists assert that individuals make discoveries and find out about the reality of the world through the construction and testing of hypotheses via the actions of neutral observers, even as constructionists debunk such assumptions, arguing that the interests and values of observers can never be separated from their observations and are thus bound to influence the final construction of common perceptions about world realities. Gergen (1985, p 270), states that generation of ideas of reality is initiated by social, rather than individual, processes and that the touted objective reality of the positivist approach is actually the result of various social construction processes that are influenced by historical, political, cultural and economic conditions.

Berger and Luckmann, (1966), state that individuals experience the world to be an objective reality, comprising of persons and events that exist separately of individual perceptions. Payne (1997), additionally states that reality, according to social constructionism, can be stated to be the guidance of behaviour by individual perceptions of knowledge and reality. Individuals arrive at shared perceptions of reality through the sharing of their knowledge via different social processes that first organise such knowledge and thereafter establish it by making it objective. Social and individual activity thus becomes habitual with individuals sharing their assumptions about their perceptions of reality. People behave in line with social conventions that are based on such shared knowledge. These conventions are furthermore institutionalised because of the agreement of many people on such understandings on different aspects of society. Such realisations and accords thereafter become legitimised by processes that integrate these ideas about reality into ordered and believable systems.

Language provides the means through which individuals make sense of their environment, classify persons and events, and interpret new experiences. The shared reality of everyday life by different individuals distinguishes it from individual realities, (like dreams). Language helps individuals in sharing their experiences and making it available to others. Such sharing of reality leads to institutionalisation and thereafter to habitual ways of working. Habitualism in turn makes the behaviour of different individuals predictable, facilitates joint activity and perpetuates social control mechanisms. Knowledge is as such institutionalised within sub-groups, or at social levels, and significantly influences the behaviour of people. Shakespeare famously used his felicity with language to construct an illusionary reality about Jewish greed that persisted for centuries and shaped the perceptions and behaviours of millions of people towards the community.

With such knowledge of reality being essentially constructed, it can change over time and diverge across cultural groups that embrace different perceptions and beliefs about human nature and development. Considering that the norms, beliefs, values, traditions, attitudes and practices of different cultural groups vary from each other, the social construction of their knowledge is also likely to differ significantly. An understanding of this fundamental principle can help social workers in their realisation of the different perceptions, attitudes and behaviours of different individuals towards similar social phenomena or stimuli.

Social constructionism helps social workers in adopting critical stances towards established assumptions that reinforce the interests of powerful and dominant social groups and assists them in realising that the world has come about because of historical processes of communication and negotiation between groups and individuals. Gergen (1985, p 266), states that people see the world through the eyes of their particular communities and cultures and respond accordingly. Established assumptions, understandings and behaviours of people are sustained by social, political, economic and moral institutions. Social workers should, through its application, be better able to understand the various dimensions of reality within such individual thoughts, perceptions and beliefs.

Social workers, the writer feels, need to realise that social understanding is finally the combined result of various human understandings through the operation of circular processes, wherein individuals contribute to the construction of social meaning within social structures of societies through processes of institutionalisation and legitimisation. Societies consequently create conventions through the participation of individuals in their structures, which, in turn influences the behaviours of people. Spirals of constantly moving influences build and rebuild the conventions that people adopt and by which they live.

Social constructionism allows social workers to question dominant structures of knowledge and understand the impact of culture and history. Social workers understand the requirements of humans by and large through the application of specific ideological, ethical, political and economic approaches. An understanding of social constructionism can help them in understanding the responses behind the actions of both dominant and vulnerable groups of society and decide upon the adoption of the best suited routes for bringing about social change.

Social Constructionism and Mental Illness

Much of modern society’s perceptions about mental ailments are influenced by the medical and psychological models. These state that medical illnesses are real; they concern disturbances in thoughts, experiences, and emotions that can be serious enough to cause functional impairment in individuals. Such ailments make it difficult for individuals to sustain interpersonal relationships and conduct their jobs. They can also sometimes result in self destructive actions, including suicides. The more serious of such illnesses, like extreme depression and schizophrenia, can often be chronic and lead to serious disability.

Social constructionism argues that such perceptions about mental ailments are caused by specifically constructed vocabularies of medical and psychological models, which are replete with elaborate terminologies for mental disorders and focused on deficits. Walker, (2006), states that vocabularies of medical and psychological models, including the concept of mental illness itself, are essentially social constructions. They are made up of terms that describe deficits and diseases and perceive human beings as things that can be examined, diagnosed and treated, much in the manner of machines. Such perceptions (a) lead to obsessions with compliance, (b) distinguish between normal and pathological states, (c) position practitioners as experts, and (d) represent clients as passive and obedient objects of treatment. Recommended treatments focus on elimination of symptoms, support established paternalistic roles, and are not focused on actual client needs. Social constructionism, the writer feels, can help social workers in understanding the destructive illusions that have been created by existing medical and psychological models and deficit based language.

Examined from the perspective of linguistics, reified categories like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are defined by clusters termed as symptoms; schizophrenia for example is concerned with the occurrence of audio hallucinations. Such terms have come about due to the creation of consensus among doctors and psychologists and persist because of convention. Mental illnesses are often described by such specialists in terms akin to physical ailments like diabetes, where individuals manage their lives with specific medications; these comparisons are used to explain the working of medications and to make diagnosis and recommended treatment for mental ailments acceptable to clients.

Analogies like these however do appear to the writer to be forced and even trifling considering that discussions about thoughts and feelings of individuals concern their identities and not their bodies. Social workers need to understand that the vocabularies of medical and psychological models essentially position clinicians as the most suitable interpreters of client experiences. Even superficially docile terms like “clinical” or “treatment plans” establish contexts where clients are perceived to be abnormal or having pathologies, even as clinicians are established as authorities with abilities to perform interventions for assisting clients in overcoming their pathologies. With the power of definition lying with clinicians, the labelling of people as mentally ill pushes them to the borders of society and takes away from them their intrinsic rights and privileges.

Social constructionism helps social workers in understanding that whilst political and human pressure has helped in eliminating the incarceration of the mentally ill in mental hospitals, the distinction created by vocabulary on mental illness leads to the movement of foci of power to clinicians and undermines efforts for self determination and community integration. Such medical and psychological vocabularies constitute obstacles to more inclusive mental health programmes and undermine social understanding of people with mental disorders.

Gray Areas

Social workers need to however recognise the gray areas that surround social constructionist theory. Dominelli (97) states that social workers are ironically likely to regulate the social construction of the children of poor families, with whom they work extensively, by giving credibility to the “dominant, white, heterosexual, nuclear family model”. The writer feels that the casual application of the theory for the debunking of each and every thing, including important issues like culture and community, can lead to confusion and dilute the focus of social workers. Race and religion, for example, are essentially social constructs of dominant power groups but that does not take away from the fact that they exist and are not expected to disappear because of critical analysis by social constructists.

Wanton overdoing of “social construction” has often resulted in methodologically substandard work, wherein scholars have spent time in libraries, worked on some novels and then put forth findings that the common images and metaphors in them were “social constructions” with wide relational powers in the “reality”, which such novels attempted to represent. Roche and Barnes Holmes (2003) state that the strength of social constructivism is also its weakness; its deconstructive methods dissolve the solutions as well as the problems from which they emerge.

Social constructions surround us and include diverse aspects like racism, child abuse, crime, and disease. The writer feels that these things do not become unreal because of their social construction; even though the dominance of construction processes may differ between each of them.Spending a great deal of time in showing that most things are social constructs can well be little other than wasted effort. The large body of doctors and psychologists are again unlikely to give up their vocabulary because constructionists do not believe in them.

Conclusions

It is evident from the preceding discussion that the ongoing debate and dialogue on social constructionism has facilitated a whole new way of looking at established and accepted “realities”. With regard to the theory and practice of social work, the use of constructionism can help social workers in understanding how dominant groups have for long institutionalised constructs like race, age, gender, and physical and mental disability to perpetuate models of oppression and discrimination.

Students and practitioners of social work, whilst making use of this theory, will however do well to consider that excessive stress on constructionist language and downplaying of materiality may well be counterproductive and result not only in idle discourse but in superimposition of their socialised views on vulnerable social segments. Social workers who participate in what they feel are social constructs could also end up questioning the relevance of their work. They may thus have to battle with their being engaged in phony actions and be adversely affected by the creation of manipulative sensibilities.

Social workers must try to ensure that the theory is used practically for widening their knowledge and clarifying different aspects of human behaviour, yet refrain from making it irrelevant and trivial.

Structure-functional paradigm also known as functionalism is a theory that sees society as a complex system or organisation and everything in society have a special function or contributes to maintain balance of the society (Macionis, 2012). Structural Functionalism is macro level analysis which focus on complex societies, large scale social structures, and social systems. It is origins in the works of Emile Durkheim. According to Herbert Spencer, society is like the structure of the human body (Macionis, 2012). Each part is like organs, bones, muscles in the body. The parts of the body are individually important, but they dependent on one another. Functionalism emphasizes on social stability. From this perspective, disorder in the system, leads to change because other parts must adjust to achieve stability. When one part of the system is not working or is dysfunctional, it affects all other parts and creates social problems, which leads to social change.

In year 1957, American functionalist sociologists Robert K. Merton divide functions into two types, which are manifest functions and latent functions. Manifest functions are intentional and obvious consequences whereas latent functions are unintentional and not obvious consequences. He uses the term “functions” to refer to the positive consequences of people’s action. Functions help keep society or social system in equilibrium. In contrast, dysfunctions are consequences that harm society. They destabilize a system’s equilibrium.

Social Conflict Paradigm

Social conflict is a theory that sees society as an arena of inequality which leads to conflict and social change (Macionis, 2012). Social conflict is a macro level analysis examines whole societies, large scale social structures, and social systems. This perspective is derived from the works of Karl Marx, who see society as segments that compete for social and economic resources. Based on conflict theory, society is ruled and control by the power elite and upper class. This elite and upper class not only want to maintain their dominance in society, they even like to increase upon it. Thus, they influence policy makers to form laws and regulations that legitimize their hogging of resources and wealth at the expense of all others.

Symbolic Interaction Paradigm

The symbolic interaction perspective, also called symbolic interactionism, is a theory that sees society as the results of interactions between individuals (Macionis, 2012). Symbolic Interaction is a micro level analysis, which focus on small and simple groups or community rather than large-scale social structures. According to symbolic interaction theory, all social interaction has a symbolic meaning. Anything that said by any individuals, behaviours of any individual, or what any individual wears has an underlying symbolic meaning to it. This perspective relies on the symbolic meaning that people develop and rely upon in the process of social interaction. Symbolic meanings are given importance because it is believe that people behave based on what they believe and not just on what is objectively true. Thus, society is thought to be socially constructed through human interpretation. People interpret one another’s behaviour and it is these interpretations that form the social bond.

2. Case study to explain/ elaborate each of the perspective associated with each school of thoughts.

The topic that I use as my case study topic is prostitution. Prostitution is engaging in the sexual activity with another person in exchange for compensation, such as money or other valuable goods.

From functionalism perspective, prostitution has still existed widely because it does somehow serve the society. From a functionalist perspective prostitution serves a need in society. If an act is not serving a societal need it wouldn’t continue to exist. According to Erich Goode, social customs and institutions that persist over time tend to be those that are good for society because they serve one or more important functions (Goode, 2008). Now in terms of prostitution, it provides sexually repressed men with a sex life or an alternate sex life outside of their marriage. It also allows women to be entrepreneurs and make money independently without having to deal with any sort of start-up costs. Besides, prostitute does have manifest function, and that is a job because a prostitute makes living through the exchange and they can earn quite a number of money in a short period. Its latent function is to provide the sexual outlet for those who are not competitive in the marriage market, such as physically handicapped, mentally handicapped, and the poor. Moreover, in an exchange, the buyer’s needs are met without any responsibility to the “seller”. Besides, existence of prostitution can reduce the incidence of rape and sexual harassment. The evaluation of the dysfunction of prostitution is transmission of sexual transmission diseases such as AIDS. For instance, in countries such as Vietnam, prostitution is illegal. This is because prostitution are recognised generally as a risk factor in the transmission of HIV infection and it will particularly affects women and children.

Now, let’s look at social conflict perspective. From social conflict perspective, people’s race, ethnicity, gender, age, and social class are all linked to the unequal distribution of money. That’s why the majority of prostitutes are young, female, and poor. For example, large amount of low class citizens in country such as Vietnam, Thailand and Philippine are forced to be prostitutes. They do not know what to do, since they don’t have any education. Thus, the only way that they can earn money without education is prostitution. Furthermore, pimps and madams also exist because of gender inequality in the sex industry. The pimps and madams take possession over prostitute and exploit the use of their bodies for sexual favours. Thus, when these women earn their money, they are oppressed by their pimps or madams who take a large portion of their earnings. So the economic inequality gap is widened. Hence, they need to perform sex continuously in order to live because of the social inequality.

Now, let’s look at symbolic interaction perspective. In Malaysia, prostitution is categorized into three forms which are escort, street and brothel prostitution. According to The Star Newspaper (http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/11/9/parliament/12294866&sec=parliament), in Malaysia, about 47,000 foreign prostitutes are arrested from 2008 to 2012 for soliciting sex. From symbolic interaction perspective, prostitution in Malaysia symbolizes sexual revolution occurs drastically. Sexual attitudes have become so lenient that women are able capitalize upon men’s sexual desires and engage in emotionless sexual activity with multiple partners in order to gain income.

There are three types of functions by Robert K. Merton which he divided according to society. Manifest function which is the intended and recognized consequence, latent function which is the unintended and unrecognized and finally dysfunction which is an unintended consequence that works against the intended purpose of the institution. Dysfunction has a negative impact on society. Functionalism addresses society as a whole in terms of the function of its constituent elements; namely norms, customs, traditions, and institutions. A common analogy, popularized by Herbert Spencer, presents these parts of society as “organs” that work toward the proper functioning of the “body” as a whole.

Case study of Structural Functionalism

An example of structural functionalism can best be seen in crime. As in Durkheim’s article, Structural-Functionalists view crime as a necessary part of society. Functionalists believe that crime and deviance are inevitable and necessary for a society. Crime shows other member of the society what is right and wrong. Social consensus decides how right and wrong is determined. In the eyes of manifest function, crime brings social change and justice to the people. The society continues to live harmoniously as crime offenders are caught. In latent function, crime can also help the economy of a society by creating jobs for law enforcement officers, psychiatrists, probation officers and counsellors. Crimes that happened, in turn create a living for law enforcement officers because by putting crime offenders behind bars, this bring income to people who are in charge of them. There is no category of social dysfunction that is more clearly a result of primitive concepts than the area of crime. When crime occurs, there is much devastation to be compelled. Death toll rises and the safety of a society is questioned.

Conflict Theory paradigm

Conflict theory is to emphasize the role of coercion and power in producing social order. According to conflict theory, inequality exists because those in control of a disproportionate share of society’s resources actively defend their advantages. The masses are not bound to society by their shared values, but by coercion at the hands of those in power. This perspective emphasizes social control and conformity. Groups and individuals advance their own interests, struggling over control of societal resources. Those with the most resources exercise power over others with inequality and power struggles. Sociologists using the social conflict approach look at on-going conflict between dominant and disadvantaged categories. The conflict perspective, which originated primarily out of Karl Marx’s ideas and thoughts of class struggles, presents society in a different light than the other perspectives. The main ideology of social conflict theory is the belief that rich and powerful force social order on the poor and the weak. Last time, Max Weber and Karl Marx constructed their arguments, giving different emphases to conflict theory in power and economics.

Case study of Conflict Theory Paradigm

An interesting way of studying conflict theory is none other than the Caste system in India. The Caste system is a rigid social system, a hierarchy that determines occupation, marriage partners and rank. This system is an unjustly way of the upper class oppressing the lower class and manipulating them in terms of authority and power. In India, this system is life long, and a person has no way of moving up the rank. There are three types of rank in India, mainly Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Sudras. According to the conflict theory the upper classes instituted religion in such a way that they kept control while at the same time they pacified the lower classes by promising a better life. In time, the rich are benefited in terms of crops, education and a better lifestyle and the poor are manipulated even lower and forced to work for the upper castes. Invariably, the personal spills over into the public sphere. Caste, thus, remains visible yet invisible. The invisible is rendered visible socially, culturally, politically and economically.

Symbolic Interaction Paradigm

The symbolic interaction perspective, also called symbolic interactionism, is a major framework of sociological theory. This perspective relies on the symbolic meaning that people develop and rely upon in the process of social interaction. Symbolic interaction theory analyses society by addressing the subjective meanings that people impose on objects, events, and behaviours. Subjective meanings are given primacy because it is believe that people behave based on what they believe and not just on what is objectively true. Thus, society is thought to be socially constructed through human interpretation. People interpret one another’s behaviour and it is these interpretations that form the social bond. George Herbert Mead is widely regarded as the founder of the interactionist perspective. Goffman, popularised a particular type of interactionist method known as the dramaturgical approach, in which people are seen as theatrical performers.

Case study of Symbolic Interaction paradigm

An obvious study of symbolic paradigm is Gandhi himself and his symbol of subversion. Gandhi is the prototypical example of a symbolic interactionism on the world stage. The political course of the twentieth century was changed, thanks to his powerful use of non-violent symbols. For 37 years, he led nearly 300 million Indians in the battle “for right against might”. His mega symbol of subversion is the ‘Khadi’. The Khadi movement aimed at boycotting foreign goods and promoting Indian goods, thereby improving India’s economy. The freedom struggle revolved around the use of Khadi fabrics and the dumping of foreign-made clothes. When some people complained about the costliness of Khadi to Mahatma Gandhi, he started wearing only dhoti. Thus it symbolized the political ideas and independence itself, and to this day most politicians in India are seen only in Khadi clothing. Through this symbolic actions he brought the world’s largest empire to its knees and liberated the world from the ideology that justified colonialism on the grounds that it was doing those who were colonised a favour.

(1137 words, 6 pages)

Jay, Lara and their children would be considered as a family. It is in examining the “institution” like the urban family and its wide range of issues and other intricate social arrangements where sociologists do most of their theorising. In sociology there are three broad areas of sociological study structural functionalism, symbolic interactionism and conflict theories (including feminism and postmodernism) but for the purpose of this paper structural functionalism will be looked at and critiqued by a post modern perspective in terms of the context of Jay and Lara’s family.

Structural Functionists would observe the role the family provides and the purpose that they perform. In investigating the different parts of society’s structure in relation to others, functionalists look at how different institutions contribute to the continuation and survival of the social system as a whole. The family operates in a society characterised by rules and these rules are ordered and reoccurring and these relationships occur throughout societies and can therefore be put under scientific rigor and testing in terms of a positivist quantitative outlook and this can be considered almost universal in application. So in simple terms the ‘institution’ of the family contributes to socialisation of new members of society as this is the rule or function the family provides to society.

Parsons (1951) argued the family plays a number of roles in socialisation of individuals. Two roles being key in Jay and Lara’s case are the socialisation of children into suitable values and norms. The other key point Parsons makes is the stabilisation of the adult personality through marriage which helps to cushion parents from the stresses and strains of day to day life. (These ideas will be discussed further later in terms of criminological theory). Jay and Lara are therefore the primary ‘socialisers’ of their children. They are (perhaps unwittingly) passing along a belief that crime does pay if Jay is to continue to offend and move back into selling drugs, also that it is usual to carry a knife to protect yourself in their neighbourhood. It would also suggest that the family as a buffer to stresses and strains is perhaps one more characterised by conflict than harmony as originally suggested by Parsons. Parsons theory has very little argument as to what makes a family dysfunctional and other family pathologies or to recognise a family different from the nuclear ‘American dream’ family of the 1950’s era.

Norms of family structure have changed overtime, and these changes in families can be thought of as the move toward a newer ‘post-modern’ idea of family. For example, Weston(1991: 3) argues that “Familial ties between persons of the same sex that may be erotic but are not grounded in biology or procreation do not fit any tidy division of kinship into relations of blood and marriage”. There is increasing variation in family types. It is not that the nuclear family has been replaced it is more so a case that individuals move in and out of different family types throughout the course of their lifetime.

Coontz (1992) has suggested central to these different ‘types’ of families are the decline of child rearing and marriage as central defining characteristics. These define less of a person’s identity and have less influence over the life course decisions and are no longer socially universal. The family is now, she suggests, characterised by greater freedoms to choose your own style of life. Leading individuals in either positive or negative directions as the family now presents less constraints to those who are a part of it. Post-modernism has tried to suggest that rather than a family serving a function in society it is more characterised by multiplicity, difference, particularity, locality, temporality, and the “scattered and shifting character of contemporary social processes” (Outhwaite 2002).

This can account for Jays change in behaviour from a family centric one with the success of the job, which could be argued by functionalists as a success of the family socialisation to buffer Jay from stresses and strains of his local community to one where his individuality has been expressed by losing his job, and heading out for himself with no regard for his family and the outcome of his actions would have had on them which holds to be a very post modern dilemma.

(put something here about the ramifications for social work from these two perspectives.)

Writers and theorists with sociology disagree to the way actions of the state interfere with the family. Mclennan et al (2000) have noticed that modern families have come under state intervention more so than other periods in time. Some policy outcomes, such as the welfare state, have been seen as something that should be a function of the family rather than a function delivered by the government. Sociologists, however, do recognise that social policy can be an area which provides social change by changing individual behaviour (Wallerstein 1989). Jay and Lara and their family are affected directly by these policies but this paper shall look at family and child policies and how they affect social work and the family unit.

During the past 10 years there have been a lot of changes in government policy regarding children and families. With the introduction of ‘every child matters’ (HM Treasury 2003) which outlines how this agenda will restructure current services with multidisciplinary working and better information sharing, it also details how early intervention should be concentrated on. The ideas set out in every child matters suggests that early intervention is more cost effective and early prevention is possible because of the vast knowledge about risk factors and the negative impact these can have and that parenting is vital. The report also suggests that services such as social work fail to intervene in a positive way because they lack accountability and have not been sharing information well. The states policy is therefore one of a more active interventionist role in relation to children and their development. The sure start programme being an example of this and has been directly mentioned in the Conservative party Manifesto paying for more than 4500 new sure start workers and refocusing onto early intervention once more (Conservative Party website 2010).

A further focus of Policy over the past 10 years has been to look at the role of parents. Parents have been suggested as the background for changes in anti-social behaviour and social exclusion. The state has also increased its role in parenting support asking local authorities to develop a parental support strategy and employ a single commissioner of parenting support services (family and Parenting Institute 2009). Further to this the Government committed itself to getting rid of child poverty by 2020 and halving it by 2010 (Conservative Party website 2010). This is due to the evidence from studies such as the millennium cohort study which followed 16 000 children and noted a difference in child performance based on socio economic status. Parents have also been called to be more involved with their Childs education including the hard to reach (Reynolds, 2006). This message is echoed in the Children’s Plan (2007) which states,

“Parents’ support for their child’s learning is an essential foundation for achievement. Parents told us they want to be more involved in their children’s education, and schools see the benefits of greater engagement with parents” (Department for Children, Schools and Families, 2007a, p53).

To achieve this, direct transfers to families through benefits and tax credits have increased, focusing particularly on low-income families in employment. These have been accompanied by measures aiming to raise the employment rate among parents. Lone parents have been singled out as a target group for welfare reform, alongside measures to improve childcare availability and affordability. There has also been a major expansion in maternity leave provision, along with the introduction of the right for parents to request flexible working, in an attempt to make it easier for parents to balance work and family responsibilities. The final section of this report focuses on shifting family forms and family relationships, and the state’s role in helping couples to stay together and to parent their children after separation. Many challenges still remain in family policy, such as: integrating adult and children’s services to meet families’ needs; ensuring families have access to both good universal services and specialist ones; achieving child poverty targets; and creating real choice for parents in how they balance paid work and family responsibilities. The changes of the past 10 years have taken place against a background of national economic prosperity. The current recession is imposing new challenges on both families and public services, and even if the recovery is quick, the context for the next decade will be one of high public debt.

It can be seen that the current conservative government hold that the family function is on that needs to be upheld. The previous labour government taking a more liberal (postmodern) view and less moral overtone to the ideas of family as can be seen with the policies introduced pre conservative government such as a focus on tax breaks and increasing resources being moved to low income families regardless of their married or unmarried status. With the new administration it may be argued that a more functional view of the family situation will be adopted where the ideal of the nuclear family as suggested by Parsons (1951) will be supported. The role of the social work will be therefore to protect these family institutions. Interestingly in light of the recent review of child protection after the Baby p case Henricson (2007) pointed out there was too much focus on structures and procedures and less emphasis on well trained social workers and other professional’s with appropriate caseloads. Allowing them to fully understand the family situation and use their professional judgement in a more appropriate way.

In reality practice is however fraught with resource limitations and need to provide help to those already in crisis rather than early intervention. In ‘Building Britain’s Future’ the Prime minister promises a move from ‘a system based primarily on targets and central direction to one where individuals have enforceable entitlements over the service they receive’ (Prime minister 2009, p18). This could have a great impact on Social Work services and service provision

This week’s readings are composed of the topics of structural violence and symbolic violence. Galtung and Farmer’s perspectives on personhood and conflict relationship are built around the concept of the “structural violence”. In general terms, structural violence means sociopolitical inequalities emerge out of the structures. In addition to them, Bourdieu and Bourgois & Schonberg bring new perspective by looking at the debate from different angle with the term “symbolic violence” which means gender inequalities emerges out of the embeddedness of female subordination by male in daily life.

Galtung first discusses the concept of violence in his 1969 article of “Violence, Peace and Peace Research” and displays the relationship and difference between direct/personal/with subject and indirect/structural/without subject violence. In his article “Cultural Violence” (Galtung, 1990), it is defined as “any aspect of a culture that can be used to legitimize violence in its direct or structural form” (p.291). In Pierre Bourdieu’s article, we analyze how symbolic violence influences the gender relations by being embodied in the daily life habits of an agent. We may add that culture sometimes play a legitimizing role to strengthen symbolic violence. In my country, Turkey, there is still the “honor killings” phenomenon in the name of “culture”, which actually includes cultural and symbolic violence. It is a somewhat direct violence but also somewhat symbolic for the rest of the society and male-female relations. Galtung’s prescription against those types of violence is clear; establish negative (the absence of direct violence) and positive (absence of structural and cultural violence) peace (p.183).

In his article of “Gender and Symbolic Violence”, Pierre Bourdieu looks at violence in a different perspective than Galtung and builds relationship between violence and gender. According to him, hegemonic power and the domination of this power on its victims can be called “symbolic violence”. The male domination over the female can be strengthened with the help of the concepts, language, and symbols used in daily life habits. He does not mean to reduce the importance of physical violence, instead, focuses on the construction of misrecognition through the dominant discourses in various types of socio-cultural domination. Misrecognition is “confirmed” by dominant discourse and is embodied in women’s body with “hidden symbols”. As he mentions this symbolic violence is most of the time unnoticed-partly unconsciousness- because the “victims” of this violence may not recognize it, or become silent because of their subordination or they feel daunted against the violence. His prescription is explained as “aˆ¦radical transformation of the social conditions of production of the dispositions that lead the dominated to take the point of view of the dominant on the dominant and on themselves.”(p.342).

Paul Farmer’s “personhood” is much more related to structural issues. In “On Suffering and Structural Violence”, he tries to understand the mechanisms which cause social forces from poverty to racism to be embodied as individual experiences (p.281). He argues that what happens to Acephie and Chouchou – the former dies because of AIDS and the latter dies because of political violence- are two different versions of structural violence. He reaches the conclusion that inequality of power and its implications on the poor are because of the structural arrangements of dominant powers of the world. “Silence of socioeconomically poor people” is because of the dominant power relations and its reflections on Third World countries. According to him, what happened to Acephie and Chouchou is explained as; “these afflictions were not the result of accident or of force majeure; they were the consequence, direct or indirect, of human agency”(p.286) He also mentions that when people are suffering because of poverty, their access to health, food, and shelter are limited because of their social status. His prescription is much more related to the “humane” and offers global precautions. He thinks that instead of debating “cultural differences”, the social inequalities should be reduced. The precautions should focus on reducing global poverty, by so we can break the link between social violence and “social acceptance of poverty”.

After the discussion on historically reproduced structures of social inequality and the deficiencies of accessing to health care which is a basic human right in Third World countries in Farmer’s article, we witness similar arguments in Philippe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg’s book of Righteous Dopefiend. The authors give us a portrayal of the sufferings of the homeless and heroin addicted community of Edgewater from their own personal participant observations. In general, the book is so impressive because of the use of photographs, transcripts of recorded conversations and the authors’ participant observations. The authors display the daily experiences of these heroin addicted-homeless people and analyze anthropologically those experiences. In the book, we see how those people suffer but also try to hang onto life one more day by involving in burglary, day labor, panhandling and so on.

The book is constructed on the themes of how violence is seen in childhood, community of addicted people, in gender relations, in race issues, sexuality, power inequality, and so on. In the book, one of the main arguments is that while we enter into twenty first century, neoliberalism has produced a strata of rich people but also a strata of “lumpen” in United States. Those people who couldn’t adapt themselves into the changing system are marginalized and exposed to the structural violence and victimized. They are Edgewater dopefiends now. On page 320, the authors mentioned that the burden of lumpenization is more severe in nonindustrialized societies. They add that there is not only power inequality and poverty issue but also poverty is being “punished” which is actually the extension of symbolic violence. Authors barrow from Bourdieu’s concept of misrecognition and symbolic violence (Bourdieu 2000) and apply it to Foucault’s power/knowledge relationship. According to them, “policy debates and interventions often mystify large scale structural power vectors and unwittingly reassign blame to the powerless for their individual failures and moral character deficiencies.” (p.297). Here we see that, the heroin addicted-homeless people of Edgewater, Sanfransico, are not only excluded from the whole social network and locked up into their own social network but also blamed on them for their failure. Although the book criticizes so much of health care system and the role of structural forces on the suffering of those people, I believe I would be happy to read ethical considerations of the authors during their research.

In conclusion, this week’s reading were so impressive and must be thought on more. In addition to that, I believe what they are theorizing must be put into practice and the awareness on structural, cultural and symbolic violence must be increased with policy recommendations. Or the project/practice areas should be determined and implemented by the field experts.