LiFe: A Sociological Profile

They say birth order can significantly predict what kind of decisions you’ll make throughout your life. The oldest tend to be leaders and easily adapt to a parental role, while the middle child wants the most attention. The youngest tend to be the most coddled and thus are the most dependent as they grow up. It’s safe to say for me, as well as the rest of the majority who do not fit into this cookie cutter mold, it is a little more complicated than that. Growing up in my family, I have been the youngest to my three older half siblings (we all share the same dad). When your mother is “the stepmom”, things are twice as hard for the youngest…trust me. Right as the oldest two were moving out of the house, my mom was blessed with a medical miracle considering the fact that the doctors said there was virtually no way my mom could get pregnant again. So for about two years, I got to play the role of the middle child. Once my last older sibling moved out, all of a sudden I was the oldest. Safe to say the “typical” family contribution to my sociological profile is not typical at all.

Another significant factor contributing to my sociological makeup would have to be the 11 years I spent as an elite (I HATE that word) nationally ranked swimmer. It started the day my mom took my cousin and me in for swim lessons. I came home a member of the local swim team…not because I was some “dolphin without legs” natural…but mostly because I was one of the only kids in my age group that could stay above water in the deep end without grasping to the lane-line with that life-or-death grip. For the first half of my “career”, swimming was fun, great exercise, and secretly, my mother’s excuse to keep me off Ritalin. Once I started going certain times, breaking certain records, and qualifying for nationals, fun suddenly turned into expectation. As we all know, with enough pressure, expectation can suck the fun out of just about anything. Yet, I’m thankful for those 5am workouts before school and the 2 ½ hr practices after school. As I look back, swimming was probably the reason why I didn’t make as many of the same mistakes I observed my older siblings repeatedly make…not because I was any better, but simply because I didn’t really have the time.

Which leads me to my next contributor, time. Albert Einstein once said, “The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once”. As simplistic as that statement is, it’s implication runs much deeper. In the case of my family life, time is the key element. It is what separates me from my parents, my siblings, and in the case of five legal separations, my parents from each other over a 25year span. In my family, it’s almost natural for my parents to grow so far apart that every five years, like clock work, they get legally separated and move to different states. You can only imagine how these experiences have shaped my views on relationships and the oh-so-precious “institution” of marriage.

In spite of my unusual family upbringing, I’ve been blessed in many more ways than I can count. I’ve had the opportunity to attend both private (first) and public (scary second) schools, as well as Candy Castle (99% African American day care…I was the only Caucasian). For the first few days at Candy Castle, I was never sure why my mother resisted my constant proposals (okay crying please) to switch to the day care where the kids from my school attended. I grew to love CC because it forced me to step outside of my comfort zone, and to discover that differences, whether it is skin color or culture, were a good thing. Differences, for me, meant knowledge and lent empathy and relation to all walks of life. That’s the kind of knowledge you can’t learn from a textbook.

With an epileptic brother, a sister with systemic lupus, and a mother who is in remission from a rare form of cancer, medicine has always had an impact on my life. Not only have a witnessed medicine’s effect on my family, but on myself as well. Without getting in to it, let’s just say that for the first 13 years of my life, the ER and I shared a love/hate relationship. So I guess somewhere in between all those doctor appointments, I decided that serving people through medicine combined with my love of the sciences, being a physician was what I was meant to do. Swimming, in-state Scholarships, and the College of Charleston’s School of Science and Math (and their “connections” with MUSC) were the three main factors influencing my decision to come here. As a senior, I can honestly say I’ve loved every minute of it (yes even in the fiery pits that defines Organic Chemistry).

Looking back, it’s hard for me to say how being a part this Millennial Generation has affected my upbringing and subsequently the decisions I’ve made. I know that for my two oldest siblings, internet was not really a polished tool in their secondary education. Maybe the internet might have helped my three older siblings stay/finish college…or maybe college just wasn’t for them. I do, however, find it really interesting to watch how my sister and I have this almost innate ability to puppeteer technology without even seeing a manual. I guess I don’t realize it until I watch my parents, who’ve taught me so much about life, struggle with turning the VCR on and off.

Overall I think my sociological history is unique. It has allowed me to abolish most regret, and cherish the wonderful learning devices that are mistakes. It has allowed me to relate to many walks of life regardless of ethnicity, race, or religion. It has granted me the knowledge to realize that I am an individual as well as a member of a greater whole, and that my contributions (along with every one else’s) form a purpose to life. The journey, through the best and worst times, is figuring it out one day at a time.

What's the Deal With Skin Color?

Throughout last lecture’s discussion on Race and Ethnicity, I couldn’t help but wonder why skin color itself is the culprit of derogatory and stereotypical terminology. Blacks and whites….seriously, could we not have come up with something better? For starters, other than maybe a few rare cases of extreme Albinism, which are rare autosomal recessive disorders among themselves, no one’s skin, in the entire world, is colored white or black. It’s more like a scattered array of browns, tans, olives, and peaches. While I realize, as we discussed in class, that skin color is the first and most obvious difference we are drawn to even at a young age, it’s actually not as big of a difference as we like to let ourselves think. Skin color is primarily determined by the amount of melanin that is produced as a by-product of tyrosine amino acid metabolism. Melanocytes (melanin producing cells) are equipped to carry out this mechanism as the body’s natural defense against UV radiation. Everyone in the human race has melanocytes, which, again exempting Albinism, can and do metabolize tyrosine. Sure the range of expression is extremely varied, but our skin, on the molecular level, is comprised of the same DNA base pairs and the same amino acids. This brings me back to my question: why are we so caught up on skin color? Further more, why does the majority of our population that calls itself “white” only in order to distinguish themselves from “blacks” persist in ridiculous and often detrimental attempts at darkening their skin?

“With all the studies and surveys and research linking UV radiation with skin cancer risks, one might think the sun would have set on the good old-fashioned fake and bake. But a new study by San Diego State University public health researchers has found that not only are there still plenty of indoor tanning salons in America’s big cities, in many places there are more tanning salons than Starbucks or McDonalds” (Mapes, 2009).

Do you hear that America? It’s like we’re trading obesity and anxiety for skin cancer…

Again I digress. The current majority of the United States’ population is “white”. Therefore the majority of media, pop culture, and ads will be dominated by “whites”, and subsequently their “white” features will be idolized…right? Well kinda…but I think the better question is idolized by whom? Tyra Banks, an African American Super Model and talk show host, did a special on how some African American women aspired to be “white” through the use of chemical compounds designed to bleach the skin?!?!

So let me get this straight. In an age where cultural diversity has broken through so many ignorant barriers, we still have “whites” either subjecting themselves to ridiculous skin dyes or harmful radiation to get that sexy darker color, or we have “blacks” subjecting themselves to chemicals designed to bleach the skin?? Is the grass greener on the other side!? WELL let’s see, maybe if we spent more time embracing and appreciating how green our own grasses were, and less time trying to make our grasses as green as our neighbors, we might actually come to a mutual appreciation for the natural colors we’ve all been given. I realize how corny that sounds, but I don’t understand the sociological justification of claiming one ethnicity while aspiring to look like another. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. However, I think that beauty lies in the eyeS of the beholderS. I mean, I think physical beauty is whatever we, as a society of Americans red, yellow, black and white, determine it to be. To me, ethnicity and race are entirely different, but not in the same context we discussed in class. For me, I identify first and foremost as a human being, that is, a member of the human race. Ethnically, I identify to be of Germanic Caucasian decent. My skin color has nothing to do with my race, but everything to do with my ethnicity. I think in order for things like fake baking and skin bleaching to lose their popularity, we need to celebrate and equally incorporate all ethnicities in our so-called “melting pot” of a nation, and maybe then we will be able to fully identify as a human race while appreciating the amazing diversity of ethnicities with which we’ve been blessed.

Gender Benders

It’s not that I think our society’s progress is a direct result of abandoning traditional beliefs and values as much as I think our society’s progress is a movement from the simple to the more complex. In most cases progress is a good thing; it is the primary goal of many civilizations. It seems like the more we know about our world, our society, and ourselves, the more we realize how many intricate complexities rest in between our “black and white” point of view.

Personally, I think this is no more so seen than in individuals who have gender identity disorders. Perhaps not even 10-15 years ago, this group of people would be labeled as crazy along with a host of other derogatory terms. Even today, our society has certain barriers in place to confine people who step outside the defined and acceptable social parameters. The common term used for this kind of “deviant” behavior is “gender bender”. While many of the problems related to this disorder fall into the category of psychology, there still remains broader social implications that should be discussed within the realm of sociology.

Is it the environment the individual was raised in, or is it the biological make-up the person was born with that ultimately contributes to gender identity conflicts. The truth is no one really knows. Sure, studies have been done on both key arguments that provide “results”, however no one can say, as a fact, either environment or genetics causes an individual to question their sexual identity. Yet, even though there is not a definitive cause we, in the sociological perspective, can take a step outside our own world and view the impact our society has had on these people who have violated a particular personal set of social norms.

Families, schools, media, public bathrooms, locker rooms etc. all serve to reinforce the classic black and white view of men and women. Just look at how we designate the difference between and man and a woman when it comes to using the bathrooms. It’s the dress. Obviously the women within our society must relate to a faceless symbol wearing a dress more so than a man could. But is this always the case? No. Not at least with those who are confused about their gender. If, for a second, we could step outside the box and view the world as they would, we might be able to better understand how difficult and traumatizing it would be to identify the self as one sex while phenotypically displaying the properties of another.

The bottom line is this: sure our society has come along way since the 50’s. We have influential celebrities such as Boy George or Lady Gaga who cross certain sexual barriers, and despite their popularity, their personas, as a whole, are viewed with judgmental eyes. Maybe one day all of us can come together and see that this isn’t just an act or behavior…who would CHOOSE to live a life that does not correspond with their bodies’ display? As a soon to be BS in Molecular Biology, I can say with confidence that there are a multitude of genotypic variations within 46 chromosomes that can cause conflicting phenotypic expression. Disorders such as Klinefelters’ and Trisomy X are just two of many disorders that can affect how a person feels, acts, or looks sexually. But this is just scratching the surface. Although the Human Genome Project is finished, there are still a host of genes that need to be matched and coded with a specific sequence. I do not mean to propose that a person’s gender identity disorder is caused by a genetic aberration, I’m only suggesting that maybe if we were more sensitive and accepting of “gender benders” today, perhaps 5 or 10 years down the road we won’t have to look back and say wow we were so ignorant as to assume being a transgender was a choice