TRIBE? emily forrester
ALIENATION When starting this project my first instinct is that I feel not part of any social conformity .I found it hard to find parts of society in which I held an emotional connection or bond with. I think in todays world a lot of young people such as myself do not hold a connection with the wider group .The arch bishop of Canterbury even commented on new years day about including young people in the wider society in fearing of alienating them and creating a disaffected generation. With these current times we can reflect back to Emilie Durnkiem French socologlist.His book about suicide speaks of the anomie which describes the “breakdown of social bonds between an individual and their community ties�. This is a status from industrialisation, which disfranchised people from society in which people feel they are left unsteered in a direction in society. These ideas mirror my feelings of alienation within civilisation and that many outcomes do come within depression and suicide within teens. Cultural diversity can be formed to do with race, religion and interest but must comply within the overarching legal and moral laws of the state, it does not destroy society but inch riches it, but when society brakes down is when people cannot relate to one another. The Alienated almost becomes a social group within itself people today feel more abandoned by society than they do within it . I feel that even though I am alienated and not part of a specific tribe, I do not feel entirely an outsider as I feel like many other people that being an independent person and making my own descions within life forms me within a wider social group. In fashion alienation is a key, lower classes desire to dress like the upper classes and once they have adapted there styles, depreciating it, forcing the upper class to adopt a new fashion. In the punk movement of the 70s this was thrown away by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren who saw the gap in this market, and made something for the working class , a fashion that could be made out of bin bags , safety pins and old clothes, it was anti establishment fashion and did not conform just to clothing but created a whole new cultural diversity.
Anuptaphobia i feel that within today’s society there is a huge pressure on the idealism of being in “loves” being married or even being in a relationship. We are brought up from a young age (especially being raised on Disney films) that one day we shall end up we shall find are prefect match. I feel that being single is a tribe that can bring people together but also within the world its something a lot of people have in common, we are all in search of being loved and to be wanted by another person this is why I feel being single is a tribe. It is huge pressure in the media, the “perfect” family is shown in TV ads making us not just want the product but also idealise the family too, valentines day does not just bring pressure for people who are in a relationship or married but also to singles to, as they feel that being alone on this day is “sad”. On internet websites images are shown of happy beautiful couples, fashion is even now aimed at couples the brand the Kooples is specifically advertised to the edgy new London duo. There is a contrast force of idealisms within our world to day and one of them is need to be married. In todays world people go to great measures to achieve this, many change there appearance to what men or women idolise, dating websites are now set up so you can find that person from quickly sending a message on your phone, at the office or even sat in front of the TV. Dating websites even help you find your “perfect” match by showing you people with the same morals and interests you have. I feel that being a single person even though even being 19 and these pressures are not being put on to me yet, I feel that they soon will in my twenties that there is a specific expectations we should achieve in life otherwise we can almost feel like failures to ourselves what we soon realise is that life is not a specific set path for everyone and that the wife the husband and the 2 kids in the come to Florida TV ad is not what we get in life, but life not being like this makes it a lot more interesting. Yes, like the other billons of single people in the world, I do want to be loved and wanted by another person but I realise this doesn’t speficily have to come from one person in my entire life.
love?
Passenger Commuting is a term I had never heard of until I moved down to greater London surrey. It is estimated that 750,000 people commute into London every day; together we are all commuters of bus, rail, and tube. During this travel we often get pushed shoved standing up for an hour at a time and are in close perimeter of people we don’t even know. We are left to stare out of windows, talks to the people around us sometimes the journeys are so short sometimes nothing is said and were left in a silent carriage, we read our books and think. After been on the tube a lot over these past months there seems to be a lack of humanity from other people, even when we are placed within a space with other people we do not what to delve into convosation with another, even though there is no form of signal to are mobiles and computers to distract us. The tube almost feels like a hostile and unfriendly environment to be in, in rush hour its all for one and one for all, its almost as if we once again become primates trying to get that one last seat on the carriage. Even though we all reaching the same destination there’s still a huge battle and queue to get out of the doors, we barge past other people who are in the way yet when we step out of these stations there’s almost a complete switch in attuide. We loose all consideration for other people we become selfish zombies of London transport. We turn a blind eye to the injured, the drunk and mostly every situation, which goes on around us we all become apathetic.
Body beautiful We are in constant view of advertisements showing beautiful flawless women selling us products to make ourselves look more youthful or thinner. We are constantly trying to avoid the ageing process in our appearance. We as a society try and hide the way are bodies are natural meant to form over time as we become more materialistic and vanity we almost forget are genetics and the way are body’s are supposed to be. European paintings of 17th century depicted female nudes with broad shoulders, large breasts, large arms, broad shoulders, rounded belly’s, big thighs and peachy bottoms. In preastoric times the Venus of willendorf a carved stone figure depicts the natural form of a woman in caveman era this was the representation of the ideal figure of child bearing and fertility in these times women were idolised by men who were healthy and could bear child. The shape women dramatically changed in Victorian times when corsetry was introduced within undergarments this created a narrow waist. Women were depicted with tiny waists, layers were added into dresses so create more of a fuller bottom, and corsets pushed breasts higher to show the larger breasts. The corsets were a huge trouble to women’s body they caused huge damage to internal organs and fertility, some women did argue back by responding is that women had positive affects on there well being. Also within fashion in these times dress designs were epically made to be worn with corsets so even if women did not want to wear corsets they had to fit into the clothing of the time. In the 1920s women’s body shapes dramatically changed into a more androgynous style women’s style became more provocative, women wore underwear that reduced and flattened their bust clothes hung from the body creating more streamline body’s. From the 18th be have become obsessed with vanity, this is mainly to do with the fashionable styles created at the time and what the designer feels the ideal body shape of a woman shall be. In the 21st century the obsession has been taken too far surgeries have been created to make areas of the body slimmer. Within fashion the new size 0 model was shown in various catwalks in 2006, various of celebrities mimicked these models and created a poor image to women across the globe, people idolised these unnaturally slim women. Vanity has taken over are lives and we have all become slaves to unnatural beauty.
Gerascophobia The fear of growing old. In this body beautiful world we are obsessed with ageing, in todays society there’s various ways of preventing the natural body processes and ageing is one of them. We do not accept the way a body is natural meant to work and look, we have various treatments to prevent the ageing process, moisturisers, teas and food to help to stop this from happening. We are constantly within today society obsessed with the direction of not only of are body’s but with are minds, we may laugh and joke about are 70year old loopy grandmothers but we also realise that one day this will be us, and are grand daughters and relatives will be speaking the same about us, and laughing about how we repeat the same stories over and over again. I feel that even though my grandmother at 91 has deriated in her mind slightly I would be highly appreciative that if I ever reach to this age that I will end up like her, she is perfectly still cable of looking after her self and though now lacks people skills and rants on about the same story, I feel that at 91 years she is doing well for herself. She has an experience and lived a full life, she has lived through the most important years of the last century and she has become an important part of the world in world war 2 creating military arms for the British army. If I feel that she has experienced the world change, and for that I would be greatful. I don’t understand why we are so obsessed with the fear of growing older, it should be an exciting, with age we have new experiences that come along with it, we don’t just mature we have just gathered more information than others.
Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed- interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing sprit- crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing you last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats you have spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that?
We are the 99% student We loose are homes. We have to choose between food and rent. We work long hours with little pay, if we have a job at all. We are the one the percent .we are suffering. We are given 15 grand in the 3 years we are at university, we get 5 grand for the year with 5 grand’s worth of accommodation to pay for as well as having to pay for photocopying and equipment for our course. If I do get the job I desire when graduating university I will be earning exactly £ 25,000. I feel that with the fees going up may cause many young people within Great Britain to miss out on education as many are struggling to pay the fees currently. They are not just missing out on an education there are also missing out on an experience. I feel that in todays society we are feeling more alienated by our government, we expect the people who run are country to work for the people, and gernally have an overall idea on the people less fortunate than our selves, even people with degrees are now experiencing no work at all. As a nation were slowly distorting are society with the current government, what they do not realise is they are the minority of the population of Great Britain. Mark Duggan was shot on the 4th of august 2011 by police attempting to arrest him in Tottenham, the man was suspected of a revenge attack following the death of his cousin which the police officer aimed fire at mark when he felt that him and his fellow police offers were in danger, even though mark was carrying a weapon, it was shown that the gun had not been fired and the weapon was concealed within a sock. There was then a march in response to the death of mark Duggan which then turned into a riot in north London with metropolitan police. In the following days afterward rioting spread throughout London and other areas of Britain. 3,100 people were arrested and 1,000 people have been charged. This goes to show that people have a stronger voice and control of the country than the government and that we have more control sometimes than they do.
Generation x: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. Is a book written by Douglas Coupland .The novel was about a group of youths stories about themselves and stories of there creation, its based on a group of friends who live together in the Mojave dessert California the characters within the novel are Tobias, Tyler, Elvissa, Dag, Claire, and Andy whom is the narrator throw out the book. Tales of their lives are divided into 3 parts in the book each chapter is titled rather than numbered with titles such as “I am not a target market” and “Adventure without risk is Disneyland”. The book is a model representative of the teenage brain the angst and troubles of everyday teenage life “ I thought everyone in my class would be famous expect for me” in todays society these troubles still exist. Generation X as a whole was the children born after world war two who were the new generation of teenage youth, many people did study’s on these new generations in woman’s own magazine it was revealed “a generation of teenagers who sleep together before they are married, were not taught to believe in God as ‘much’, dislike the Queen, and don’t respect parents.” Because of these controversial findings, the article was not published. The previous generations overall had a negative perception on the new youth culture, who were practical and perceptive, had common sense but was amoral but a moral and mainly focused upon money .I feel that generation x was the start of the current youth and teenage attitude of today, I feel that without them and the various cultures they created we could not have such a wider culture today, they started something’s never done before. I feel that generation x epically the book can relate anyone who has been a teenager or is a teenager it relates to the ideas and issues running round are hormonal bodies. Also growing up with parents with parents from this era I feel that they are more liberal than say my mothers, mum they have experienced rebellion. Another part of generation x was all the sub groups which has influenced the culture of today one of these were the black holes which were a sub group who are known of there entirely black wardrobes.
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Exobishanist “A person who behaves in ways intended to attract attention or display his or her powers, personality.” In todays society I have been called an exbishanist, I don’t feel that this is internally true. When I was younger I suffered form anorexia I realised when recovering from this that being unnaturally skinny was not beautiful or arractive, I realised that I show appreciate what I had and let my body naturally be the way it wanted to as a put on weight, I would have 3 meals and day and eat what ever I wanted, through this I think I realised that the worry’s of what people perceived me to be didn’t exist anymore, I had lost all of my perception at people staring at me in the street and even commenting on what I wore. I have now become a person who enjoys the skin that there in, this resulted me going out in my grandmothers swimming costume and mothers studded leather jacket with docs and the age of 15, my lack in clothing has almost become the norm to not just myself but everyone that knows me.i do not do this to attract attention but because I feel comftable in the lack of clothing I am in. I feel that within todays society people need to loose there insercutiys, but I think these insecurity’s come from the edited images of women and men within the media and also most of the population being so insecure within them selves they feel the need to bully the people who do have body confidence. I feel if we lost jealousy in body image and stopped trying to aim to be and look like someone else people would become more respectful of people just being themselves but this can never happen within todays society people always want what they cant have.
Working class I am jobless student from a working class family. Working class is someone in lower paid jobs it is measured by skill education and low incomes or unemployment. Work classes are mainly found in industrialized encomies.from coming from a working class background I feel that I have grown up with the attentions to work and earn a living, I realise that in order to live I must work for it. I realise it is harder for me to achieve some goals as even education is now becoming unaffordable to most of the working and lower classes. I realise that most things in life depend on who you know and how much money you have .We are the people who save your lives, take out your bins, look after your children, give you your coffee in the morning, we are the people at the end of the phone sorting out your insurance polices. We are the main populaces.
Education From a young age school helps young people to feel part of a community in which we learn, we are issued school uniforms so we look the same and cant judge on materialistic value, through this we judge people on there personality. School makes us feel like we are together that we are part of a strong community, we play against other schools in sports and various other activities and we want to win not just to win but also for are schools to be better than someone else’s. Another way schools don’t just create a community but reach out to others is becoming involved in activities with churches, temples, mosques, local groups and more community based orgainzations. By doing so they can gain better understanding of the students background and also making the students socially aware of other peoples background so they do not feel alienated. Also by doing so the community becomes wider within the area that the school, students and parents may feel less isolated when doing so. By going to school we are taught to be self confident with are selves and our work and how to express are selves freely. We learn how to interact with other students who are not like us, we learn to appreciate their differences and that within the school everyone is there to learn and wants to learn. I feel that without education we don’t just not miss out on education we miss out on how to interact with other people, we feel like were in a community which cares about us and helps us not just with are work but with social matters also, I feel that when people leave this and the direction is not pointed out to us we often feel lost.
Facebook generation Like me and 800 million other people we all have facebook.facebook is a social networking launched in 2004, the aim in the site is so people can easily share information with there friends and family with “ “notifications� and messaging, you can create your own personal profile, add other users, users can join common interest groups. Facebook was first started to allow Harvard university students to get to k now one another and now it is widespread and is one of the largest networking sites there is currently in 2011 and properly is used more than text messaging and phone conversations within teens. Facebook has met many issues in countries this year including china, Vietnam, Iran, Pakistan, Syria and Bangladesh for mainly issues with racial and religious discrimination. It is also now banned in workplaces across the world to stop employees using it during work hours. It clear that with every form of site in which freedom of speech is used that there is always going to be these issues not that it is right to discriminate. Facebook main concern is privacy for Facebook users and safety many lawsuits have came out of this. In Germany a 16 year old girl threw a birthday party in which became a public group, 1,600 attended, after reports of overcrowding and police had to come an crowd control, 11 people were arrested for assault and property damage. It is clear that in some cases we abuse the fact we have Facebook and intend to destroy other peoples lives we take are rights of freedom on the site too far. It is also shown that Facebook can be beneficial to your social life but also a problem. You can continuously stay in contact with anyone you wish to but it is still not directly communicating with one another, people have had many issues with Facebook resulting in many married couples in divorce, it is clear that constantly knowing about other peoples lives can never be a good thing, there are two types of Facebook user ones that care and ones who are nosey but yet we are still on here.
Fashion Student I am a London fashion student. I do not wear sports wear combined with vintage and live in dalston or Shoreditch. I feel that there is a huge stereotypical image around London fashion students mainly because some London fashion students are creating it for themselves. I feel that there is a huge competition within London to be edgy, cool and indivual that it gets to the point were there all so aiming to look so different they start looking like one another. I feel that yes its is important to express indivuailty within clothing, make up and hair but it gets to the point were its almost done where you question this “crazy kooky” image that if someone has to go to this much extent to look different why do they feel the need? I enjoy people expressing them selves in clothing but what I don’t enjoy is that the expressionism almost seems false and they just what to dress better than someone they know. People now get covered in tattoos not just because they want a tattoo they do it because they see it on tumblr.I feel that know days that its so hard to even be an indivual as you can be immediately imated copied and redone on someone else. I realise that inspiration has to come from somewhere but it is sad that the youth today do not know where the inspirations come form culturally but most of them don’t care. In the generations before us created new fashion movements which didn’t just change fashion the polictal aspects of the groups try to change the world, they pushed new boundaries and peoples limits such as the punk movement of the 1970s were originally Malcolm McLaren received inspiration from the group the new york dolls and wanted to create this image in the uk but punk was not just a fashion movement it was against the British government, the way fashion worked and fed of public recation. We are constantly micking clothing from previous eras why cant we create are own?
Social anti- social? In todays society we are slowly becoming more antisocial as a world. Day to Day we are depant of technology to commutate with other people, to the point were some on the youth today are loosing there skills in social interaction and are purely relent online to make friends and express there thoughts feels and ideas, there almost shut off to the real world. Young people want to be open about what interests them, talk to people who have similar interests and this is why blogs and networking sites are so popular. I feel that a large percentage of youth today would rather discuss their feelings on line than they rather would with someone they know. There are even websites set up to help these issues. Me as my tribe I feel that I am a social person and within a group of people that do not purely use the Internet to express there interests and activity. From a young child I was at child minders 5 days a week as a single parent my mother had to work. In this time I had to socialise with a lot of other children, as there was no other choice. I have always chosen having a convosation in person than to on the phone or over the Internet, I do not hold myself back from talking to strangers as I feel that I have nothing to loose. I feel that were in a generation that goes out but fails to be very social able and able to meet new people.
Feminity and unisex. I feel that it is quite clear the sexuality and appearance in men and woman are becoming even more mix and combined in today’s society. Femminty can be linked with sexuality and sexual appeal. Sexually submissive is also parts of femmintys idealisms as sexual desire can be seen as masculine .It is considered by sociologists that masculine and feminine behaviour is reproduced and regulated within todays society as well as being to part of the power structure of a country, but by some theorists it is considered to reject all gender as it is too much of a simplication of todays world. To be femmine is defined charasticly as gentleness, empathy, sensitivity, caring, compassion, tolerance, nurturance, defence and self-abasement. But the idealisms of femminty change around the country, it is perceived in imperial china that smaller feet were considered more femmine than women with larger feet, in parts of Africa and Asia women were neck ring to elongate the neck as this represents feminine beauty. Idolisms of femminty change throughout the world. One of the major representatives of femmintiy I feel that have been a huge part of my life as a child is Barbie; in 1959 it was introduced as the ideal modern aesthetic beauty. This icon of femminty has affected and arracted whole wide audience and was apparently the teaching tool to make women more femmine worldwide. Femminty within the fashion world has changed dramatically over the past 12years the more andryoness look has come into fashion. Male models are now used for women’s clothing and women are used for men, such as Andrej Pejic whom is successful in both women and men’s clothing. I feel that even men and women’s clothing is becoming more transgender, skirts for men are now in fashion as well as the androydness teddy boy look for women.
Conformity Conformity is major parts of social groups and cultural diversity within today’s world. It is to match the attuide, beliefs and typical behaviours of a social group, which can come unconsciously or could be social pressure. It can happen within a small group if the person feels alienated and conforms to the rest of the group to be accepted .all of the above is for us as humans to feel a sense of security and not risk social rejection discrimination or bullying. Some conformity can be extreme suppression of the indivual whether this may be in a religion or even peer pressure within a group. Conformity can also be within the order of the law by the state in which you conform to apply to such as not stealing, not killing etc. but this is enforced to protect society and protect the people within it .The social urge to conform can be choice within clothing, hair length, gender roles, social class, parental expectations and accents. It is clear even though we may feel alienated by society we all are conformists this may be Compliance which is public conformity while keeping your own beliefs private, Identification conforming to someone who is admired and Internalization is accepting the belief or behaviour and conforming both publics and privately.