Gender Norms And Female Deviance Essay - 1250 Words

Norms in society are the expectations of actions in specific situations. Social norms keep human social relations and behavior stable. Norms are â€Å"rules† that have developed within a particular society taking into account its values, culture and way of living. Sometimes, it is even the case that individuals do not have a choice and rarely recognize that fact that social norms have arbitrary origins because they have experienced this during the ongoing process of living (Clinard and Meyer 2011:10). Thus, gender norms are sometimes seen as limiting, disenfranchising and oppressive. People who are in less-favored or less-accepted norms are sometimes pushed to â€Å"deviate† from the norm in order to achieve some form of â€Å"liberation† from their†¦show more content†¦I will argue that such claim has a certain validity. I further argue that this validity is a function of examining gender norms according to the relative economic status of the man/woman dynamic that we want to look at. It is the case that gender norms that result to deviance is not limited to the variable of gender. Gender stratification theory may not hold true when we generalize it to a population which has little variation when it comes to the economic situation. In order to discuss this, I will first discuss the theory of gender norms; its strengths and limitations. And consequently, a discussion on the concepts of labeling theory will follow in relation to gender norms. And lastly, a discussion regarding the â€Å"validity† of Roach Anleu’s claim will be done in order to arrive at this essay’s conclusion. Theories that relate to gender norms as the cause of deviance of women take off from the view that the power relations in society which is dominated by men result to pushing women into deviant behavior through victimization, role entrapment, and economic marginality (Seguino 2007). It is the case that for sociologists coming from this perspective, gender norms bring about inequality. And such inequality plays a crucial role into leading women into deviant behavior. Studies have shown that struggling on the streets leads to other offenses and crimes (Chesney Lind 1989) and this includes prostitution and drug-dealing (EnglishShow MoreRelatedDeviance Essay1052 Words   |  5 PagesDeviance is a term which I was unfamiliar with prior to doing research and learning more about it in sociology. Whenever I would hear the word in society, it would usually be in pop culture and for me, it was most notably in those stereotypical â€Å"student misbehaving in classroom† scenarios. In thes e scenarios, the child would misbehave in some way, whether it be by throwing materials at other classmates, or bad mouthing the teacher in a disrespectful way. 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