By: Jacob Millay
Being who you are in the face of cultural repression is an attribute that does not always come easy for people, especially not teenagers. In Jodi Treadway’s psychology class, she is leading her students on a journey of self-exploration; she educates on topics like the brain, human relationships, and the weight that culture has on us to provoke deep reflection about our personal selves.
I had the opportunity of visiting one of Jodi’s classes this past week and was met with a truly eye opening and thought-provoking experience. The main tenet of the class, psychology and behavioral studies, is to explore the personal and human side of what it means to be yourself. During my visit, we talked about things that are highly repressive of true self: social norms and subculture.
Social norms are culturally expected behaviors, attitudes, and actions. They are highly contextual and very subtle, yet they affect almost every aspect of our lives. During a demonstration, Jodi asked the class of nineteen scholars for a volunteer for an activity. After asking her class, three or four boys’ hands shot up, eager to participate; however, there were no girls. After realizing this, Jodie told us that it takes girls longer to volunteer or go out of their comfort zones because they are so heavily scrutinized under the magnifying glass society uses to critique their every action. It is a social norm to either wave at or ignore people as you pass them. It is a social norm to stand a given distance away from someone when having a conversation, depending on the age and gender of both parties. The problem with social norms is that they establish harmful and menial standards for interaction and self-expression. Additionally, they undermine the sincerity of our actions and emotions, keeping us farther from reaching the threshold of authenticity, the class’ main goal.
In addition to social norms, subculture also has an adverse effect on originality. Subculture is defined as the different groups we are a part of within our much larger ones. Whether it is sports teams, collections of friends, or minority groups, the community we are a part of influences how we behave. Subculture ranged from the somewhat deep and personal to the very superficial. With subculture comes the concept of cultural fit. Cultural fit is this: does your true self align with the culture you are a part of? All humans are members of groups who we feel we cannot show our true selves to, and this is a fact that is destructive to individual identity.
After educating her class on trends that we all have unknowingly taken part in, Jodi gave them a very simple homework assignment: break a social norm or gender role. She did her own assignment as well, dressing up in a goth outfit and wearing black makeup, providing an example to not only her class but everyone who saw her; be authentic and live your truth with social norms existing merely as afterthoughts.
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