Proposal

As of now, I am looking into researching the concept of the “untouchables” in India.  I know that this is a bit of a challenge since I am not specifically residing in this country but I believe this type of “othered” community is an extremely potent example of what it feels like to be outside of the “norm”.  I have chosen this group of people because I have researched this group on my own and two of my good friends currently reside in India and I have talked at length with them about the caste system.  I think that the fact that this system is fixed and that there is nothing you can do about the caste you have been born into really fits this project well. I will probably look at texts about the group and I will contact my friends currently living in India for their insight into what it is like to witness this group of people firsthand.  I am hoping to use a variety of sources: an interview from my friends in India, a short video or two, a couple articles about the group of people, and possibly American reactions to the “untouchables” by interviewing people here and asking if they know anything about them.  I think it would also be interesting to link the “untouchables” to other groups in history, but I’m still wrestling with that idea because I don’t want to take on too much before figuring out how I can adequately analyze this group of people from afar. 

Links that I've looked into:

http://www.ispp.org/jsc/blog/humiliated-by-caste-understanding-emotional-consequences-of-identity-denial
This source deals with the sociological and psychological effects of the different caste systems.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM85zVt6xCU
This is a video about the fact that untouchables still exist within India. 

Blog 5

In terms of Lorber’s notion of “social construction”, the definition is rooted in the roles and labels that society creates in order to categorize people.  For instance, Lorber deals a lot with gender and the notion that we have constructed roles that males and females must fit into from the moment they are born.  In example, the color blue being for boys and the color pink being for girls.  Without realizing it fully, we, as a society, as labeling different behaviors and beliefs that each different sex should hold and what type of gender that they should fit into.  In the TEDtalk, Sam Killermann stated that “gender is more complex than what we learn as kids”.  He dealt with the concept that gender and biological sex are two separate compartments and that society should not define people by their sex.  I found it interesting that he was able to share a bit of his story and enlighten us about the fact that the way he dresses causes people to ask him if he’s gay a lot of the time.  This really made me stop and ponder upon why we have these stereotypes and the notion that the way that we dress or express ourselves defines our sexuality.  Zimmerman was quick to make the point that sexuality and gender are almost separate entities, as he is not gay but he would describe himself as metrosexual.  Thus, Zimmerman describes that gender expression is “how you present your gender to the world”.  He focuses deeply on the fact that this type of expression cannot be limited into two categories for the copious amount of people that we have on this earth, and even just in this country.  Thus, his call was not for a specific change of action (except the light-hearted request for transgender bathrooms at the end of the film), but rather for a paradigm shift for people. 

            In connection, Hanfler states that “we act toward people, things, and events based upon the meanings we have for them…we actively transform the world into images and concepts, giving it meaning and order” (Hanfler, 23-4).  Thus, it is human tendency to act upon the meaning that we have given others; for instance, when we label a male as a boy, we have certain stereotypes or behaviors that we expect from them as a result of this labeling.  We are made to never question the gender roles that we learn from birth so we look for the correct order of these things in our lives as adults.  This goes directly into another one of Hanfler’s points as it’s stated that, “we learn meanings” (Hanfler, 24).  We learn “initial interpretations of the world” from important people in our lives or from the media and these are the ones that tend to stick (Hanfler, 24).  It takes stepping back and recognizing that a lot of our ideas or behaviors, such as blue and pink labels, are learned and are a creation of society.  Overall, I believe the most potent step in this conversation is to understand the definition of social construction and to open our eyes to where it has gone unnoticed in our lives.  Now, this doesn’t mean that we must change everything we have grown up believing but it does mean that we need to open our eyes and our hearts to the million other people on the planet that may see things a bit differently.