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Deviance

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Deviance The television show that I will be using is on VH1, and is a reality series Love & Hip Hop Atlanta ("Love & hip hop” 2014). The show is based in Atlanta Georgia, and focuses on the lives of several former rappers, and music producers ("Love & hip hop” 2014). The show follows the individuals and their families in their day to day lives, trying to rebuild their careers or take on new ventures ("Love & hip hop” 2014. I chose Love & Hip Hop, because it shows the individuals as living a life of luxury, drugs, alcohol, break ups of marriages and relationships, fighting, fast cars, big houses, sex, and money, ("Love & hip hop” 2014). The cast members seem to have no problem the deviant lifestyles that they choose to live out on television. The message I want the younger generation to see is that regardless of your background or financial standing you can make a difference in the lives of others, but not the individuals on Love & Hip Hop. This show and other reality television shows are very popular, but they all seem to have the same goal in mind which is high ratings and do to it regardless of what it takes to make money, and achieve power and fame. The individuals in the program are labeled as being defiant because they are going against everything that society believes to be normal behavior. The individuals whom are watching the show are the ones that encourage and support the behavior, because viewers watch the show the expectation is for the deviant behavior to get worse and worse. Deviance is described as the recognized violation of cultural norms (Macionis, J. 2008). The deviant behavior works in the favor of the show because it increases the ratings and guarantees that the show will come back for another season (Macionis, J. 2008). The show demonstrates social control the ability to regulate individual’s thoughts and behavior if you see the behavior on television good or bad most individuals believe that the behavior is true (Macionis, J. 2008).
The primary deviance is behavior that is not normal, regarding society’s definition (Macionis, J. 2008). The primary deviance in the television show Love & Hip Hop would be that individuals have no structure to their lives that they do whatever they want and day to day life is just one big party (Macionis, J. 2008). The cast members of the Love & Hip Hop represent their lives as is waking up, going to work out, eat, party and go to bed (Love & Hip Hop, 2014). There is no normalcy in the lives of the cast members. One of the shows focused on one cast member Lil Scrappy that violated his probation and was facing jail time, but because of his high profile attorney and that he was unable to cancel performances he was allowed to and extensive outpatient program (Love & Hip Hop, 2014). The majority of the show focuses on parties where the male and female cast members will break out in fights and you only see body guards, but you never see the police called or anyone going to jail (Love & Hip Hop, 2014). Secondary deviance is behavior that may be abnormal but not be seen by others, to be deviant the behavior must be seen by other individuals (Macionis, J. 2008). The cast members may show that the behavior is acceptable on television but in real life there would be consequences for the bad behavior. Retrospective labeling could affect the cast members and their families negatively because of their actions on the show. They show the cast members as partying, drinking and using drugs they may not ever be able to be accepted in society, because of their negative portrayal on the show. Retrospective labeling is having a preconceived notion about the individual because of past actions (Macionis, J. 2008). The cast member may also be stigmatized because of how they are portrayed in the show and others may think that they are not good to work with because of the difficulties (Macionis, J. 2008). The four functions of Emile Durkheim and how they play out in Love & Hip Hop are: 1. Deviance affirms cultural values and norms, there can be no good without evil, the cast members made money, spent it, and now they are trying to do whatever it takes to reach the level of stardom they once had even if it means demeaning the individual you are (Macionis, J. 2008). 2. Responding to deviance clarifies moral boundaries. Even though the cast members have not been severely punished for their behavior in other ways such as losing the fame and money (Macionis, J. 2008). 3. Responding to deviance brings people together. The cast members all came to together to see if any means possible they could take their careers to another level again (Macionis, J. 2008). 4. Deviance encourages social change. The show is not a positive portrayal of how individuals live in the music, but it does show that you have to work hard to keep what you have or it can all be taken away (Macionis, J. 2008).

References:
Love & hip hop atlanta. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.vh1.com/shows/love_and_hip_hop_atlanta/series.jhtml
Macionis, J. (2008). Society: The Basics [VitalSouce bookshelf version]. Retrieved from http://digitalbookshelf.argosy.edu/books/0558563139/id/ch07boxgl08

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