One word: Gender

Our society spends her time trying to find the ideal type of man and woman, from society to another the beauty can be differentiated by some little details. But for every sex there are expectations that basically represent the following. We expect femininity for the woman; we want them to behave as girls, have a “girly” mentality, the sensible emotions and look good, pretty or attractive. However for the masculinity we expect them to be fitted, to...

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Lookism Role in Reality Shows Prevents Stereotypes

One afternoon I was sitting in front of my TV and flipping the channels. I was shocked when something strange was the common thing between three Channels. There were three different makeovers TV shows across them, they all targeted women only. First of all the term makeover is applied to changing one's appearance, sometimes through cosmetics. Makeovers can range from something as simple as a new haircut, to the use of cosmetic surgery, to the extreme...

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Plastic surgery, huge hit in China and Japan

In China and Japan self appearance is a big issue. Bigger eyelids is most in demand when it comes to plastic surgery. Also there was a surgery called a leg lengthening surgery. To increase the individuals height. Although China banned leg lengthening surgery after a few unsuccessful procedures that left the patients with physical pain and mental anguish. The procedure was alarmingly high and growing at an even more alarming rate before China’s Health...

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Sociological Look At A Family Event

Families play an important role in our lives and those of us who are fortunate to come from loving homes should feel blessed. That’s how I felt this weekend after attending a family event at my uncle’s house. The event was held in honor of a family member who had returned from treatment in Germany, and as a mini-birthday celebration for my younger sister. So, I came to the conclusion that they would be the subjects of my sociological blog. This event,...

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System of Untouchability

More than 160 million people in India are considered Untouchable – people tainted by their birth into a caste system that deems them impure and less than human.Indian caste system is a system of social stratification in which communities are defined by thousands of endogamous hereditary groups called jatis. The values and ethics are strongly held by the people belonging to the castes. Their life chances, context, choices and social status in the...

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Weddings in Doha

Family in any culture is very important, it is what shapes up a person. As a Qatari, family always comes first. Recently I attended a family wedding. At the wedding, I thought it would be a great idea to talk about the family relations and how weddings are set in Doha. There is so much to look at in weddings in Doha. The first thing that I realized was the way the people were seated based on their age and their relation to the bride and groom. The...

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Marhaba!

Al-Salam Aleekum. This is how we begin to greet people in our culture, translating to “peace be upon you.” The way people greet each other differs from one culture to another. Even within the same culture, there are different ways to greet people. These ways differ in regards to age, gender, and relationship to one another. When focusing specifically to the Qatari culture, each house or family member has his or her own way of saying hello. Within...

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ACT OF VIOLENCE CAN BE DEVIANT AMONG CHILDREN.

Deviance in sociology is defined as a behavior that violates the standards of conduct or expectations of a group or society. We are all deviants from time to time. Each of us violates common social norms in certain situations. Deviance involves the violation of group norms that may or may not be formalized into law. One of the most important problems is the violence happening in schools and universities that causes deviant behavior. Violence is very...

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Deviating the Qatari Culture through Art

Deviance is a form of behavior that violates expected rules and social norms. There are various types of deviance. The major types of deviance include: formal and informal deviance. Formal deviance includes deviance that breaks the law such as robbery and rape. Informal deviance is deviance that violates informal social norms and rules such as swearing and burping. A current example of a deviant behavior occurred within VCUQ premise on November...

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Gender Polarization in Professional Tennis

Many of us enjoy watching tennis matches. We are entertained by the excitement of the game, the gracefulness and probably the elegance of the players. However, it takes sociologists to pinpoint various sociological aspects in professional tennis, and one of the most prevalent of these is gender polarization.For instance, if you glance at the outfit of the male and female players, you will find tremendous differences. Men usually dress in loose short-sleeved...

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Which door can I take?

Earlier this semester, in our Sociology class, our professor, Geoff Harkness, showed us a video of a sociology experiment that was done in the US. Watch below:I thought if this experiment was done here in Doha, Qatar no one would conform and we would most likely have different results. On the other hand, our professor had a different hypothesis, where he believed people would conform. So I went out and actually did the experiment as one of my assignments. I placed “ladies only” and “men only” signs on the Carnegie Mellon building doors here...

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My big fat Arab wedding

Family and marriage are two aspects that are very important in most cultures. In most societies marriage is defined as being a group’s approved mating arrangements marked by a ritual, such as a wedding ceremony, that indicates the couple’s new status to the public. Many people are familiar with the movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It revolves around two people overcoming their cultural, racial and social class differences and getting married. The...

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Gender Discrimination

A girl born in Qatar starts her journey of life with certain disadvantages due to the prevalence of gender discrimination in the region. Job opportunities for women in Qatar are diminishing diurnally. This phenomenon is not because women are less intelligent compared to men, but because of the mind set and culture of the country. The gender disparity might be reducing, but the stigma is still looming in quite a few institutions. I came to know about...

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