Aging And Marriage Essays - Human Sexuality, Gender, Personal Life

Aging And Marriage Reaction Paper: Marriage and Aging A big aspect in keeping a marriage successful is how much communication occurs between the two people involved. For a healthy relationship there is a need for quite a bit of communication. Communication, as stated in class, is one of the key elements to a successful marriage. There has to be some open discussions and trust in the relationship to make it anywhere. If you can not talk to your partner you will not be able to solve problems in a healthy manner. You have to be able to tell your partner things to help you learn and mature with them. You have to learn how to compromise and help each other out. Communication has to be part of your relationship in some way. You cannot go through your life not talking to your partner about important issues that you should be able to talk to them about. Another important issue discussed in class was homosexuals and marriage. Homosexual marriage is an important issue because it deals with a relatively large minority of the United States. This issue is important today with respect to many different ideas. There are so many ideas of morals, family values, and those of equality, constitutionality, and right to privacy. The aspect with the most relevance is constantly left up to debate. Homosexuals are 'gay' due to a combination of factors. These factors are environment and society-the outside influences- and genetics. Hence, homosexuals do not decide their own sexuality, nor do heterosexuals. Therefore, homosexuals should have the same rights as heterosexuals, one of these rights being marriage. This is why it is of great importance to public policy whether or not homosexuality is predetermined. I am not homosexual and I am not writing this to defend homosexuals. I just believe that the whole issue is unfair towards homosexuals. Marriage goes beyond the benefits, however. The institution of marriage is a very respected one, and holds much sentimental value for many people. In America, all men are to be created equally. Does this exclude homosexuals? Many think so simply because they believe that marriage is not a right, but a privilege. This argument means that because gays are not going to bring a child into the world naturally, they do not deserve the privilege of marriage. That doesn't seem fair. Different age groups hold their own opinions with marriage issues. Some young people, ages 18-25 are used to gays because gays have emerged in this generation. Middle aged people may feel fine with the issue or ticked off. People with families could feel that homosexual marriages around their community are different and unappealing. Older individuals have gone through the aging process and have not been familiar with gay issues until recently in the past twenty years. Since they are older, they are more old fashioned and are used to thinking the way they thought years and years ago. This is simply that a man and a woman fall in love, get married, have children and grow old together. But a homosexual marriage is an issue that these older citizens need to be faced with. Women make up majority of that older population and have a life expectancy that is longer than men's. As a result of longer lives, women are expected to experience chronic illnesses and disabilities. They are also more likely to live alone, be single and become poor in their old age. Visiting a cemetery, you can notice that the majority of the people deceased were elderly men. This concludes maybe that men were more of the hard workers before, who gave women the opportunity to take better care of themselves and in turn they lived longer lives. The elderly are treated differently all around the world. The percentage of elderly people in the United States has tripled since 1900, the population of elderly is expected to double between now and the year 2030. Not only is the number greater, but they are also living much longer. Even though there is a large population of elderly people in the United States, we as a society overlook them as if they aren't there. I think it is wonderful when I see

Medicalization Of Deviance Essays

Medicalization Of Deviance Essays Medicalization Of Deviance Paper Medicalization Of Deviance Paper In layman’s term medicalization of deviance can be explained medical tag to unethical and social behaviors. Medications are available to cure any and usually every disease from anxiety to drug addiction, homosexuality, vandalism, unattractiveness, mental disorder etc. Introduction The procedure through which functions previously recognized by religion and the law in terms of defining what is normal or desirable versus what is deviant being labeled by some of the medicine. As we move ahead with time, medicine has made its ground stronger. Mecialization of deviances has altered the prospect of criminal minded to sick. For example, due to medical involvement drug and alcoholic addicts punishment has been replaced due to many form of deviance. Advantages Medicalization of deviance has many positive sides to it. It has given civilized outlook to medical deviance. Legal and moral issues now have been given a shape of deviance. Acts are no more considered good or evil but sick or well. This deviance had also made many conditions legal. Treatments for these medical deviances are not looked down upon but given a lot of regards. Remedies for such social controls appear to be more effective and flexible (Schneider, W Joseph, Conrad, Peter, 1992). Disadvantages Like every term, medicalizaton of deviance also has darker aspects to it. It makes individual take undue advantage of their actions using it as an alibi. They become irresponsible and consider medicine morally neutral. All the immoral actions are given leverage under this umbrella. Social controls are managed through medical prescriptions and an individualistic approach is build for these complex problems (Schneider, W Joseph, Conrad, Peter, 1992). These deviance can also be an analysis of medicalization of disorders. Forms of Medicalization of Deviance After the spread of medicalization of deviance unaccepted appearance (obesity, short height, skin disease, unattractiveness), life events (Birth, death), unethical believes (racism, cast and creed, mental disorder) and actions (taking drugs, drinking alcohol, gambling, sexual activities, physical abuse) started to fall under this category. Creating deviance as illness grants a humanitarian standing making it different from evil or crime. Due to deviance the historic trend of tagging illness is now given a new term which is more civilized (McGann, PJ, Conraad, Peter. 2007). Medicalization of Deviance amongst athletes Taking drugs to stimulate an athletes’ performance is considered unethical in every field of sport. No theory or term can justify this act. It is the duty of an athlete to make sacrifices to achieve top performance, be regular with their practices, stay committed and perform well. Boosting performance by taking alcohol and justifying it by calling it cultural norms or peer pressure is in my opinion wrong. Athletes will do any or go to any extent to remain in the game. But that makes them cross their moral limits. Deviances amongst athletes can be positive and negative. Positive deviance is when someone sports man looses extra weight to fulfill their requirement (gymnastic, swimming, skating). These behaviors trail the standard of sports ethic from health to unhealthy extent. Where as in negative deviance athlete’s behavior crosses the ethics of sports ethics (missing practices, not performing well, disobeying coach) (Atkinson, Michael, Young, Kevin, 2008). Conclusion Medical terminologies have been now adopted to understand such disorders. In my opinions it is imperative to draw a thick line between actions and illness that should and should not fall under this category. Curing a drug addict is certainly not bad but doing drugs in defense of mental disorder is wrong. Deviance of medicines should avoid being used as an excuse. References Atkinson, Michael, Young, Kevin (2008). Deviance and Social Control in Sport. Human Kinetics McGann, PJ, Conraad, Peter. (2007). Materializaton of Deviance. Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology. Retrieved on July 9, 2009, from http://sitemaker. umich. edu/pjmcgann/files/mcgann___conrad_2007. pdf Schneider, W Joseph, Conrad, Peter. (1992) Deviance and Medicalization. Temple University Press.