If you’re a girl, you’ve probably been angry at a friend if
she’s ever put ‘dicks before chicks’ or if you’re a guy, if your mate put ‘hoes
before bro’s’. Why is that? Is there some law that says you can’t do that? No,
there isn’t, it is simply what one would refer to as either girl code or bro
code. That is, whilst these ‘rules’ are not specifically written down anywhere,
if they are broken, the person that broke them is going to be somewhat frowned
upon. That has to do with this week’s topic, The Social and Moral Order in
talk. I’m doing my group presentation on this topic, so I actually spent some
time delving into in a little more depth.
In the reading, Weilman refers to the convict code and how
the convicts had these unwritten rules, the most important one being ‘don’t
snitch’. What I found interesting is that clearly these people had difficulty
abiding by actual laws; however, they didn’t have as much of a hard time
following the rules of a social code. I was always aware there were these
social codes, but never really understood that there was so many different
social codes that I clearly am not involved in. I found this article that talks
about the technical code and how we behave on the internet. Flanagin, (2009)
says that with the emergence of things like the internet, our codes become
different to what they are in face to face interaction. I find this interesting
because there seems to be two separate social codes for face to face and over a
screen. I’m hoping this information may be consolidated with the stuff we learn
in the mediated identity topic. My group and I found this video that shows
someone not knowing the social code.
It’s Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory being is awkward, socially inept
self. Enjoy
I also found the concept of method of interpretation quite
interesting. Every time I’ve always thought “that doesn’t make sense”, I have
somehow tried to twist around in my head to make it make sense. When someone
has done something that seems out of the norm, I have never personally just
said “that was just not normal”, I have always tried to justify what they did. I
don’t know if this is going into unchartered and gross ground, but every time a
female around me is snappy, I always think in my head “it must be that time of
the month”, because she doesn’t normally interact like that. And I am often met with that same response
when I am a little bit snappy. Because it wouldn’t make sense for someone to
JUST BE snappy, would it?
Wieder, DL 1974, 'Telling the code', in Ethnomethodology: Selected Readings, Penguin Education, Hardmondsworth, pp. 144-172
Flanagin, A., Flanagin, C., & Flanagin, J. (2009)
Technical code and the social construction of the internet, New Media and Society, 12(2), 179-196.
I made a comment this week
HI I FOUND YOU!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your constructive comment, it was very helpful :P
DeleteP.S I found you too!
Hahaha. I like the video example of Sheldon and all his awkward glory. Sheldon kind of reminds me of the main character of Bones, she is also a socially inept and awkward self. Back to the concept of Social and Moral order of talk it is interesting to see why we actually classify people as awkward. It has been discovered through studies because of social codes and conduct and individuals either adhering or deviating from them. Your blog which I can say is much more interesting than mine does a great job at explaining and demonstrating the social and moral codes in talk as discussed by Wieder but also by the example that you chose, Flanagan. It is an interesting concept that we uphold the social code of sisters before misters and bros before hoes and yeah I know the feeling when a friend does put their 'other half' before the girls lol they receive the evils and sometimes the silent treatment and that is because it's a social code ingrained in us through society and institutions as well as interpersonal interactions. Just another example I found with the social codes between girls and guys is from the show 'How I Met Your Mother'.
ReplyDeleteA bit of an interesting read just how the bro code is maintained but also the consequences faced with one if there is deviation from the codes.
http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/356/2/i-get-by-with-a-little-help-from-my-bros--an-analysis-of-the-male-homosocial-relationship-on-how-i-met-your-mother
Thanks for the comment and for the further reading, I like HIMYM, so it was interesting :)
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