Page 149 - Essencials of Sociology

122 CHAPTER 4 Social Structure and Social Interaction

body covered by a drape sheet. The doctor seats himself on a low stool before the woman and
says, “Let your knees fall apart” (rather than the sexually loaded “Spread your legs”), and
begins the examination.

The drape sheet is crucial in this process of desexualization, for it dissociates the pel-
vic area from the person: Leaning forward and with the drape sheet above his head, the
physician can see only the vagina, not the patient’s face. Thus dissociated from the indi-
vidual, the vagina is transformed dramaturgically into an object of analysis. If the doctor
examines the patient’s breasts, he also dissociates them from her person by examining
them one at a time, with a towel covering the unexamined breast. Like the vagina, each
breast becomes an isolated item dissociated from the person.
In this third scene, the patient cooperates in being an object, becoming, for all practi-
cal purposes, a pelvis to be examined. She withdraws eye contact from the doctor and
usually from the nurse, is likely to stare at a wall or at the ceiling, and avoids initiating
conversation.
Scene 4 (from pelvic to person) In this scene, the patient is “repersonalized.” The doc-
tor has left the examining room; the patient dresses and fixes her hair and makeup. Her
reemergence as a person is indicated by such statements to the nurse as “My dress isn’t too
wrinkled, is it?” showing a need for reassurance that the metamorphosis from “pelvic” back
to “person” has been completed satisfactorily.

Scene 5 (the patient as person) In this final scene, sometimes with the doctor seated at
a desk, the patient is once again treated as a person rather than as an object. The doctor
makes eye contact with her and addresses her by name. She, too, makes eye contact with
the doctor, and the usual middle-class interaction patterns are followed. She has been
fully restored.
In Sum: For an outsider to our culture, the custom of women going to male strangers
for a vaginal examination might seem bizarre. But not to us. We learn that pelvic exami-
nations are nonsexual. To sustain this definition requires teamwork—doctors, nurses,
and the patient working together to socially construct reality.
It is not just pelvic examinations or our views of germs that make up our definitions
of reality. Rather, our behavior depends on how we define reality. Our definitions (our con-
structions of reality) provide the basis for what we do and how we view life. To under-
stand human behavior, then, we must know how people define reality.

The Need for Both Macrosociology
Explain why we need
4.4
both macrosociology and and Microsociology
microsociology to understand
social life. As noted earlier, we need both macrosociology and microsociology. Without one or the
other, our understanding of social life would be vastly incomplete. The photo essay on
the next two pages should help to make clear why we need both perspectives.
To illustrate this point, consider two groups of high school boys studied by sociolo-
gist William Chambliss (1973/2014). Both groups attended Hanibal High School.
In one group were eight middle-class boys who came from “good” families and were
perceived by the community as “going somewhere.” Chambliss calls this group the
“Saints.” In the other group were six lower-class boys who were seen as headed down a
dead-end road. Chambliss calls this group the “Roughnecks.”
Boys in both groups skipped school, got drunk, got in fights, and vandalized
property. The Saints were actually truant more often and involved in more vandal-
ism, but the Saints had a good reputation. The Roughnecks, in contrast, were seen
by teachers, the police, and the general community as no good and headed for
trouble.