Ascribed and Achieved Status

Ascribed and achieved status tends to be a critical discussion in social science courses, especially sociology due to Ralph Linton, a sociologist who coined the term when discussing social structures. I’ve incorporated a short you tube video that discusses the basic meanings to supplement the article, "A Clarification of 'Ascribed Status' and 'Achieved Status' " by Irving S. Foladare.

Foladare's article concerns the misrepresentation of these terms to represent "individual variation" rather then the representation of social structure as a whole, which may be culturally variant but not individually subjective. Thus, he states that "the concepts of 'ascribed status' and 'achieved status' are designed to indicate structural properties of social systems" and individuals cannot determined if their status will be shifted (Foladare 54). Therefore, what he is ultimately saying is it is not up to the individual to give themselves a self-ascribed status because it is not socially recognized; the 'ascribed' or 'achieved' status muse be recognized by the given social structure. Foladare brings to light the misuse of Leo F. Schnore's further development of these terms in his use of 'reversible status' and 'irreversible status'. Schnore has deviated from Lipton's terminology because according to Foladare his "conceptualization is both empirically inaccurate and an additional source of departure from the social structural significance of the concepts (Foladare 54)." With this in mind though I have found comparative themes between Foladare's explanation of 'achieved status' and 'ascribed status' and Schnore's concept of 'reversible status' and 'irreversible status' to compliment "Medicalizing Homosexuality" and "Regulated Passions: The invention of inhibited sexual desire and sexual addiction."

The medicalization of homosexuality and experiences such as inhibited sexual desire (ISD) and sexual addiction are applied by medical authority, the historical context and theoretical approach have changed but the similar theme is that the medicalization has often reverted to an explanation of social status as well as self-identity. In the case of "Medicalizing Homosexuality" medical practitioners have been interested in homosexuality because of the 'abnormal desire' man had for another man (41), furthermore the homosexual body has been seen for centuries as "like savage bodies (40-41)." Ulrichs explained homosexuality as a "inborn benign anomaly" or as a third sex. Terry noted that his concept of homosexuality "was an attribute of a particular type of person, marked by the paradoxical presence of characteristics of both sexes (Terry 43). She also noted that the scientific approach he offered would be helpful in decriminalizing homosexuality because it was "inborn." Ulrichs concept represents ascribed status in the sense that he argues homosexuality is assigned prior to living in a given environment. According to Schnore biological sex is ascribed irreversible however he doesn't present sexuality or gender which in Ulrichs understanding of homosexuality would be ascribed reversible (Foladare Figure 1, 55).

Furthermore, the concept of nervous degeneration represents achieved status and how homosexuality can be achieved and reversible with increased maturity. According to Krafft-Ebing "The medical investigator is driven to the conclusion that this manifestation of modern life [homosexuality] stands in relation to the predominating nervous condition of later generations, in that it begets defective individuals (Terry 45)." The homosexual in this case has presented a achieved reversible status because with the struggles of modern life they have supposedly turned to homosexuality but have a means of reversing this sexual orientation. Foladare confirms that " 'Achieved statuses' are those in categories of statuses for which the society accepts change by individuals and, in many cases, expects efforts toward change in given directions (58)."

Krafft-Ebing correlates homosexuality with primitive human beings who are have not evolved as modern human beings (Terry 46). Terry states that to Krafft-Ebing "sexual dimorphism and monogamous procreative heterosexuality were taken to be indicators of evolutionary progress and maturity (46)" Likewise, Foladore states that " 'Achieved statuses' are those in categories of statues for which the society accepts change by individuals and, in many cases, expects efforts toward change in given directions (58)." A key term used in this statement is "expects" because as society expects these changes that are in term accepted by society, it is also expected that homosexuals eventually mature into acceptable human beings, in Krafft-Ebing's concepts.

Foladore's discusses in depth the change and fluidity of status with collective societies approval, he comes to the conclusion that "the essential point is that in their status categories change is not acceptable to the society. People are expected to be heterosexual males or heterosexual females, assigned one or the other on the basis of their biological characteristics (59)." Deviant statuses therefore illustrate a contradiction between societies ascribed status to the individual (Foladore 58-59). Therefore what is acceptable and unacceptable is determined collectively by the society however it is also decided by the popular authority. In the case of "Regulated Passions" it is the medical practitioner that assigns authority and meaning; "...The discursive elaboration of disease is shaped by myriad and complex factors, including the ideological and economic imperatives of the defining professions (Irvine 317)."

In Irvine's article he argues that "Diseases are artifacts with social history and social practice (314)" and they have created "medically legitimated boundaries of acceptable contemporary sexual experience (315)." These statements have forced me to turn to the concept of achieved status and how whole populations can be transformed due to class labeling and/or medicalization of experiences. The disease described in "Regulated Passions" as inhibited sexual desire and sexual addiction are admitted as being subjective to the individual and unable to medically define and apply universally (Irvine 322). With this in mind, subjective diseases correlate more so with the individualized theme behind "irreversible" and "reversable" statues to compliment "ascribed" and "achieved". Foladore argues that the first noted states are dependent on "individual variation" (53) rather then part of social structures.

The main point that I have strived to achieve is that according to Foladore "achieved statuses" and "ascribed statuses" are fundamental to understanding human behavior and therefore this may be the reasoning behind ascribing homosexuality to a type of status (i.e. primitive). These statues also represent the concept behind medicalization, and that is attempting to apply a universal notion to a very diverse population. On the individual level, which is subjective, it should be looked at after considering "reversible" and irreversible" statuses because it does not properly incorporate the social structures in place. In order to understand why these theories were formed and how even passion was medicalized it is essential to look a social structures in place.

Artificial Insemination, Pleasure and Reproduction

Artificial insemination is relatively common today for single women or lesbians. In the dramatic television series “The L Word” the lesbian couple, Bette and Tina, decide to use this procedure to have a baby together. After much consideration they have chosen to use their friend’s sperm in order to have their own biological child, instead of seeking adoption. The most common method of artificial insemination in referred to as intracervical insemination, which mimics male and female sexual intercourse. For instance, the sperm is injected by a syringe into the cervix compare to the sperm is injected in the cervix pathway by a penis. The replication of sex can be done with the assistance of doctor, but also in the home. Bette and Tina decide to do this procedure after a sexual night together; it is referred to as intravaginal insemination when taking place outside of a doctor’s office. In this excerpt from the episode “Let’s Do It!” of “The L Word” Bette and Tina have their own syringe of their friends sperm and insert it after a intimate night together, later you see Tina with her legs together making sure that the sperm has reached the inside of the cervix in order to impregnate her. These scenes illustrate two sides of intravaginal insemination; first a steamy sex scene by Bette and Tina to open up the cervix for sperm followed by a scene where Tina is trying with all her might to make sure that the sperm has reached its destination, the second scene representing the trials and tribulations of not having a penis handy for impregnating Tina.

“New Science, One Flesh” illustrates the theories behind pleasure and reproduction and the necessity for (or lack of) female orgasm. Columbus argues that the clitoris is the site of a women’s pleasure and that this is similar to how pleasure is exerted by the male penis—through sperm (66). He states, “…without these protuberances [the clitoris] which I have faithfully described to you earlier, women would neither experience delight in venereal embraces nor conceive any fetuses (66). However other claims argue that female orgasm is not necessary for conception, “the so-called female seed was essentially irrelevant to conception and that female orgasm was still more irrelevant…women purportedly told him [Giles of Rome] that they had conceived without emission and presumably orgasm (67).” As our studies show today and the author points out it is pretty evident that women do not need to reach orgasm in order to conceive and women who do not orgasm can still conceive (67). For Bette and Tina they emphasis in the this episode that the sexual interaction was crucial to their experience however Tina with her legs in the air trying to make sure the sperm gets to its reproductive home shows that orgasm was not necessary for her to get pregnant it was a matter of biology.

In the section ‘Orgasim and Conception’ from “New Science, One Flesh” Lacquer presents again the idea that the “sperm” of the female serves no purpose except to assist in the please making process. Laquer presents Lemnius’ point of view where “woman’s womb is not simply ‘hired by men’ (99).” In The L Word it is portrayed that the lesbian couple is actually hiring the male sperm to serve their needs. The fact that Bette and Tina share “delight and concussion” does not infer that they will conceive a child because they do not have the sperm inside their bodies however they are able to do so through artificial insemination. However, Bette and Tina also represent “The heat (orgasm) nexus” because they interact sexually in order to open the cervix for the sperm; this was recommended earlier in the episode when they were visiting the doctor.

In the introduction to the episode (I was unable to find a link to this portion) the doctor recommends that Bette pleasure Tina in order to have a better success rate with insemination because they were having problems with getting pregnant. Laquer states that:

“Since the statistical analysis of conception has evolved only very recently, and since doing nothing therapeutically has a remarkable chance of success in curing infertility, it seems probably that almost any advice Renaissance healers happened to give their patients regarding sexual heat and please must have appeared to work often enough to confirm the model on which it was based (Laquer 100).”

After this episode Tina does get pregnant using this method of insemination therefore reiterating the point that although there really is not inherent connection to orgasms and reproduction it happens in correlation often enough that it becomes engrained in reproductive knowledge like it did during the Renaissance. Many of the notions from the history of reproductive theories are actually reiterated in this episode of The L Word and artificial insemination; “To produce sufficient heat in women, talk and teasing were regarded as a good beginning (Laquer 100).” Hence, the episode illustrates the foreplay prior to inserting the semen using a syringe by Bette.

Although medical knowledge has changed drastically pertaining to women’s reproductive ability and the relation with orgasm. I found that this episode reiterates the historical notions of being able to conceive. However, I do believe that these past medical leaders would have scoffed at the idea of lesbians being able to conceive a child and the method of artificial insemination.

Validity behind PRS, PTSD and Brain Scans

United States medical officers who witnessed Puerto Rican soldiers going into states of “anxiety, rage, psychotic symptoms, and unpremeditated suicidal attempts (Gherovici 29)” originally coined the Puerto Rican Syndrome (PRS). The symptoms were applied to Puerto Ricans specifically because the medical officers believed it was a cultural phenomenon that was only exhibited by these soldiers returning from the Korean War. The United States medical officers ultimately placed Puerto Ricans in a zone as exhibiting hysteria from their cultural experiences prior to going into war; it was said to develop from “common folk beliefs,” multiple personality disorder and even “an indication of a higher rate of organic brain disorder among Puerto Ricans (Gherovici 30).” To the medical officials and psychoanalysts the application of this disease was considered a culture-bound syndrome that developed through their social environment, however Gherovici also notes “the syndrome taken globally is often described as a ‘normal’ reaction within Hispanic culture (31).” Thus, it is evident that there have been cases made that construct the symptoms of PRS as strictly Puerto Rican but also evidence that shows these symptoms as seen on a more global scale. Ultimately though, the definition of PSR by the U.S. medical officers “superficially stereotyped an entire national group and transformed a customary experience into a serious mental health problem with an eccentric location. Thus the Puerto Rican Syndrome was coined as a new illness category for an otherwise culturally accepted normal manifestation (Gherovici 35).” The invention of Puerto Rican Syndrome by Western ideology labeled Puerto Ricans exhibiting these symptoms as having a severe mental disorder that needed psychiatric treatment and ignored the same manifestations of symptoms in U.S. veterans and thus made the mental illness a cultural bound syndrome that was most certainly seen in other veterans as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (Gherovici 33-34).

The problem with applying this mental disorder to Puerto Ricans is that it redefines these once culturally accepted experiences. In “Picturing the Brain Inside, Revealing the Illness Outside” Cohn argues that for patients who are able to see their symptoms materialized through brain scan pictures “the images might instrumentally redefine patients’ everyday experiences of illness (Cohn 67).” As Cohn explains there are several meanings that can be attributing to these images, for instance the ability to provide “proof” to families and friends that there is a concrete reason for their mental illness. “The image both locates and contains the illness but consequently allows it to move to the external and in so doing can now be a social object (Cohn 77).” As Cohn exhibits applying an image to a mental disorder creates a different experience for the patient; thus applying a westernized mental illness to a culturally different group of people also changes their experience. PRS ultimately, “[accepted] the scientific validity of an ‘imported’ diagnoses for ‘domestic’ manifestation. [Puerto Rican physicians] readily adopted a new diagnosis that rendered pathological an experience that was socially normative and personally normal (Gherovici 36).”

It was evident that the U.S. army psychiatrists and medical officials relied on “the American scientific model that overemphasized the validity of the foreign diagnostic category and underestimated the interpretations of their [Puerto Ricans] own culture (Gherovici 38).” The U.S. army officials were able to medicalize their interpretative and ignored the cultural and political environment and implications (Gherovici 38). Cohn argues that when “patients who are committed to using the scans as way of radically rethinking their illness actually have new difficulties to face (Cohn 80).” In the same sense Puerto Ricans exhibiting hysteria, originally culturally acceptable, are forced to rethink their mental illness in terms of Western science and in turn effects how they perceive their experiences (as stated earlier). In Young’s article, “A Description of How Ideology Shapes Knowledge of a Mental Disorder (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder)” the same concept is evident in how the treatment program reshapes their illness to correspond to the ideology and therapeutic work. Young argues that although most patients say they have had positive behavioral changes this could be simply because of change in environment, “The point I [Young] want to underline is that these changes do not develop over the course of the treatment program, but appear at or soon after admission” and the “therapeutic changes…may be rooted in circumstances, especially abstinence, that are not specific to the treatment program (Young 112-123).” PRS has done the same to Puerto Rican soldiers because it has forced them to change their mentality of what they are experiencing and transforming it to a medical condition, which changes their “treatment program.”

Gherovici states that, “symptoms grouped under the label Puerto Rican syndrome produce antagonistic and inappropriate classification because they do not constitute coherent symptom sets. In fact, the invention of the Puerto Rican Syndrome has been purely ideological (Gherovici 70).” This is also evident in how patients receiving their brain scans view their mental illness afterwards. “The scans inescapably are an entanglement of both the moral and biological dimensions of what is identified as mental illness (Cohn 81).” Cohn argues that science places a meaning on the brain scans that in turn gives the patient a means of interpretation—their illness is more real if they can see it and show it to others, although this also presents many changes on how the validity of their illness is perceived by society. In the Institute for the Treatment of PTSD veterans are subject to a particular ideology that shapes how they enter the program, must acknowledge their issue and how it development and relive traumatic situations in order to cope with their mental illness. In this institute patients are suppose to get better through strict rules, running a program that places mental burdens on staff, uses staff that do not have a whole lot of training in order to produce and restructure the knowledge of the individual suffering from PTSD (Young 117-118). The institute uses their ideology to “medicalize the past” and in turn helps patients use this to take “moral responsibility” for the present. By medicalizing mental illness in these three situations it has ultimately changed the experience for Puerto Rican war veterans, bran scan viewers and male veterans at this specific institute for Vietnam veterans.

Dove for Public Health

Dove, commonly known for their soaps, also has become widely recognized as a company that campaigns for self esteem and claims the voice of "Real Women." The Dove "Campaign for Real Beauty" is basically a social movement to promote that the women in ad campaigns, on TV and in magazines should not be idolized or admired because they are not the best representation of women in our society, hence the notion of "Real Women." Their idea of "Real Women" tends to exclude the fact that supermodels, skinny girls, and icons feel stress to be perfect as well and live up to societies standards. Their slogan, "Real Women with Real Bodies and Real Curves" ignores that their our people that cannot relate to this idea of health and well being. The images above illustrate their campaign for their Dove firming products and using them on "Real Women with Real Curves" however I find this advertising to also point at the notion that a "Real Women" needs to firm up those "Real Curves" to in order to appeal to our society. It seems that they are using this campaign to sell products to a wider range of people and influence them that this product will really work because it works on "Real Women."

Chapter 1: The new public health: a new morality and Chapter 2: Epidemiology: governing by numbers in The New Public Health and Self in the Age of Risk by Alan Petersen and Deborah Lupton had various keys points that reminded me of the Dove campaign and the concepts behind the "Real Women Campaign." The introduction to Chapter 1 illustrates how there is a growing consciousness and attention to the physical body and regiments to control the body, "there is also a new consciousness of risks that are believed to lie belong the individual's control but which are viewed as, ultimately, a result of human activity (Petersen & Lupton 1)." In relation to the Dove ad campaign their has definitely been a growing consciousness of the body and how it should be portrayed, however the individual has the control to view popular images how they want although it is depicted by human activity. For example Dove recognized the growing discontent with women not be able to relate to mainstream medias portrayal of the perfect women and saw the opportunity to lower the risk of low self-esteem. Thus, the concept that the consciousness of attention to "body shape, diet and exercise" is beyond an individual's control but within the confines of a result of human activity.

Petersen and Lupton argues that "A properly managed environment is therefore essential, not only to improve health but indeed to ensure human survival (16)." I think Dove has attempted to change the environment (United States society) to ensure that no women experiences low self esteem or questions their beauty to improve self image and therefore in a sense ensure human survival. However, the values of being perfect (i.e. using firming skin lotion) overtake what Dove's original mission was instead they are reinforcing ideals they claim to be breaking down.

The section on "Self-Regulation and Body Management" illuminated many correlations with Dove's campaign for real beauty. Petersen and Lupton present the consumer culture as a struggle for self-identity and separating self from social norms (23). The authors argue that the "attention to the 'healthy body' " is also "concerned with how we present our bodies to ourselves and to others (Petersen & Lupton 23)." This is ultimately how the Dove campaign was shaped, primarily because they recognized the idea of the perfect body and then related it to how women have a negative body image therefore they developed how women were presented to change where the attention to the "health body" is placed. As I have stated previously the image of the body presented by Dove is changed but the ideology behind achieving the perfect body has not. This is illustrated too in the readings, "the body is continually shaped by social, cultural and economic processes," the conception of the body is continually changing but it is not just about a change of physical body through advertisement--the words needs to match the image.

The idea of firming thighs that are more REAL perplexed me because of the way Dove approached the word real, like those that are skinny and don't have cellulite aren't real people with a different form of real beauty. In the reading we see how the body is shaped differently during different time periods, "all testaments to changing notions of what is considered both attractive and health (Petersen & Lupton 23)." Dove should take this to heart and celebrate beauty in all shapes and during all timelines. It seems that health promotion with dove really concentrates on the power of body image and the body as a force to be reckoned with, hence the firming cream or even anti-aging soaps. Petersen and Lupton illustrate this theme, "the strategy of health promotion...Adopts the conceptualization of the body as a writing surface, subject to visible changes wrought by bodily practices (23). For claiming to promote self esteem Dove is really reiterating the theme that "the new public health [is] arranged around aesthetics" and thus people avoid certain behaviors to be aesthetically pleasing (Petersen & Lupton 24).

Chapter 2 reiterates the problems I found with Doves ad campaign that they are generalizing real women to women who feel uncomfortable about themselves and don't appreciate the variety in body image we have in our culture. On various articles I read on Dove's ad campaigns for Real Women with Real Beauty I found that they focused on arbitrary numbers to prove that it is so rare for a women to feel comfortable with themselves after looking at mainstream media (which may be true but still). Epidemiology emerged as a way to classify characteristics of populations and as a way to define people in specific way to measure theories about people (Petersen and Lupton 28-29). In a way Dove is using the same structure to categorize real women against fake.

The authors identify that numbers are related to how culture changes through time and ignoring this will achieve little (Peterson & Lupton 34-35). This is relevant the view that the perfect body image has also been the same and isn't evolving. It is crucial to note that Dove is taking all perspectives with a grain a salt and influencing women to build their confidence through products that fit the type of individual they are, rather then the type of people we see in billboards or magazine. Peterson and Lupton argue in relation to epidemiology that "changes in perception are...Tied to broader social, cultural and political changes that shape what kinds of knowledges are considered to be important and which 'facts should be pursue and publicized (36)." Dove should recognize the variety of aspects that play into body image and self-esteem; rather then placing the blame on fake women we can also blame commodification of goods that are suppose to make us feel beautiful.