Pierre Bourdieu was a French social theorist that talked about habitus and bodily hexis. Habitus is a way of thinking, being, and knowing in an individual person. When we think about our behavior we do not always realize where we learned certain perceptions and attitudes. We might think that it is just the way we are, but in reality society imposes these things on us. We are all socialized to fit in to a certain structure, and we also reproduce and share our disposition with others. Our actions become a routine and are consistent with the social norms of the group we are interacting with. This makes our way of thinking hard to change. We also take what we learn and use it to our advantage to try and get as much power and success as possible. Bodily hexis explains why our disposition is so hard to change. It is a physical and mental memory that we use to know how to respond and act when certain things happen. I thought that these concepts were interesting because we all have individual ideas, but they are learned from outside sources. Our ideas are shaped based on the group that we are trying to interact with. What I wanted to do was try and think about how someone might act if they did not know anything about society. One example that came to mind was the Terminator movies. In these movies Arnold Schwarzenegger is a robot that was sent to the past to either hunt down and kill Sarah Connor (Terminator 1) or protect her son John (Terminator 2). As the terminator goes about his business he is sometimes put in to social situations where he does not act like a normal person would. It makes me think of the example from class where two guys are walking past each other and one guy says “Hi how are you?” and then the other punches him in the face. Since the terminator is a robot it can only think “logically” and has a hard time picking up on social norms and how to act around people. There are many examples of this but there are two that stick out in my mind. The first is from Terminator 2. When traveling back in time you cannot bring anything with you, not even clothes. The terminator ends up at a biker bar naked and you can tell that everyone is looking at him funny. You can see some of the women check him out, and other people stare at him with a confused look on their face. He then demands the clothes, boots and motorcycle from a biker. This starts a bar brawl, but he ends up getting what he wanted at the end. -The video gets violent about a minute and a half in- The second example is from the first Terminator movie. The terminator is sitting in a room loading his guns, when the janitor knocks on the door and asks him if there is a dead cat in the room. Not knowing how to respond, a list of phrases he heard people use scrolls down and he eventually chooses to say f*** you a** hole. The janitor looks confused and just walks away. The terminator then walks out of the room holding a big gun and scares the people in the hallway. -Don't watch if you don't want to hear him swear- These examples show just how important habitus really is. While the terminator doesn’t have to worry about things like embarrassment and pain the rest of us do. Without learning how to interact with different groups the terminator did not know what to do. I doubt there are many people that would walk in to a biker bar naked and start demanding things from the bikers. We know that the people in that group would probably not like that and end up hurting us. We also know that swearing and carrying large guns in public makes people more cautious about you. It is just not the way that people want to interact with someone. As time went on the terminator eventually learned how to better interact with people to get what he wanted, and that further proves how habitus helps you get what you want.
4 Comments
Christine Dixon
4/7/2013 12:46:42 am
I like this blog and you said something really key at the end. The terminator had to eventually learn to interact with people to get what he wanted. Why is that? The only way to get what we want in society, we have to act the way society want us to act? I think about same sex marriage reading that sentence. Same sex couples want the right to marriage without any grounds and stipulations the same way different sex individuals get married. However, because they are not “acting” the way society wants them to act when it comes to marriage and who they feel you should marry, they are given a hard time. Some states allow same sex marriage but not with the full benefits because they don’t fit the interactions a “typical” married couple should have. Not that I agree with this approval of same sex marriage because of what others may believe I have been socially constructed to believe however for the sake of an argument, it makes sense. This same concept can apply to other things. If you don’t interact in a nice way to someone who you may be asking a favor from, they would most likely not be willing to meet your needs. Your interaction to them would seem rude and therefore they may feel that because of your interaction, you don’t deserve anything from them. Interactions mean a lot to people and usually are the determining factor for many outcomes.
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Indira Orozco
4/7/2013 11:06:12 am
I like how you compared habitus and bodily hexis to the behaviors of the terminator. I talked about the same things in my blog, particularly how we attach meanings to things and just take them as reality – not realizing that we have been socialized to think a certain way. All of the “weird” behavior that the terminator displayed was only weird because we have not been socially constructed to think that way. It sounds really strange, but what is punching someone in the face was a normal response to hello, we would not think anything of it. Other examples of this would be differences across cultures. In one area of the world, doing a certain behavior might be unspeakable, while here in the United States could be a very normal and day-to-day thing. This is why when travelling to different countries; many people like to inform themselves of what is socially appropriate and what is not. These socially constructed parts of life begin being conditioned into our lives at a young age, does this mean that if we start to change the thoughts of children in regards to social norms, things could begin to change? Or would there need to be a significant amount of people participating in this change?
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Nguyen, S.
4/8/2013 01:41:01 am
This is a good example of habitus and bodily hexis and I like the videos you selected to demonstrate how the Terminator does not share or understand exactly these concepts. Another example I am reminded of is my father or any immigrant. Not always being able to keep up with current trends or exactly understanding cultures and customs would cause some immigrants to not really follow or care about how they are perceived by others. This is the case with my father. He does not care if he wears mismatched clothes or if he is wearing really old clothes. This is not exactly like the Terminator example of walking around naked but the sentiments are similar. When you are unaware of what is expected or what is considered normal, you can act in whatever way seems appropriate to you. I’m not exactly sure what you mean by how habitus gets you what you want. I do think habitus can make getting what you want easier, but there are always alternative routes to getting what you want. Do you think it is possible to live completely outside of what society imposes on us or are we basically doomed to follow society’s lead? It is easier to not be different or to not stick out. Would you be the individual that would like to change society’s view and if so, how would you go about that?
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Allison Hyatt
4/8/2013 07:48:49 am
I enjoyed your blog and how you related Bourdieu’s habitus and bodily hexis to the Terminator movies. It is true that society imposes ways we should act and behave in social situations, whether or not we actually realize that these behaviors are not truly our own free thinking. How you described the Terminator’s actions in social situation when he did not know “how to act” was interesting. This doesn’t just happen in science fiction though; it is quite common around the world when we interact with people from other cultures and countries. I haven’t done much traveling, but I have a friend who is Swedish and comes to visit every year. Even though Sweden is a European country with a culture not unlike our own, there are certain norms and ways of acting in Swedish culture that is very different for us as Americans. I found it strange at first, when my friend would come to visit and, for example we would go out to the bar. As an American, when going out and having a drink with friends there is never a lull in the conversation. My Swedish friend however, would sit quietly without saying a word for minutes at a time. There have even been some awkward silences, but what I later found out is that is a common way of acting in Sweden. Basically, my friend doesn’t make “small talk” and I had to learn that the hard way! How else do you think our perceptions, attitudes and social norms can change across different cultures and societies?
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