Social Theory
Biased?
Marx, Weber and Durkheim; in
my opinion, those are the three most known theorists/sociologists. Their work ethic, their ideas and their knowledge have always been out there and are very
important and read by many people until this day. As Joe Sprague states “the
holy trinity of Marx, Weber and Durkheim not only dominates education in
Sociological Theory but also prominent in practice” (Sprague, 89). However,
there are many important theorists and sociologists with amazing work ethic out
there that are not as known. There are many topics in Sociology that are not as
focused on as it should be. That brings me to the conclusion of how Social
Theory can be biased and I really didn’t know or understand that until I read
Sprague’s intake on feminists critiques of mainstream social theory. The three
main categories in which recurrent critique focus on is the hierarchy of the
social, problematic analytic categories and the social role of social
theory.
With the Hierarchy of the
social, feminists critiques focus on how theorists employ a pattern of selective
attention in which creates a stratification of social life. “Feminists
criticizes social theory for essentially ignoring what Aptheker (1989) calls the
“dailiness”of ordinary lives, the struggle to preserve the quality of life for
your family in the face of exploitation and oppression to hold onto and nurture
a positive sense of self in a culture that demeans and devalues you” (Sprague
91).The point that they are trying to make is how we ignore majority of our
population. We only focus on one half that and forget the rest. For Dominant
Analytic Categories, feminists critiques focus on how “logical dichotomy, the
tendency to make sense of phenomena by opposing them to others in a construction
that is represented as mutually exclusive and exhaustive” (Sprague, 91).They
also critique the meaning of the word “individual” and how in the modern era,
the meaning of an “individual” is the opposite of a collectively. The
distinction between paid and domestic labor and how women (mainly women of
color) have been blocked from waged work except for child care and paid domestic
labor. For the social role of social theory, feminists critiques how “the social
role of theorists is one of monk like detachment only abstractly connected, if
at all, to any sense of responsibly to other communities” (Sprague, 93).
After reading Sprague intake
on feminist’s critiques, I can relate that to real life examples in many ways.
For example, feminists critique how “the disciplinary of division of “work” and
“family”hides the work of caring for a family” (Sprague, 93). My aunt and uncle
have to work every day to provide for their children and family. They have 4
kids and a small house. The oldest kid is about 10 years old. They have been
through babysitters, child care and nannies. They have been through all of that
and more just so they can find have that breathing room and are able to work and
provide for their children. They work more than 40 hours a week and are always
exhausted however, many of my relatives ignore how they are doing it for the
care of their family. They say things like “it’s their fault that they didn’t
work harder when they were younger and before they got their children so they
won’t have to go through hard times like this”. They ignore the fact that they
are going through all of that hard work now to provide that for their family.
They ignore the fact that my aunt and uncle are WORKING for the care and love
for their family.
Just like how feminists
think that social theory is biased, I think men are biased as well. This may be
on a totally different subject, but I thought of sports right away. I am a
female yet I love sports, especially football and basketball. However, many men
say things to me like “you’re a female, you shouldn’t watch sports” or “you
should go to the kitchen and cook when football is played on Sundays”. How is that not biased and wrong? Just
because the NBA and NFL (what I mainly watch) is played by a bunch of males,
does that give them the right to say prejudice things like that? Does that give
them the right to think that I shouldn’t be able to watch the NFL just because
I am a female? As Sprague gave us the knowledge on how feminists critique
Social Theory being Biased, I am one feminist that critiques men being biased
towards females in certain situations.