Tyler's Status Symbols

The above photo is from Life magazine during Hillary Clinton's campaign in the Democratic primary against Barack Obama. I believe that it represents a common portrayal in the media that an ideal goal in life is to end up in a long-term marriage and remain happy with that person for the rest of your life. When observing political candidates, they are often showed happily with their spouse --apparently to say that they themselves are in a stable, American nuclear family. I also specifically picked the Clintons because of the scandal during Bill Clinton's presidency in the '90s. There was a huge public outrage and the impeachment of Bill Clinton because of his "sexual relations" with another women. Because of the huge negative reaction to the event, I think it strongly supports that we value commitment as a society, if not in ourselves then at least in the people we choose to represent us.

This photo is a comic that pokes fun at the fact that many people in our society are afraid of commitment. Furthermore, I don’t think it is a coincidence that the photo features men. I don't know whether or not it is true, but it is often portrayed in American society that men are afraid of commitment. The issue commonly portrayed is that women just want to start a family and men want to continue to be a bachelor for as long as they can. In relation to my commentary on the Clinton status symbol, I believe that our society does value commitment, but we see that as something we hope to eventually find down the road, not something we want to currently worry about.

Ethan's Status Symbols

In U.S. culture the pressure for people to conform to normalcy is seen in almost every aspect of our society. This idea that to be truly happy in life you have to have the perfect wife, kids, house and job is still a very prominent concept. My first status symbol shows one idea of what the perfect family might look like. A mom, dad, and two adorable kids who all look as if they do not have a care in the world. For many couples this is one of the most important goals they will work towards in life. With all the pressure from peers and media alike is it really any wonder that people these days rush into marriage? With couples rushing to get to that "perfect place" in life commitment seems to become less and less important. This pressure in our society to conform to the lifestyle represented by my first status symbol is making commitment a thing of the past.



http://www.completecase.com/?referrer=google&campaign=divorce

With the growing number of couples who rush into the commitment of marriage these days divorce is becoming the norm in U.S. culture. Not long ago in our society divorce was not some fad that many in our society are taking part in. It used to be that marriage really was "for better or worse" and when times got hard you worked on them or you waited it out. In my second status symbol, a website for easy divorce, you can see just how commonplace getting divorced has become. Why go through the pain, energy, and hard work that staying in a marriage takes when bailing on them is so easy, as this website explains. The completecase website claims that getting a divorce online is fast and easy. Making light of one of the most sacred commitments our culture has it seems wrong that getting a divorce has become so much easier than actually working out your problems. As these trends continue to climb the meaning behind the word commitment will become more and more obscured in the U.S. culture.

Danya's status symbols

Your relationship status on Facebook can show a lot about you.

Because of the casual nature of hook ups in our society the Plan B pill has become a very common today. People have the the comfort of knowing they can take this pill in the morning if they choose to have unprotected sex or if something unexpected happens.

2010 Divorce Rates

http://marriage101.org/divorce-rates-in-america/

I think that it is interesting that the more marriages you have the more likely they will fail, or be given up on. Your first marriage is the one with the highest chance of succeeding.

Amanda's Status Symbols

The first status symbol is an article from the November 2010 issue of Glamour magazine about friends with benefits and is represented by the large picture. The article that accompanied the picture defines friends with benefits as a non-committed sexual relationship and features two different personal accounts from woman who have been in such a relationship. One woman writes about how friends with benefits its unrealistic because eventually one of the parties will develop feelings. However, a different female author describes a non-committal relationship that was great for her. She says that this situation works for her and her partner because they are ‘in-between’ lovers. This shows that people are avoiding relationships, and commitments, and that the media approves of that.

The second status symbol is from WebMD where I found a great picture representing divorced families as well as explains five major mistakes to avoid when dealing with a divorced spouse. The five tips are as follows: 1. Don’t make your child the messenger, 2. Don’t make your child your therapist, 3. Don’t try to ‘get’ your kid, 4, Ask questions and be interested in the time your child spends with your ex-partner and 5. Apologize and attempt to repair the damage you have done to your child’s life. Divorced parents who are still committed to raising children together are great examples of a common type of commitment in the United States.

Ann's Status Symbols

The following status symbol is a website designed to connect individuals who want to have affairs:

http://www.ashleymadison.com/

This website was the single most shocking and influential status symbol I encountered all semester. I can’t believe there’s actually a dating service for strictly married people! To me this seems to be a huge failing of our society’s moral standards. If one were to look at just this website, one would think that any sense of commitment in our culture is completely a thing of the past.

This next article was originally published in The New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/fashion/29FamilyMatters.html

This article claims that Americans are now more likely to live vicariously through “divorce porn,” such as the book and movie, Eat, Pray, Love, than they are to actually get divorced. While I think that this might be an emerging phenomenon, I certainly don’t think that it’s true for the majority of Americans. The divorce rate is still incredibly high.

Kayla's Status Symbols

Another symbol of commitment found was:

When I was searching I found this picture of a wedding/promise ring circling around commitment. This is a display of another way our society views commitment to be. People are putting commitment with a ring and therefore insinuating that commitment usually only reflected when a couple is married. I felt as though in today’s society couples only view true commitment as marriage, another reason many couples rush in marriage when they don't know what kind of love they actually want but want a commitment.