Friday, January 21, 2011

Blog #2

Part of the reading that was due in class on January 19th was one of the appendix’s (A,B, or C).  Because the topic of research methods was just short of being pounded into the group, I decided to blog about my reading, Appendix A.  For those who did not read this, it is about the event of a female firefighter, Alice, coming into the world of many firefighters.  I am not going to give a summary of it, but there were a couple of points about normality that were very interesting and worth mentioning.   One of the first was the fact that one would assume that a female coming into a group of males would cause conflict and a sense of discomfort on many levels.  On some levels this may be true, but the author mentions that there is a sense of a kind of preconscious (meaning not completely aware of) compromise because “both she and the men on her shift must share some sort of common sense of what is and is not appropriate behavior” (200).  This is fascinating due to the fact that there is a shift the firefighters normality when Alice comes into the picture; however there is an overall sense of give and take which demonstrates that the way of life is not only constantly changing, but the individual is changing or adapting right along with it whether or not it is known to that person.  When interviewed, Alice mentioned how many of her male coworkers would apologize after swearing, which shows that they would still at in their norm, but soon realized that their norm had changed.  In addition to this, Alice mentioned how one particular coworker would purposely be crude and say sexual jokes in order to make her uncomfortable.  He was deliberately going out of his norm so that the thing interfering with his normal way of life at work would go away and things could return to his normal.  This can go to show that some people can handle a shift in their norm and some cannot.

On a personal note, I have had some experience with this.  I work at a daycare at an elementary school and have worked there for almost four years.  My company recently hired its first male employee ever since it has opened in 1988.  Now there was a definite shift in the norm at work, in my other coworkers, and myself.  For me, it did not take me long to return to where I felt comfortable, but I think it is fair to say that where my norm is not is not where it was a year ago.  Overall, it seems like the lesson to be learned here is obvious, there are changes that are going to shift your norm and your comfort level, but eventually you will change and adapt so you will gain a new norm.  I still wonder if there is ever a change that I cannot adapt to and what would happen in that case?

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