Thinking about what the fuck is really going on here
Okay, I'm a "sociologist who writes about stuff," but what exactly is sociology?
This semester, I’m teaching senior seminar again, a class for senior sociology majors in which they reflect on their college career. Part of that is looking back on what it means to be a sociology major and what sociology is. Prepping this course made me realize that though I describe this newsletter as, “a sociologist writes about stuff,” I’ve never actually explained what sociology is or what sociology means to me.
One of the things we do in senior seminar is to work on a one-sentence description of the discipline. This is to prepare students for a lifetime of being asked, “What is sociology?”1 This is not something psychology or economics majors need to do. People believe they know what psychology and economics are, even if they’re wrong. Most people have no idea what sociology is. They make assumptions, usually conflating it with psychology or social work. And it does have some things in common with both those disciplines, but it is also very much it’s own thing.
I’ve written before about C. Wright Mills who famously described sociology as the intersection of history and biography. The sociological imagination encourages us to see how our personal troubles are also public issues. The soul-sucking burnout so many of us are feeling right now? That’s not a personal trouble. It’s a widespread phenomenon that comes from two years of pandemic living. We are done. Exhausted. And we can try very hard to combat that burnout on an individual level, but as long as we are still living through the public issue of a pandemic, we’ll only have so much success. The pandemic’s effects on our family, our work, our social lives, our schooling…that’s outside of our control.
Mills’ definition is good and useful, but I also like to think of sociology as a tool for constantly asking ourselves the question, what the fuck is really going on here? This, incidentally, is why sociology disappears in places where asking those questions is too dangerous, like the Soviet Union. In a totalitarian regime, you do not want sociologists unpacking power structures. It’s the same reason you’re seeing an uptick in banned books and attempts to ban critical race theory, which, not to give anything away, is a synonym for, you know, sociology.
You can ask that question—what the fuck is really going on here—in any social situation. So, in pretty much all situations, because everything humans do is social. What the fuck is going on here with gender reveal parties? Why does anyone think gender is something that gets “revealed” by looking at a person’s anatomy? What are those parties really about? What’s really going on with the rules for how people sit at a bar and why it’s more okay in that space to talk to the stranger next to you? Is it the alcohol? Or the norms we’ve learned about what’s supposed to happen at bars? What the fuck is really going on with conversations about lockdowns, where people tell themselves that it’s actually possible (or desirable) for everyone in a society to stay home? What does that reveal about social class and privilege, because we don’t really want our garbage collectors or farmers or power plant workers to stay home, do we?
Obviously, the person who’s always asking what the fuck is really going on here can be annoying (ask poor Jeff about what it’s like to watch sports with a sociologist). And sometimes it’s annoying to be the person always asking what the fuck is really going on here. It’s exhausting. ‘It hurts my brain,’ as students have told me on more than one occasion.
Sociology isn’t super popular in the United States and there are probably lots of reasons for that. One of them is that Americans, as James Baldwin said, do not like paradox. Or complexity. When you ask the question, what the fuck is really going on here, the answer is not a simple one. The answer will be complicated and contextual and maybe contradictory and who has time for that in a culture where time is money?
Also, to take a sociological perspective, you have to accept that the “freedom” Americans value so much is always and already limited. You don’t have freedom because you were born into a society with a lot of constraints already built in and most of them have nothing to do with the government. If we really had freedom, men would wear skirts and makeup all the time. Women never would. But most of the time in most ways, we do exactly what society wants us to do. Stop at stop lights. Go to school. Get a job. Get married. Watch the shows everyone else is watching. Buy the things everyone else is buying.2 From a sociological perspective, most of us are sheep, most of the time.
Not hard, then, to see why sociology isn’t popular and, as one of the readings we’re doing in seminar points out, you’re unlikely to win teaching awards as a sociology professor. Hey, come take introduction to sociology and let me destroy everything you thought was true about yourself, your family, and your whole world! Sound like fun? I mean, it does to me, but I’m a sociologist.
I’m a sociologist which means I’ve already decided that an unexamined life isn’t a life worth living. I could teach sociology in a way that didn’t poke at all the things my students hold dear. I mean, I guess I could? Maybe? I’m not sure how, but I could figure it out?
Oh, who are we kidding, no, I couldn’t. I just don’t know what the point would be. Asking what the fuck is really going on here is fun. So is trying to make other people ask that question. That’s who I am and it’s what makes sociology the right fit for me.
In other words, I’m a person who thinks too much. And I’m good with that.
Thanks for reading, friends, even after I called you all sheep. On top of last week, calling you all meerkats. I can’t even decide which animal is right. At any rate, you’re the best sheep (or meerkats), really. I love sheep. And I am also a sheep. And a meerkat.
My next winter writing workshop class is on January 25 and we’ll be exploring writing habits. I know some things about joy and gratitude, but habits? I am the guru of habits. All the habits. Good and bad. If you want to develop a creative habit, this is the class for you. Get your tickets here.
Trust me, they will be asked this.
I know, I know, you’re telling yourself, “I don’t watch what everyone else is watching! I don’t buy what everyone else is buying!” Don’t you? Are you walking around naked? Are you wearing cotton balls glued to your body? Are you (gasp) not watching anything at all? Living in a tree or a cave? No? Why not? Trust me. For any given aspect of your life, you’re either doing what society wants you to do (following norms) or striking out on your own to show how you’re different (watching foreign films or PBS or, I don’t know, becoming a fan of hurling?) and then conforming to a whole new set of norms that go along with that counterculture. Trust me, friends. We’re mostly conformists and it’s okay. You don’t want to live in a society where most people aren’t following norms. It’s chaos.
good to know.