Week Three
The Johnson text used the plus five system to show what we consider normal in our culture. If one is not white (+1), male (+1), middle class (+1), heterosexual (+1) and Christian/western/�first world� (+1), that specific person(s) are denied some privileges that those “normal� people have. It is the base-level understanding of power that creates a social hierarchy. It is believed that those people at the top of the social hierarchy triangle have unearned advantages than those who aren’t white, male, middle class, heterosexual and Christian. It’s true in the real world, take the workplace as an example. Let’s say that a woman and man are hired at the same time, for the same job by a company that’s been around for years. It used to be very likely that the man would receive a considerable amount of money higher than the woman hired at the same time with the same, if not more qualifications than the man. This happened at not such a high level to my sister once. She had applied for a life guarding position down in Madison (where she goes to school) at the same time as a lot of others did. She was hired as a head guard because she had life guarded for four years previously. That day, a guy was hired into the same position as my sister (with less experience) and received more money. The only reason my sister knew about it was because she was accidently given his paycheck, not hers. She took the issue to her supervisors, fought for better wages, and received them because she was more qualified that the other. In actuality, the social hierarchy that Johnson describes sets up the culture understanding and almost forbids women, and men, from not acting their gender. Some women are content knowing that where they are working at the time is no the best they can be doing because if they tried, they know that they would have to “put on the pants� and do a man’s job. I think that this idea is very ignorant and that it’s time for everyone to step out of their gender and comfort zone and do what they do best.