Asklemmy

43761 readers

1113 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

How would you expain the idea of social status to a child? (en.wikipedia.org)

submitted 1 year ago by centof@lemm.ee to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

28 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Social status (in my own words) is the idea that a person has a relative social worth in a certain context. For example in a class room a teacher has a high social status and therefore must be listened to. On the other hand, if that same teacher was stopped by the police for speeding, they would not have a relatively low status compared to the police officer and should therefore listen to the police officer.

Basically you are expected to treat some people with more deference than others based upon status signifiers like what role they have and what clothing they are wearing or how they speak or act towards to you.

I guess you could say it is a widely held belief that some people are better or more important than others.

How would you approach explaining that idea to a child? When is age would be too soon? When would it make sense to explain that it is a person's social status is not always justified (i.e cops, bosses, parents)? Traditionally, I guess they would learn it by trial and error but I don't necessarily think they would learn the idea that it is often abused to control others in a school setting since authority figures generally don't want others questioning them.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Clarke311@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Have you ever considered that that is just an improper and wrong world view. Like literally what the fuck Are you actually out here judging people based on their jobs and or economic backgrounds and using that to decide how you interact with them. Everyone should be treated equally until they have proven they do not deserve to be treated with such a level of respect.

[–] centof@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Have you ever considered that that is just an improper and wrong world view.

I agree that it is theoretically the wrong way to view the world. However it is how the world works, if you treat a cop like some people treat a service worker like a waiter you could easily be shot.

Are you actually out here judging people based on their jobs and or economic backgrounds and using that to decide how you interact with them

Personally, I do try avoid ranking others via social status but it is pervasive in society. If you don't understand that people unfairly judge you based on your income, class, gender, role, or any other factor, it makes dealing with issues like sexism and racism a lot harder.

[–] lol3droflxp@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Seemed like it was more about how to react to authority and who has that authority in which situation. If some random dude told me to show my license and registration I’d ask him how that’s his business and to kindly leave me alone, if a cop asks that it’s a good idea to comply.