Sociological Imagination and The Power Elite

Wright Mills, an American sociologist, is widely known for his books such as The Power Elite. He introduced the term Sociological Imagination; according to Wright Mills, Sociological imagination is “ who describes a quality of mind that all great social analysts seem to possess: the sociological imagination. By this, he means the ability to understand the intersection between biography and history, or the interplay of self and the world; this is sociology’s task and its promise”(Ferris 13). One example of sociological imagination is a girl trying to lose weight to fit into society.

Another example of this ideology is someone who is unable to get a job because of their background check. Lastly, going to a coffee shop with your friend. Utopias are what a person thinks is a perfect world. Erik Olin Wright’s states, as a ‘real utopia,’ the recuperated factories represent existing social projects that embody ideals of social justice, equality, and participatory democracy–they are not perfect (no social projects are), but they can serve as one model (of many) for what is possible.

” In a utopian world, there are no problems in society, there is equality, and the government is peaceful. This does not exist in reality. In today’s society, there are many books that are written in a utopian world for example “The Giver,” by Louis Lowry, it is utopian because there is no hunger, illness, pain, and hatred, and its something that does not exist in our society, because if it did exist there would be not that many problems in the world.

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I was a thin child growing up.

I was really active. I played many sports. But out of nowhere, I began to gain weight and I did not know why. My family kept judging me and were saying really rude things to me, such as I need to go to the gym and told me to lay off the junk food. I began to hate myself. I had no confidence, I hated taking pictures and I did not like to look at myself. I also worked out every day for 4 hours and I would be really tired at the end of the day. I would wake up early to work out and then late at night. I was in track and soccer and slowly, I began to quit all sports because I felt like I did not fit and was too fat to play sports. As years passed, I found out that I had Polycystic ovarian syndrome, and that was the reason for my weight gain.

But even till this day, my family will still criticize the way I look. According to Kerry Ferris and Jill Stein, “microsociology concentrates on the interactions between individuals and the way in which those interactions constructs the larger patterns, processes, and institutions of society.”(Ferris 14). It is a symbolic-interaction approach for instance when girls see thin models on the magazine so girls feel like they have to look like that to fit in society. According to “ The real world An introduction to sociology,” Macrosociology “approaches the opposite direction, by looking at large scale social structure to determine how it affects the lives of groups and individuals”(Ferris 16).

The approach that would be used is structural- functionalists the major parts of society is thin and thick girls. In society, there are thin and thick girls and every girl that feels insecure and wish that they were the skinny girl in the magazine. Another approach is social- conflict approach is thin girls have a higher chance of being a model than a thick girl, so it divides society( the Antz theorist worksheet). According to Natalie Wolchover from Live science states, a “Between 1890 and 1920 specifically, America’s image of the ideal body completely changed from one of healthful plumpness to one where fatness became associated with sloth. There was a surprisingly strong current of disgust against people who were perceived as obese” (Wolchover). Also, back in the day’s women went to a seamstress to get their dress made and they did not want to be compared to someone larger them so it created this idea of being thin is better(Wolchover).

The social reason why girls are so insecure because in today’s society people are always body shamed and everywhere you look you will see a thin model on the magazine. A major issue is technology, because of the comparing and ads people see on a daily basis. Girls think that they have to be thin to be accepted by society, so this leads to health problems such as anorexia and bulimia. Imagine a world where you see every size girl and no one judged anyone and every size was accepted and magazine with different size girls. There would be no criticism.

People should just accept everyone the way they look and show that it does not matter what size you are. In society, people should be taught to eat healthily and get exercise but do not have to be thin. In society, there should be more thick models and showing people in society that it’s fine to be different. In a news article, “What is ‘thin privilege’ and who has it?” by Ashita Nagesh, and it discusses if people think if thin privilege exists on Twitter and how some certain people think it does exist and some people think it does exist. Ashita Nagesh states, “A lot of people, of all sizes, see Cora’s point that life can be a lot easier when you’re thin and that many people are unaware of how much influence their size has on their quality of life”(Nagesh). Some people who are thin probably do not realize that they have a privilege.

This debate on Twitter enlightened on people who are thin saying they struggle on being called too thin. “Plus-size blogger Stephanie Yeboah agrees with Cora that thin people calling out their own privilege can be helpful”(Nagesh). It shows us a different perspective on what people think what thin privilege is and if it actually exists. It showed that both thin and thick people struggle in society. In conclusion in a utopian world, there would be no body shaming but that does not exist in today’s society, because of advanced technology it leads to people feel insecure about themselves because of what they see around them. If people would just accept the way we look because we all come in different shape and sizes and it is better to be unique rather than the same. People should learn to love themselves because that person would show strength and the right way to prove society wrong.