Comparing Durkheim's Theories For Suicide And Sex Work
1750 Words7 Pages
Today’s society is permeated with numerous amounts of social issues. However, these social issues are not unusual and have been evident in this world since the beginning of time. In this paper I will discuss Durkheim’s theories for suicide and also Erving Goffman’s theory of stigma related to sex work and sex work researchers. I wanted to write about these theories because I wanted to attain more information about them. These two theories are contrastive but they are also similar. They are similar because they are both issues that are crucial in the community. There are many different causes for suicide “Suicide varies inversely with the degree of integration of the social groups of which the individual forms a part” (Farganis 2011: 55). One…show more content… “Altruistic suicide occurs in social groups where there is a low value placed on the individual” (Stack 2004: 11). What this means is that a person sees something else being more important than his or her own life. For example, firefighters and police officers put their lives on the line every day to save other people’s lives, which is a result of them seeing other people’s lives as being more important than their own. This can also be seen in the military and with suicide bombers; their country is more important to them than their own lives. These types of people take honor in dying for the greater good “The person is so closely tied to rituals and cultural beliefs of a group that s/he loses a sense of individuality” (Stack 2004: 10). Altruistic suicide is usually supported by the community because it benefits the community. There are different societies that participate in altruistic suicide “First, there are primitive societies. Second, the modern military represents a culture climate conducive to altruistic suicide” (Stack 2004: 11). This means that different societies have different views and rates of…show more content… Fatalistic suicide is more common in other cultures because the cause is too much regulation. There are cultures that are more rigid in the way that they live compared to the United States. For example the Chinese culture is stricter with the way that they live, and suicide rates are higher in women. The Chinese culture puts importance on family and respect “By studying the family structure and marital status of the Chinese rural young women, this research is aimed at testing Durkheim’s notion of fatalistic suicide and attempts to offer some new insights for understanding rural young women’s suicide in the context of Chinese culture” (Jie 2010: 313). In Chinese culture, marriage is an important factor and could even be considered a tradition. Marriage increases stress and married women could feel as if they are restricted and not allowed to do anything “Being married in rural China may limit a young woman’s social arenas. Lack of support generally increases the risk for suicide” (Jie 2010: 313). Marriage is usually seen as a positive event in a woman’s life but it does not decrease the chance of suicide “Being married is not a protective factor for suicide, the married woman experienced more mental problems, poorer relationships with parents and less social support” (Jie 2010: