X

A detailed Summary of X

Often people feel threatened by things they cant place a label on. I believe it's

just human nature to view something, and then try to associate or place a label on it.

This is very evident in the story of X. This is definitely, a story written to influence the

readers behavior. The bold X in the author's writing is a deliberate attempt to confuse the reader. The X is in contrast to the rest of the article. Although the story of X contains a message of "acceptance", it also contains connotations that, it's not ok to be part of the norm.

The beginning of the story opens with the scientist, a permanent group, trying to find the "right" parents to raise baby X. To qualify as the parents, they would have to basically disregard all the norms and roles that is attributed to families, primary group, of today. When a newborn is brought home in society, it's customary for the husband to pass out blue cigars for a boy and pink for a girl. (a type of symbol to communicate gender) In the case of X, when they arrived at home, the friends and relatives, primary formal and informal groups, didn't know how to react when the Joneses told them X wasn't a boy or a girl, but an X! The friends and relatives were displaying an authoritarian p

I associate the "social comparison theory" to this story. I used this theory because throughout, all the parents, children, and teachers were making assumptions and comparison's, based on their own experiences. I think it explains why people are stereotyped. Behavior is learned from an early age. If one is taught from childhood that, girls do one thing and boys do another, then you develop a perception of what is acceptable and what isn't in life,(the norm.) This explains the parents, children, teachers, and friends unwillingness to accept X. They developed an attitude that made them close minded. Group think takes effect in this instance. The children surrounding X however, will be brought up in a "social learning theory" type environment. They have learned that you don't have to be either a boy or girl, to have certain attributes associated with you.

The parents attributed the changes of their children to X. They formed a temporary group to try and solve the dilemma they faced. Their perceptual defense was, all the problems they were having were X's fault. Through their committee they applied the classical decision theory to solve "X's" problem. The parents were afraid of X, because X was something they couldn't define or place a label on. Once they were presented with a unique situation that didn't fit into their role set, they put up a perceptual defense. They were all suffering from a role strain, or role conflict, but because of the learned attitudes and behaviors of all the parents, they tried to act as if X was the one with the problem, perceptual distortion.

X started to school and was immediately stereotyped by the other children, or at least they tried to stereotype X. They would ask questions, that if answered one way or another, could be attributed to ones gender. This however didn't work.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Occasionally Joneses, , role conflict, boy girl, perceptual defense, it's ok, boys girls, social comparison theory, parents children teachers, social comparison, x's gender, machiavellian personality, parents children, children teachers,

Approximate Word count = 1229
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Politics