So, now that you’re back from your closets and have learned that men’s shirts button from left to right and women’s from right to left, let’s get back to topic. Even in the most mundane instances, we treat norm breakers as deviants. Consequently, the notion of deviant has a negative connotation; we see deviants as threats and out of fear typically respond to such populations in menacing ways. Why do we care if someone’s hair is green? They can still offer directions, but for most people, they will ask the “normal” colored hair person. Hence the deviant is not “normal” and is therefore aberrant and therefore ….
It is because we often have negative reactions to norm breakers or deviants, that it becomes important to question if these reaction are based in something tangible or based simply on the fact that we are consciously or unconsciously recognizing the person as breaking a social rule. For most people if they stop to think about if they care which way a person stands in an elevator or if this actually reflects someone’s character, they would say no, but in the instant, the person facing “backward” in the elevator is going to be thought of as strange.
In most cases of deviance the issue is one of habit and labeling. There is the habit that perpetuates a particular behavior or lack of behavior to be considered acceptable, and which causes a person to be labeled deviant if they engage in that prohibited behavior. These two simply actions can have devastating effects.
Cultural norms often are perpetuated by habit. Most people follow the rules without analysis or thought. They have little impact on our life and so we follow them until they become comfortable and part of us – second nature. Most people cannot even identify social norms because these rules are so ingrained they do not even seem like behaviors for which there is any other choice. When initially asked to analyze these behaviors and recognize them as social norms as opposed to the way things ought to or have to be, many people get defensive. The habit of behavior is so strong that even asking people to consider it as optional is unthinkable. If one is going to dye their hair, which many people do, does it really matter what color it is? Dying hair is not a “natural” process, it had to be invented and we have to do it chemically. It’s basically the same process if I dye my hair brown or purple. Yet there is a clear social norm that dying hair certain colors (blonde, black, brown) is acceptable while other colors (green, orange, blue) is not. This pervasive norm is perpetuated by a habitual preference.
