Family Guy and Sociological Imagination

This week in sociology, we talked about sociological imagination. To have sociological imagination is to be aware that when and where a person lives affects who he or she is. I am not who I am simply because of my personality or DNA. The many influences and experiences in my life have shaped how I deal with different situations, how I make friends, and even the type of music I listen to. For example, I believe that my dance teachers and friends have contributed greatly to my adaptability and openness to new people and situations. It's because of what they taught me that I am so comfortable with change. If I was born in a different time and place, such as during the Cold War, I might've been to preoccupied with the Soviet scare to dance and meet people to influence me that way. I might also be less open to people and ideas because of all the suspicion during that era.

I think a good example of sociological imagination is the Family Guy episode, "The Road to the Multiverse," where Stewie and Brian go dimension hopping and visit different universes. In every universe, they meet their family that essentially has the same genetic makeup and physical characteristics, but their personalities are different due to the changes in society around them. The parallel universes include the Walt Disney and Flintstone universes, and universes where Christianity or Frank Sinatra never was born. While everyone is familiar with the personalities of Stewie and Brain, their personalities altered in the different universes because of society around them. In the Walt Disney universe, The two characters are essentially the same, but are extra happy and cheerful because that is how the magical Disney universe affects it's inhabitants. While the multiverse episode doesn't specifically address the when and where ideas of sociological imagination, they still address the fact that a person's surroundings have a tremendous impact of who that person is.

Who Am I?

My name is Eliza Jane and I'm seventeen years young. I'm a senior in high school and live with my mother, a cat, a dog, and a fish named Nolan. My dad lives in Madison and my two half siblings live in Evanston. I have a really cute car that people say describes my personality perfectly; it's a green Volkswagen beetle. It's almost 14 years old and a diesel stick shift making it unique and fun to drive.

I dance between 25 to 30 hours a week at a studio about fifty minutes away from my house. It's the most important thing in my life and I plan to make a career out of it. I do ballet, pointe, jazz, and contemporary, and plan on majoring in dance at college while also double majoring in pre-physical therapy. I want to be a part of a ballet company after I graduate and hopefully move on to contemporary work later. During the week I leave right after 7th period and go straight to dance and don't get home until 10:30, which means late nights and early mornings. On Saturdays I dance from 8-7, and spend my hour long break at Panera eating bread with my dance buddies. I don't have much free time, but when I do, I try to hang out with school friends or my boyfriend, sleep, or watch TV and eat like a lazy bum because I'm classy like that. Dance has taught me to be dedicated, hardworking, adaptive, and open to knowledge. I look up to my teachers and friends, and together, we have made a comfortable and close knit community. There are so many aspects of dance that apply to real life that make it worthwhile in the long run. Dance pretty much defines my life and I am so fortunate that I have the opportunity to do it everyday. :)