SOC 120 - Northwest - Current Social Problems: Finding Films

While poverty has traditionally been a problem only for the unemployed, a new demographic of Americans has emerged—the working poor. This program explores the disturbing realities that many people in low-wage jobs face every day—such as having to decide whether to pay the rent, buy groceries, or see a doctor.

A post-operative transsexual, Michelle Dumaresq has provoked outrage by entering the sport of women’s mountain bike racing. This program studies complex issues of gender identity surrounding the controversy and manifested in Dumaresq’s personal and professional relationships.

Critics of affirmative action say that it pits Americans against each other and elevates the importance of race, gender, and ethnicity at the expense of hard work and merit. Supporters claim that discrimination remains pervasive in the U.S. and that the government must continue to play a role in aiding minorities and women. This program explores the historical roots of affirmative action and the debate over its usefulness.

This program uses in-depth interviews with two generations of five African families now living in the Denver area to explore the dynamic process that is ethnic identity. Having emigrated from Ghana, Uganda, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria, the families bring unique traditions to a shared experience: life in America.

Sexuality was the last uncharted realm of social science until a controversial biology professor named Alfred Kinsey walked into America’s bedroom and turned on the light. In this program, John Bancroft, director of The Kinsey Institute; James H. Jones, author of Alfred C. Kinsey: A Public/Private Life; and Kinsey’s former colleague Paul Gebhard engage in a thoughtful assessment of Kinsey’s findings.

Alhaji has taken five wives; one died, he divorced another and lives with the remaining three. This program travels to Nigeria to examine the impact of polygamy and divorce on the country’s population demographics, focusing on a case study of one family to highlight trends and concerns. The connection between religious values and family planning becomes apparent in interviews with various people in the community.

his video analyzes the links between biological and cultural development in boys, and addresses problems—such as Attention Deficit Disorder and behavioral difficulties in schools—that tend to involve boys. (22 minutes)

his video explores conflicting definitions of femininity and what it means to be a girl, and discusses how parents can help their daughters grow into healthy and well-adjusted adults.

This program documents the ritual of female genital mutilation, also known as female circumcision, practiced among some African groups; explores its roots in myth; and discusses movements under way to ban the practice. Interviews with anti-circumcision activists, including medical personnel, describe the health ramifications, including hemorrhage, infection, and painful sex.

Using the shocking racist murder of James Byrd as a starting point, this disturbing program investigates America’s proliferating hate groups. The KKK’s Charles Lee; the founder of Aryan Nations and his successor, Pastor Neumann Britton; and William Pierce, head of the National Alliance and author of The Turner Diaries, calmly proclaim their chilling views on "racial patriotism" and "positive hate."

Marx divided the industrial world into two antagonistic classes: the bourgeois and the proletariat. In today’s society, this simple dichotomy fails to capture the many segments of a global marketplace. From the communal hunter/gatherers and agrarian cultures; to ancient empires and medieval fiefdoms; to the technocrats, executives, laborers, and others of the stratified modern world, this program examines how each era has organized its members into social classes.

There can be no society without work. Yet as civilizations prosper and grow, labor historically is shifted onto the less privileged, while the elite either scorn work or only participate in certain types, creating hierarchies and inequalities. This program examines work from the early egalitarian hunter/gatherer and agrarian societies to the modern world—a world of multinationals and child slavery, of leisure and hard labor.

Exploring a clash between sacred customs and contemporary athletic aspirations, this program follows an Iranian women’s soccer team daring to push traditional limits and pursue victories both on and off the field. Interviews with players and their families are combined with commentary by supporters of the sport as well as cultural leaders in the wider region who convey various opinions about its prospects.

In terms of lifetime earning power, most women earn far less than their male colleagues do. What lies at the root of the pay gap? The answer is neither simple nor definitive, as this program reveals. Research leads hosts Sophie Raworth and Justin Rowlatt—each a parent with young daughters—on a not-so-merry chase to see what the future may hold for their children.