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1. Contemporary Example of Social Change: Feminism Strategic Plan 2022-2025

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1. Contemporary Example of Social Change: Feminism Strategic Plan 2022-2025

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The strategic plan for the UN Women was very important for me to use as a current  example of social change for feminism  because I consider myself a feminist. I've had the opportunity to attend so many events to advocate for women's rights as well as taking multiple courses on women's studies that allow me to understand how underrepresented  we are and how important it is to advocate for our own rights. Women should be able to do as they please with their bodies and lives without the government especially male representatives having a say in this. The UN offers a plan and guide to follow for the next four years where we can see the impact that will be made, how it will be done, and the countries that will be helped through this change. That being said, Macionis shares " Sociology teaches us that change comes to all." (pg 567), this is so powerful because for decades women were deprived for so many years from their own rights, but as time passed we were able to fight and attain that change after everyone believed that societies were mean to stay still.

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The Strategic Plan 2022-2025 will guide UN Women's work for the next four years. With an eye toward the 2030 deadline to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, it details how UN Women will catalyse urgent and sustained action to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.

The Strategic Plan is based on key findings from an extensive consultative process, drawing on lessons and recommendations from evaluations, audits, and other assessments, including those from the 25-year review and appraisal of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

You can now access the UN Women Strategic Plan 2022-2025 brochure in the following languages: Arabic, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, English, French, Russian, Spanish and Turkish.

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The Strategic Plan 2022-2025 will guide UN Women's work for the next four years. With an eye toward the 2030 deadline to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, it details how UN Women will catalyse urgent and sustained action to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.

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Macionis defines collective behavior as an activity involving a large amount of people that is often controversial and can involve change. (pg 526)  I chose this recent Balenciaga ad scandal because I feel like it is something that needs so much awareness especially with a brand that is so expensive and so many people buy from and celebrities like Kim Kardashian praise and advertise to their millions of followers. "Fashion is a behavior pattern that is widely
approved but is expected to change periodically."(pg 583)  This ad campaign shows that because it used children in disturbing way with secret hidden images such as documents in the photoshoot where the kids appear that talk about virtual child porn contracts and referring to child abuse, anyone can agree that it is ridiculous to have something like this in a children's photoshoot. Fashion trends can be a part of collective behavior because it is a way to show your own self expression, just that this time it was a brand doing it as a whole. This became super controversial just as Macionis defined it, it first started through social media with everyone bashing the company and demanding a response for an explanation for their actions. Later on as the company remained silent regardless of the accusations, thousands of people decided to take matter to their own hands and started protesting outside the stores, posting  on social media throwing away any Balenciaga items they had, or even returning stuff they just bought to the store.

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Today, Balenciaga's creative director, Demna, broke his silence on the photoshoots that embroiled the brand in controversy late last year. In an interview with , the designer addressed both the Spring 2023 campaign and the Gift Shop campaign, discussing the shortcomings that lead to such weighty missteps and apologizing to those hurt by the fashion house's actions.

Here is what happened: In November, Balenciaga dropped its holiday ad campaign featuring children holding teddy bears in bondage harnesses and costumes. (The BDSM accessories were also on the runway at Balenciaga's show at Paris Fashion Week.) The backlash against the images was swift, with the hashtag #cancelBalenciaga trending across Twitter and TikTok and many accusing the brand and its creative director, Demna, of condoning pedophilia and child exploitation. In a separate ad that dropped later that month, a bag from the fashion house's collaboration with Adidas was photographed atop copies of what appear to be documents from the Supreme Court case United States v. Williams, a ruling that upheld the PROTECT Act, which increased federal protections against child pornography. Both campaigns quickly became a conservative talking point and sparked conspiracy theories.

the brand "Balenciaga" just did a uh..... interesting... photoshoot for their new products recently which included a very purposely poorly hidden court document about 'virtual child porn'

normal stuff pic.twitter.com/zjMN5WhZ0s
- shoe (@shoe0nhead) November 21, 2022

Since then, right-wing conspiracy theorists have latched on to and circulated photos taken out of context from the Instagram account of stylist Lotta Volkova that portray scenes of violence and satanic images. According to a representative, Volkova hasn't worked with Balenciaga since 2017. Meanwhile, Alexandra Gucci Zarini, a children's-rights advocate and heiress of Gucci, recently criticized the brand's " HA HA HA " campaign, which appears to show Harry Styles posing with a toddler on a mattress. "My concerns are that there seems to be a common ideology across Kering's Fashion Houses," she wrote. (Both Balenciaga and Gucci are owned by Kering.)

Here's what to know about the controversy.

Balenciaga has apologized for the ads featuring teddy bears.

On November 22, the fashion house issued two statements via its Instagram Stories apologizing for the plush bears, which they said "should not have been featured with children in this campaign," as well as the "unsettling documents" in the separate spring-summer campaign: "We take this matter very seriously and are taking legal action against the parties responsible for creating the set and including unapproved items for our spring 23 campaign photoshoot. We strongly condemn abuse of children in any form. We stand for children's safety and well-being." (As ofNovember 28, the bears no longer appear for sale on the company's website.)

Meanwhile, Gabriele Galimberti, the photographer behind the holiday campaign, released a statement distancing himself from the imagery. "I am not in a position to comment on Balenciaga's choices, but I must stress that I was not entitled in whatsoever manner to neither chose the products, nor the models, nor the combination of the same," he wrote. "As a photographer, I was only and solely requested to lit the given scene, and take the shots according to my signature style."

Demna later apologized on his Instagram, taking responsibility for the ads featuring the teddy bears: "As much as I would sometimes like to provoke a thought through my work, I would NEVER have an intention to do that with such an awful subject as child abuse that I condemn. Period." The designer guaranteed steps will be taken to "avoid similar mistakes in the future" and protect children's welfare. Demna did not seem to address the campaign featuring the court documents in his statement.

Meanwhile, Cédric Charbit, president and CEO of Balenciaga, apologized for the campaigns in a post to the house's Instagram. Charbit outlined new internal methods in place, like hiring an external agency to "assess and evaluate" Balenciaga's content, noting the "current process for content validation has failed." The company also said it was creating a fund to "help make a difference protecting children."

Kim Kardashian condemned the ads.

In late November, Kim Kardashian - a vocal supporter of the brand who recently included a cameo from Balenciaga's creative director, Demna, on her Hulu show, The Kardashians - issued a statement on Instagram and Twitter. "I have been quiet for the past few days, not because I haven't been disgusted and outraged by the recent Balenciaga campaigns," she wrote. Her statement went on to say she is currently reevaluating her future relationship with the brand, "basing it off their willingness to accept accountability for something that should have never happened to begin with."

Julia Fox made her own series of statements on TikTok. "I have zero relationship with the brand. I've never even been to one of their shows; they haven't invited me," Fox said. "Regardless, I think it's horrific, and when I was reading and watching all the videos I literally felt sick to my stomach." She went on to say this was not a problem of Hollywood or the fashion industry but an issue with "men."

It's not the first time Balenciaga has stoked controversy.

Balenciaga is known for its unconventional campaigns and shows, including runway presentations in which models have trudged through mud and blizzardlike conditions in expensive high-end clothing. In her review of the brand's spring 2023 show, the Cut's fashion critic Cathy Horyn wrote, "Of late, Demna's choices have been sometimes morally questionable." Balenciaga has become synonymous with subversiveness, and though the father of one of the child models featured in the campaign told the he believed it had been "blown out of all proportion," for many consumers the campaign crossed the line from provocative to harmful.

What's this about a lawsuit?

In November, Balenciaga filed a $25 million lawsuit against North Six, Inc. and set designer Nicholas Des Jardins over the controversial campaign image featuring the court documents (which was separate from the imagery of the teddy bears). The suit claimed the defendants had included the Williams documents "without Balenciaga's knowledge or authorization" and went on to say that, as a result of the "defendant's misconduct, members of the public, including the news media, have falsely and horrifically associated Balenciaga with the repulsive and deeply disturbing subject of the court decision."

Some criticized the lawsuit as an attempt by Balenciaga to absolve itself of culpability. According to Des Jardins's agent, Gabriela Moussaieff, her client was "being used as a scapegoat" by the fashion house. "Everyone from Balenciaga was on the shoot and was present on every shot and worked on the edit of every image in postproduction," Moussaieff said in a statement to the Washington Post, noting that the documents in the photos "were obtained from a prop house that were rental pieces used [for] photo shoots." The lawsuit has since been dropped.

The fallout from the campaign has continued.

Following the backlash to the ads, The Business of Fashion rescinded its 2022 Global Voices Award offer to Demna, noting that it holds "the safety of children in the highest regard."

In late November, a street artist in London appeared to have defaced the storefront of Balenciaga's flagship, stenciling "paedophilia" on one of the windows, according to . There were also reports of a store near the Beverly Hills shop on Rodeo Drive being defaced.

"I did it due to the abhorrent photoshoots Balenciaga did," the artist told the outlet.
This post has been updated.

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What to Know About the Balenciaga Ad Scandal

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Today, Balenciaga's creative director, Demna, broke his silence on the photoshoots that embroiled the brand in controversy late last year. In an interview with , the designer addressed both the Spring 2023 campaign and the Gift Shop campaign, discussing the shortcomings that lead to such weighty missteps and apologizing to those hurt by the fashion house's actions.

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3. Structure Functional Perspective: Mass  Society: Functionalism

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3. Structure Functional Perspective: Mass  Society: Functionalism

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Through all of the recent series of events that have involved shootings, I thought this image would be adequate for our current situation on mass shootings because it emphasizes everything wrong in our society and governmental system. Macionis shares that one of the most important factors of society is equilibrium, which is defined as "A state of functioning and balance, maintained by a society's tendency to make small adjustments to change" (pg 578). Because or society is used to only making small and minimal changes at a time throughout thousands of years, it makes sense that this is still our reality. The meme describes how we should be preventing mass shootings and how the government could be doing more to help but don't, as if they do something to small to just say they did something but in reality it had no effect on our society whatsoever. Macionis also shares how studies show our consciousness can change according to our environment and this can be very controversial when it comes to gun control because some may think some people's conscience may think we need to teach our children the guns shouldn't be used or to have more guns to protect against everyone else that does in case something may happen.

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4. Social Conflict Perspective: Class Society : Capitalism 

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4. Social Conflict Perspective: Class Society : Capitalism 

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The main reason why I chose this meme to represent class society is because right  off the bat it shows two perspectives that many people can have  and feel, such as the inequalities that exist between the different social classes. For some capitalism can be so convenient because of the power it can give, while some retain all of that power, others suffer in the way that they want what others may have and they cant attain because of capitalism. On page 579, Macionis shares how, " Social change is the result of struggles among groups of scarce resources. Social change is created as these conflicts are resolved." This economic and political system of capitalism where most industries are privately owned really highlights the inequalities of a country because it leaves the rest of its people in the dust. Instead of helping eliminate poverty it feeds it because it maintains the inequalities and makes the rich richer and the poor poorer.

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5. Symbolic Interactionist Perspective: Modernity and the Individual 

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5. Symbolic Interactionist Perspective: Modernity and the Individual 

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I chose this image because I think it relates so much to our current generation and how for one, many people care a lot about what others think and that believe that others  can build an opinion about them based on the  nice things they own or do on the daily. On chapter 17, Macionis shares that the distinct way of life is also known as urbanism. "Human beings interact with others on the basis of commonly shared symbols. The nature and frequency of social interaction are affected by the extent to which people share meanings." (pg 580) Recently, it has become very common for social interaction to revolve around the latest trends and a lot of them have been on social  media especially sites like TikTok, where people can share their everyday lives with others. Many that have been more fortunate in life to have generational wealth or just be able to have nice homes, cars, or own designer things such as clothes and bags is something common to see on TikTok. This has influenced a lot of the younger generations to want these nice things as well as feel as if this is the only way to look "cool" for others since these are the current trends.

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Postmodernism refers to so much change that is sometimes is not taken lightly because it may seem drastic. This quote by Terry Eagleton perfectly describes how many may feel towards postmodernity and it being a "sick joke". When different epochs or times and generations come around and introduce something new it is always hard for society as a whole to adapt and understand which is why this quote is so relevant. Macionis describes it as, "..transformation cause by the information revolution." (pg 546). Some examples in the book that portray some of the struggles that were hard for society to get used to was the topic about science and how much we rely on it for answers when it comes to medicine and health. A prime example of this in our recent world would be vaccinations for COVID and immensely controversial they were with half of the population believing in medicine and the other half refusing to put something in their bodies that they think could potentially do more damage over help.

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Amazon Prime specifically has been one of the biggest trends since COVID and a huge part of one of our modernizations. Macionis dives in deeps into the Modernization theory and how much impact it has had on our society over the years. It has allowed all of us to have easier access to better things and evolve from the things that we were used to and often more complicated to get done. The world was considered poor but after technological  advancements society was able to advance.(pg 562) This image shows a good example because Amazon Prime consists of one of the fastest delivery services with up to a guaranteed delivery in 24 hours, other include 1-2 days which is still super fast compared to other shipping and mailing services.