In my introductory Sociology courses, I teach my students about social norms and customs, often without applying the ideas and concepts to my own life.  For one, real life is different than a text book, right?  However, perhaps there is more to the story.  Perhaps I am afraid to determine the weakness within my own
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We live in a violent world, but it is not just physical violence we endure. We also endure psychological violence and nowhere is that more obvious then when we consider the very real suffering that many adolescents endure. As the authors of this article suggest, we force our children into social moulds regardless of any other consideration, and this has profound psychological and physical costs ranging anywhere from depression through to disordered eating and even suicide. We can see this clearly, say the authors, when we consider that some adolescents have all the marks of the stigmatized, non conforming, out-group. So what do we do? Ideally we would stop violently imposing conformity and normalcy on people. However, until we get to the point we are willing to do that, the authors have some suggestions on how to mitigate the negative impact and nurture our adolescents better. A little kindness and attention goes a long way!

Functionalism has long had a bad name in sociology as the handmaiden of elite interests, justifying all manner of inequality and power abuse by implying (and sometimes suggesting outright) that these things are “functional” for our society. As this article demonstrates however, this need not be the case. Functionalism can provide a useful rubric for understanding modern society and need not be the handmaiden of conservative thought.