SOCIOL 2QQ3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Revenge Porn, Postpartum Depression, Surrogacy
17 Jan 2020
School
Department
Course
Professor
Lecture 1
Transitions and diversity
January 8th
Transitions transformed by:
The popularity of cohabitation
• Cohabitation has recently become more popular
• Cohabitating relationships are more unstable then people who are legally married
Diversity in relationships
• So many different types of relationships
• More open marriages (declared)
• Sexual orientations (fluidity like homosexual and then heterosexual or vice versa)
• Modern family is a good example of this diversity today – not every family is nuclear
Ideological changes
• How people think about their personal lives- such as what their life goals in relationships
are going to be
• Personal fulfilment in relationships such as getting married and having kids
• What intimate relationships might look like such as multiple partner relationships
• What family, parenting, and childbearing might look like (surrogacy, donors, etc.)
• Sex outside of relationships or outside of love
Transitions and diversity
People are questioning how they might be defined by their intimate relationships and family ties
• Greater choice for people
• More people are deciding to live and be alone
• People are seeing family and romantic relationships as less important
• Social media offers opportunities for redefinition of relationships or families
(announcing/posting relationships, or pregnancy, or marriage, or breakup, or revenge
porn etc.)
• Economic challenges – people do not want the economic challenges from family life (ex.
Precarious employment while supporting children)
• People do not want to worry about having to take care of other human beings
Challenges faced by many Canadian families
• Lone parents
• Transnational
• Immigrant
• Indigenous
• Families experiencing the disability of a family member
• Ill, injured, aging, or dying family members
• Single sibling people have to take care of their aging/dying parents alone
Document Summary
The popularity of cohabitation: cohabitation has recently become more popular, cohabitating relationships are more unstable then people who are legally married. Precarious employment while supporting children: people do not want to worry about having to take care of other human beings. Lone parents: transnational, families experiencing the disability of a family member, single sibling people have to take care of their aging/dying parents alone. For example, new baby being born need a lot of social support because new parents feel unprepared and have trouble adjusting. When mothers have a lot of social support, they are less likely to have postpartum depression. Or the stress of planning a wedding it is easier with social support: personal resources. Challenges can also follow welcomed anticipated events: newly married couples can suffer financially with mortgages, new parents can struggle, divorce can come after marriages that struggle, high income divorced men are more likely to repartner. Low income divorced women are more likely to repartner.
