Rags to Riches: Mariah Carey

Rags to riches refers to any life story in which an individual experiences extreme upward social mobility -from lower to upper class. These stories, like many functionalist believe, inspires and provides hope for members of the lower class and is best known to occur in the United States -a major part of the "American Dream."

The person I decided to blog about was Mariah Carey, one of the world's most successful singers. Mariah, along with her household family, struggled with disapproval from others -including her maternal family members- because of the ethnicity mix. Mariah's mother was Irish-American and her father half Venezuelan and half African American. Her mother's family's disapproval resulted to neglection an issue Mariah is still struggling with today. Because of the strain on  her parents marriage the two -Alfred and Patricia- got a divorce, Mariah was only three. Born in Huntington, New York Mariah watched her mother struggle as a single mother to provide for her and her younger sibling.

Mariah's mother was talented in the arts, in which she obtained a career as aan occasional opera singer and vocal coach. Mariah did not receive vocal assistance from her mom and recalls sneaking a radio to bed and just singing her heart out every night before falling asleap. Mariah's mother hadn't pushed her into the opera style of singing, but instead allowed her to develop her own voice, and express it the way her heart desired.

After Mariah graduated from hgih school, her mother married and Mariah moved into a one bedroom studio apartment with four other girls. Mariah payed her portion of the rent by working numerous waitress jobs, many in which she was fired only after two weeks. Mariah, while waitressing, created a debut-album with a high school friend in an effort to get signed by any record executive she passed it on to. She recieved rejection from nearly all record executives, but was later introduced to Brenda K. Starr -a Puerto Rican descent pop singer.

Her relationship with the pop singer grew and it was then that Mariah's debut-album reached the hands of Tommy Mottola -head of Colombud records. After Mariah Carey's first album she received exposure at the 33rd Grammy Awards, won best new artist and best female pop vocal performance. The album landed three number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed on the charts for eleven consecutive weeks. From here on, Mariah's career sky-rocketed. Mariah is now ranked number six on the 20 richest women in entertainment.

Social Stratifcation

According to sociology guide.com, social stratification is a hierarchy of positions with regard to economic production which influences the social rewards of those in the positions. Regardless what you chose to believe social stratification exists, and in my opinion always did. There was always a division between the rich and the poor as soon as society was formed.

What many people dont look into is the identification of individual's status. People are found saying I don't judge, but these are the very same one's who turn around and make a mental note of specific items another inidivual may possess in order to place them in their mental social pyramid. I do it, and for you reading this I'm sure you do too. It happens instantaneously when one is introduced to an unfamiliar face. The thing with these mental status assumptions is that well nowadays they're not very accurate.

Middle class and well the upper maay obtain the same items. For instance, someone in the middle class may own an i-Pad or a BMW, just like an indivual in the upperclass. These days many doctors and lawyers fall under middle class, where in the past it wasn't so. Businesses and companies now are opening up a wider marketing span, where the lower classes are being considered and advertised to. I think this is based upon the fact that the majority falls under the middle class category which leads back to where the most profit lays.

Judging was always looked at as a bad things, but the thing is in a society where social stratification exists it's unavoidable. Me, I won't because I know that most of my assumptions will not be completely accurate, so I'll leave the judging for the Big Man upstairs.