Function of Deviance: Good or Bad?

Deviance- departing from usual or accepted standards in social settings.

Deviance in sport can be classified as over-conformity or under-conformity, and can carry outside the realm of sport. Most people think of deviance as a dangerous or bad thing and define it using examples like steroid use, violence in sport, or playing aggressively. But does this always have to be a bad thing? Could deviance be seen as a noble act of under-conformity?

When I think of deviance in sport I go back to the 2006 motion picture, Stick It. Haley, the main character, who quit gymnastics and got into some trouble with the law eventually returns to the national gymnastic competition where one of her teammates gets penalized by the judges for her bra strap becoming exposed during her vault routine. Haley was up on the vault next and instead of performing her vault she exposed her bra strap to the judges, and the following contestants did the same. This form of deviance was shown to stand up against a stupid rule enforced by the institution that had nothing to do with the talent that was displayed by these gymnasts, and ultimately turned into an act of the girls intentionally breaking the rules to decide which competitors would win in each division. In this instance, deviance was used as a function to bring gymnasts from different cities together to fight for what they had worked so hard for and deserved.

Functionalism- emphasizes the need to identify and study the function of a social practice or institution and determine the contribution the practice makes to society as a whole.

Based on the definition, lets say that gymnastics is a society of its own and the “bra-strap” rule is a social practice used and followed in this society, and the panel of judges act as the institution. The gymnasts, who practice every day all year long for competitions like nationals, come together at competition and view the rule with the functionalist point of view. This rule makes absolutely no contribution to their society, the institution is just using it against the society. A strap showing does not take anything away from the skill and talent displayed by their routines. In response to the penalty by the institution, the girls come together, as a society, and deviate from the rule to prove there is no function for this practice. However the institution still serves a function to the society, it simply

Therefore, from a functionalist view, a new definition of deviance is formed:

Deviance- When a practice or institution is thought to serve no purpose, a society comes together determine the function of the practice or institution, and to deviate from any socially accepted standard that does not have a societal function, with intention to eliminate the practice or institution.

From a functionalist societal view, anything that does not serve a purpose needs to be challenged in order to remove it as a norm from the society. This act of challenging a social norm is defined as deviance, even though it is not necessarily a bad or dangerous situation. This view of deviance resonates with functionalism because it keeps all social norms in tact that serve a purpose (like have a panel of judges to determine a winner in a gymnastics competition) and rids society of the practices that do not have a function that ultimately alter the results of a practice (like a bra-strap showing while a vault routine is performed).