Purple Shirt Mandroit

1. Purple Shirt Mandroit GRoup1 KishaBanks AND Courtney Blazor Sociology SOC-2630-042

2. Purple Shirt Mandroit History Purple Shirt Mandroit lived in a village by the sea called T-Shirt Village. There were many Shirt people who lived in the village with him. He had come from the Land of Cottonville, and had been woven by the Great Loomer, who had woven many, many shirts before him.

3. Life in T-Shirt Village The citizens of T-Shirt Village live a simple life. Their lives are dedicated to working and enjoying their lives. Some of the citizens in T-Shirt Village spend their lives in advertising, and each day are displayed so that the visitors to T-Shirt Village can have the opportunity to visit and perhaps even take one of them to the New World.

4. Culture Each citizen works to maintain the culture of the Village. The material culture comes from the members who dedicate themselves to go to the New World that their visitors take them to, and the visitors pay the Village Keeper for the privilege to take them to the New World. Some visitors even carry the citizens of T-Shirt Village over their own clothes as they take them to the New World of their homes.

5. Diet and Subcultures • Purple Shirt Mandroit and the other citizens of his village have a very unique diet. It consists mainly of lint, but occasionally they get a delicacy of a loose thread to eat. This is considered a delicacy in their culture. • There are many subcultures in T-Shirt Village. There are the Plain-Color Shirts, the Screen-Printed Shirts, the Embroidered Shirts, and the Tank Tops. Each has their part in the Village and each contributes to the culture and economy in the village.

6. Many different people come into the Village and meet the citizens there. Some want to see only one kind of citizen, such as the Tank Top Shirts. Others want to meet all the citizens, and decide which one they want to come home with them. Some people come and visit, and leave without taking anyone with them.

7. Class Consciousness As mentioned before, Purple Shirt Mandroit’s village has many subcultures. Unfortunately, there is stratification among these subcultures. For example, the Embroidered Shirts feel they have a higher status than anyone else, due to the fancy stitching on them. This also gives them plenty of loose threads to dine on, and they feel extra privileged that they are able to eat those loose threads at their leisure.

8. Prejudice • The social classes can lead to prejudicial remarks and actions on the parts of the different subcultures in the village. There is a little bit of a trickle-down prejudice that occurs; the Embroidered Shirts pick on the Screen Prints, the Screen Prints pick on the Plain Shirts, and the Plain Shirts pick on the Tank Tops. • Unfortunately for Purple Shirt Mandroid, he gets picked on by everyone; you see, all of the other Shirts in the village have a solid color, some with a design on them; but Purple Shirt Mandroid is the only Shirt in the village with a pattern all over himself.

9. Avoidance The other shirts mock and ridicule Purple Shirt Man. They even use ethnophaulisms , calling him disparaging names, like “stripey”, to make fun of him. Many of the other Shirts would even use avoidance tactics, and just pretend that he didn’t exist. As you can only imagine, Purple Shirt Man had a very negative self-image.

10. COPING Purple Shirt Mandroit has tried to cope with this prejudice in many ways. Although his family of Purple Shirts is quite large, they all try to be supportive of him, even though he is different. His cousin, Lavender, however, has yielded to some of the peer pressure and has discriminated against Purple Shirt Mandroit and not invited him to some of her dying parties.

11. SELF PROTECTION Purple Shirt Mandroit has tried to shield himself in many ways from the mocking and prejudice. One time he had himself embroidered, but soon found that the patterns clashed and that the mockery was worse. He and his family did enjoy eating the threads that they gained as they picked out the embroidery.

12. Actions and Results Purple Shirt Mandroit and his family considered many alternatives to stop the prejudice. They tried talking to the leaders, and even tried court proceedings against those who discriminated against him. While he was finally able to secure a job as a shelf straightener, there was still an underlying tone of prejudice. The avoidance continued, and even the mockery, although those mocking him were careful not to be overheard by their superiors.

13. Purple Shirt Mandroit finally became so discouraged by the mistreatment that he buried himself near the bottom of the stack of Purple Shirts. He thought he would avoid all the mockery and prejudice by hiding. But he was not happy.

14. Acceptance and a New World Then one day, a surprising thing happened. A visitor to the village spent a lot of time there, looking through all the Shirts. Everyone put on their best side, and made sure they had no wrinkles. This visitor spent a lot of time, considering each Shirt and looking at each one carefully. Then the Visitor reached down to the bottom of the stack and pulled out Purple Shirt Mandroit.

15. All the Shirts, including Purple Shirt Mandroit, expected the Visitor to return him to the shelf and choose another. But that is not what happened. The Visitor took Purple Shirt Mandroit to the Keeper, and paid the Keeper money. Then the Visitor let Purple Shirt Mandroit ride home over his clothes.

16. Purple Shirt Mandroit was thrilled. He could see a whole new world outside the shop. There were many people and animals he had never seen before. There were cars, busses, trains, and all kinds of new experiences. Best of all, though, was as the Visitor walked with Purple Shirt Mandroit over his clothes, many of the people stopped him to tell him how much they LOVED the pattern on his shirt, and asked where they could get one just like it.

17. Self Acceptance As time went on, Purple Shirt Mandroit became one of the Visitor’s favorite shirts. He was often worn, and often received many compliments on his style. Purple Shirt Mandroit thought deeply about all the times he had felt bad, and had been tormented and mocked by others. He realized that even though he was different, he had many wonderful qualities, and he was very happy with himself just as he was.

18. THE END (Oh yeah, and he lived happily ever after)