Mills and Juiced Athletes Problem Critical Essay

Juiced athletes problem

In a bid to enhance their performance, athletes engage in juicing. However, society has a perspective on how sporting activities should be carried out. This explains why society has banned the use of drugs in order to improve performance.

In most circles, using drugs to enhance performance is viewed as unethical. The notion behind banning the use of drugs is based on the belief that such gives undue advantage to users. Additionally, such drugs are seen as a danger to the health of the users. It is also alleged that using drugs does not allow the public a fair opportunity to witness genuine competition (Hanson, Venturelli and Fleckenstein 1-10).

Sociological perspectives

C. Wright Mills observes that it is important to take note of the contending stances. On the one hand, society shapes people’s lives while on the other hand, people construct society. This offers hope that it is possible to achieve change on how issues are seen. Specifically, C. Wright Mills demands that one should range transformations from the most impersonal to those that are most intimate (Mills 7).

Mills achieves this goal by drawing a distinction between what he terms as “personal and public troubles”. As Mills points out, the troubles or the issues are embedded in how the society is constructed or structured. In this regards, social institutions such as the family are important.

To sociologists, juicing athletes reflect a deviant problem within society. The manner in which juicing athletes are treated reflects a societal aspect. In as much as people dislike deviance, it is inherent in any society. This implies that society needs to develop mechanisms to counter deviance problems.

Using the different sociological perspectives, viewing the general particularly is critical since our lives are to a certain degree socially constructed (Mills 7). Based on the perspectives, individuals shape their lives relative to the categories they come across.

In simple, groups such as sex, race, social class, etc influence expectations people have. It is thus not surprising that individuals are able to find familiar things strange. In reference to this observation, C. Wright Mills would argue that society has decided to shape athletics. This is achieved through labeling juicing as unacceptable behavior in the field of athletics.

Conrad’s perspective

Conrad (69) captures the concept of medicalization aptly. Conrad uses this concept to explain measures that are useful in moderating addictions. Addiction occurs when individuals experience withdrawal symptoms from substances. This happens when such individuals recognize that overcoming the adverse effects of the substance being abused requires using an additional dose.

According to Conrad (70), medicalization reflects how society constructs behavior to be a medical concern and proceeds to license individuals from the medical profession to offer treatment. In simple terms, Conrad perceives that society labels certain behaviors as medical conditions.

This view supports the position taken by C. Wright Mills on the construction of society. In this regard, Mills would analyze the juicing problem as a societal creation aimed at shaping the field of athletics.

Mills would share the views of Conrad and argue that the existing institutions such as the medical institution reflect moral entrepreneurship in the contemporary society. In supporting this view, Conrad points out that the psychiatric institution casts its net wide by medicalizing a variety of behaviors that it terms as illnesses.

Using the views of Mills, it is apparent that society is shaping individual behaviors by creating institutions. Equally noticeable, the medical fraternity finds a familiar issue of drug use being strange.

Associations have been formed to mitigate issues arising from drug use. The creation of the Anti-Doping Convention of the Council of Europe supports this position. In addition, the legal framework has been developed to address issues relating to drug abuse. In this regard, the views of Mills regarding attempts to shape the society are confirmed as true.

Works Cited

Conrad, Peter. The medicalization of society: on the transformation of human conditions into treatable disorders. Baltimore, Maryland: JHU Press, 2007.

Hanson, Glen R., Venturelli, Peter J. and Fleckenstein, Annette E. Drugs and Society. Woods Hole, Massachusetts, Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2011.

Mills, Charles Wright. The sociological imagination. London: Oxford University Press, 1959.