In down to earth sociology page 249-264, this section was about how people in the funeral industry try to reduce the social stigma of their profession, as they are often seen as cold, unfriendly, or unfeeling. to combat this stigma, embalmers and funeral directors use softer language in their line of work to be more respectful to the family’s of the deceased for example, instead of using words like “death” they will use “loss”. they also dont like to say that they sell “products” like how they sell caskets but instead they sell services. The people who wrote this article went to several morgues and funeral homes to interview people who work in this industry that comes with a lot of stereotypes.
people in this line of work try to find humor as a way of coping with their depressing job and i totally understand that mentality, sure it can seem mean spirited to joke about some dead persons genitals as you are working on them but i would find it very depressing to work on dead people as my line of work, if i had to do it, i would find humor in it so i would be able to get through the day. in order to be in this profession you have to emotionally detach yourself from the body that you have to work on. this is why me personally i wouldn’t be cut out for this line of work because i couldn’t be able to work on the 4 year old girl mentioned in the article or any other dead person for that matter. I would break down in tears and i would quit on the first day.
The Sociology Blog with Joseph Dahl 