1. Unit 7: Taboo Recreation
• Why study taboo recreation?
• Classifying taboo recreation activities
• Theoretical explanations
• The “Dilemma of Goodness”
Unit 7 will present models and theories that will enhance your understanding of the theoretical groundings of leisure and deviance. By the end of this unit, you will be better able to explain the relationship between leisure and acts of deviance. While it is often tempting for a class of college students discussing this topic to get carried away with personal stories and opinions that go a little to far a-field, this unit will keep your focus primarily on what is known through systematic observation and research.
First, we will discuss why taboo recreation should be addressed in a leisure and society course. Second, we will look at two classification systems that are used by recreation and leisure studies professionals to type taboo recreation activities. Third, we will examine the theoretical explanations of why people engage in taboo activities including anomie, differential association, and retreatist lifestyles. We will conclude our discussion by taking a look at the “dilemma of goodness.” Some questions will be raised that may help you better understand what standards people can use in order to make some very difficult personal and professional decisions about whether or not to engage in taboo activities.

2. If leisure can enhance someone’s life, can it also destroy life?
Close to 100% of high school students have tried alcohol.
1,811,000 arrests for DUI yearly.
Unauthorized gambling represents about 28% of total gambling market….21,000 arrests.
111,400 people arrested annually for prostitution.
326,000 people arrested annually for vandalism.
We have been studying a lot of positive characteristics of leisure, so you may ask, why study something negative like taboo recreation? We might better ask the question, “If leisure can enhance someone’s life, can it also destroy life?”
The following statistics may help you understand the importance of this topic to the individual and society:
• Close to 100% of high school students have tried alcohol, even though they are under-age,
• there are 1,811,000 arrests for DUI every year, and
• Unauthorized gambling represents about 28% of the total gambling market, and there are 21,000 gambling related arrests each year.
• Further, 111,400 people arrested annually for prostitution, and
• 326,000 people are arrested annually for some form of vandalism.
Of course, these numbers just represent the one’s who got caught. If you do some quick mental math, based on what you know from experience, about how often people get caught for each of these activities, you might imagine that the arrest numbers only represent a few of the actual offenders.
And if this doesn’t startle you, let’s look at some other facts …

3. Taboo Recreation
Taboo recreation can be defined as those pastimes that are forbidden by law, custom or belief
Each society has values, norms, and morals that define what is considered deviant
Deviance can be defined as any behavior that is different from what is socially accepted in any given society
Taboo recreation can be defined as those pastimes that are forbidden by law, custom or belief. Examples include gambling, substance abuse, vandalism and harmful or illegal sex. Taboo recreation includes all leisure pursuits that are deemed inappropriate, socially unacceptable, or illegal by a particular society. The values, norms, and morals of each society define traditions that help the members of that society understand which activities are deviant.
Deviance can be defined as any behavior that is different from what is socially accepted. In modern industrial societies everyone is at least occasionally involved in deviant behavior. We have all bent some rules, taken shortcuts, and done things we knew were not the best things to do. It is argued by some that it is not the quality of the act itself that is deviant, rather deviance is a question of the rules and sanctions applied by others.

4. Social Taboos Taboos differ in societies and also change over time
Can you think of any social taboos that some don’t think are right?
Salary
Clothing
Dancing
Religion
What is considered taboo changes from society to society. It also changes within each society over time. Can you think of any social taboos in another society that are different from what is taboo in your society? For example, consider the question of something a person in another society would say is all right, but you would say it is wrong, or visa versa.
For example, in American society it is considered okay to pay the lowest paid workers of a large corporation minimum wage while the chief executive officer makes millions in salary dollars and stock options. In Japan, social custom dictates that the highest paid worker in a company can make no more than eight times what the lowest paid worker makes. Salaries in the U.S. would seem obscene to the Japanese.
In American society it is considered normal for women to wear bikinis to the beach. In some European countries topless is normal at the beach, here it is often considered obscene.
Other examples illustrate how views of what is deviant have changed over time in a given society:
In early new England societies dancing was considered sinful and was prohibited. If you were caught you would be punished. Over time, most forms of dancing have become accepted as completely normal, and very beneficial, activities in American society.
In Ancient Rome it was considered taboo to be a follower of the Christian faith. Christians who were captured were persecuted and fed to the lions and other wild beasts in the coliseum. Eventually however, Rome embraced Christianity as its official religion thus forming the foundation of the Roman Catholic Church.
What you should conclude from these examples is that it is not possible to define what is taboo without first considering the laws, norms, values, and morals of each society. Also, you must consider what the norms were, or are, during the time period when an activity occurred. Therefore, it is sometimes difficult to pin down what is right and wrong because right and wrong changes over time and place.
Recreation and leisure studies professionals have used two classification systems to help them consider which activities are taboo and just how deviant they might be.

5. Purple Recreation
Defined as “those activities and interests indulged in by youth and adults during non-work, non-study free time that do not fall within the parameters of what society generally views as wholesome or good” (Curtis, 1988)
The color purple represents the shaded area of moonlight that is neither white light nor black shadow. It is the half area between.
Joseph Curtis coined the phrase “purple recreation” when he was writing a recreation textbook. It refers to those activities and interests indulged in by youth and adults during non-work, non-study free time, that do not fall within the parameters of what society generally views as wholesome or good. Purple recreation is not always extremely bad or evil but it often approaches that extreme.
Curtis tells three news stories from New York that highlight examples of purple recreation:
One, “In November, 1987, a state police raid on a rural residence in Orange County, New York, netted some 27 bettors and operators of a pit-bull fighting arena in a garage. Those arrested included two off-duty New York City police officers. Pit-bull fighting is illegal in New York, and it also includes bloody, brutal treatment of the fighting dogs. Aficionados find the sport exhilarating.”
Two, “ ‘La Cage Aux Folles,’ a rollicking musical comedy on Broadway structured around an all-male cast in drag, painted and bedecked like burlesque queens, has enjoyed a packed house run for several years. Tickets are difficult to obtain. Titillating homosexuality is the show’s centerpiece”, and
Three, Curtis notes that “chicken fanciers are adult males who enjoy sexual relationships with very young boys and girls. They have been expanding their activity in New York City, especially Greenwich Village, where the police note that they pick up between 3,000 and 5,000 adolescent boys and girls from as far away as Texas and Minnesota annually for crimes like vagrancy, soliciting, pick pocketing, and disorderly conduct.”
Curtis states the term purple was chosen because it is the color and tone of that shaded area of moonlight that is neither white light nor black shadow. It is the half area between. He created the “Curtis Scale” to illustrate a continuum between “bad” and “good” forms of recreation.

6. The Curtis Scale “BAD” “GOOD”
Extreme
Positive
Extreme
Negative
“BAD” “GOOD”
Pre-meditated murder, Generosity, pure love
Torture, brutality to Neutral brotherhood, total
aged or disabled, selflessness
incest, sodomy
Curtis’ scale illustrates how recreation activities can be plotted on a continuum from “bad” to “good.” The “bad” activities are those that one would consider extremely negative, such as premeditated murder, torture, brutality to the aged or disabled, incest or sodomy. The good activities are those that would be the extreme positive, such as generosity, pure love, brotherhood, total selflessness.
Curtis provides some specific activity examples that illustrate how his scale can be used to classify recreation activities.
From order of bad moving towards neutral--the worst is heavy drugs, then recreational drugs, heavy drinking & compulsive gambling, racial or ethnic baiting, kinky gadgetry, pornography, gluttony, brutal pranks, practical jokes, off-color movies, and the closest to neutral, but still “purple, is pub crawling.
From neutral, moving towards good, Curtis lists social card playing, social drinking, hunting (if done ethically), riflery, archery, high-speed racing, sports car racing, flower gardening, vegetable gardening, art, music, dance, fitness activities, volunteer instruction, volunteer service to sick people, and at the most positive end, religious singing.
While some purple recreation is clearly negative, such as child pornography and animal torture, not all is necessarily violent or countercultural. For example, weekend gambling, excessive eating, social drinking, and loud music, if experienced with some moderation, could be wholesome recreation. Curtis’ goal in presenting this model is to encourage us to look at all sides of leisure and recreation. Some say only wholesome activities should be considered as recreation--but purple recreation is going to exist no matter how we define it. Purple recreation is likely to increase if our society succeeds at becoming leisure oriented, so developing an understanding of what it is, and why it occurs, may help us make more informed choices and policy decisions.

7. The Nash Pyramid
J. B. Nash also provided a way of classifying recreation activities from the worst to the best. If you look to the left side of this diagram you will note that categories have scores ranging from minus two to plus four. The two levels that fall below zero are those that would be considered taboo recreation. The worst kinds of recreation would be acts performed against society that are injurious to others. A negative one is assigned to recreational activities that harm the individual in some way. The four levels above zero represent the more personally and socially redeeming forms of recreation. Even these are on a scale from okay to best--at level one, killing time, are activities that are mind dulling, and Nash did not believe they have much as much value to the individual or society as those activities at the higher levels. Nash said it was better to be at least emotionally involved, better yet to be actively involved, and the best recreation would be when you are actually engaged in creative activity.
Perhaps you have noticed by now, but the image design for the class web pages is based on the Nash Pyramid. At the lowest level, the bong represents using illegal drugs, the martini represents excessive alcohol consumption, the television represents killing time, the book represents emotional engagement, the sailboat represents active participation, and the painter’s palette represents creative activity.
Can you think of at least one example of something you have done that fits each category?

8. Taboo Recreation Labels from the Nash Pyramid
Injuring Self: the harm from the activity is mainly to those who participate.
Substance Abuse
Compulsive overuse
Can “good” behaviors or activities be “bad” if they become compulsive?
What type of leisure behaviors or activities can you identify as compulsive?
Gambling?
Lotteries?
Bingo?
Recreation activities that are taboo, but are generally victimless, are those that primarily injure the participant. There is often a fine line between activities that are injurious to self and injurious to others. Excessive gambling, substance abuse, and heavy drinking all hurt the individual engaged in the activity, but may also harm friends and family. When deciding which category to place a particular activity in, you should try to decide who is harmed more, the individual or society?
Several examples commonly given for this category are the abuse of legal substances such as alcohol. While the moderate, legal, and appropriate use of alcohol can facilitate socialization, decrease stress, and even improve health, there are well-know health hazards for those who abuse alcohol. Almost any activity, even “good activities,” such as running, exercising, and so on, become dysfunctional and negative if taken to the point of compulsive addiction. Other activities that may be okay in moderation, but that people get obsessed over, include compulsive eating, dieting, television viewing and computer games. What type of leisure behaviors or activities can you identify as compulsive? Do you, or anyone you know well, have one of these compulsions?
Other activities that are often categorized as injurious to self are those that are gambling related. Much like alcohol consumption, some gambling is legal, regulated, and engaged in with moderation. This kind of gambling may be positive and facilitate relaxation and socialization. People like the thrill of competition, risk, and winning, and for many gamblers, it is a form a recreation. However, gambling too has some dark sides: much gambling is illegal and many bets are placed on purple recreation activities like dog fights. Internet gambling has increased dramatically, and many people have placed bets about dates of battles and outcomes of the War in Iraq.
Bingo and lotteries are both forms of gambling that are said to take advantage of those in lower socio-economic classes. Lotteries are often referred to as a “poor person’s tax” because the state gets a lot richer off of sales than the people buying the tickets. Do you think it is a contradiction for the state to sponsor legalized gambling that can cause individual harm at the same time they are arresting people for illegal gambling? As usual, there are two sides to every argument: What if someone spends their money on lottery tickets instead of food or clothes for their children? On the other hand, shouldn’t people be free to chose if they want to play the game? No one forces them to buy a ticket.

9. Taboo Recreation Labels from the Nash Pyramid
Injuring Others: antisocial acts or crimes with victims… behaviors that injure others.
Vandalism for fun
Taboo sex
Vandalism types:
Malicious vandalism • Self-expression vandalism
Thrill vandalism • Spin-off vandalism
Acts that are injurious to others often include antisocial activities or crimes that have victims. In short, the recreator’s behavior causes some injury to others.
Some recreation activities are clearly crimes that have victims. Examples include vandalism done for fun and taboo sex where there are victims. Consider people that commit acts of vandalism. Of the ten types of vandalism listed on page 208 of your text, several are committed by people by choice and for fun. Thrill vandalism is probably the worst. For example, I have heard of a gang daring someone who wants to join to kidnap and rape and murder someone in order to pass an initiation test. Malicious vandalism, where somebody wants to do damage, is also pretty bad, and cost parks up to 15% of their annual budgets every year. Self-expression vandalism, where a person is attempting to get a message noticed, is more interesting, but still damaging. Some cities have designated tagging areas in public places to turn expressive vandalism into community art. Spin-off vandalism, where property damage happens by accident, is harmful but at least it is not intentional.

10. The Golden Mean & Moderation
Aristotle taught us that good actions could be defined by exercising the “golden mean”
The “golden mean” is the point of moderation between any two extremes
Examples: drinking alcohol & eating
A life of good action, lived according to the golden mean, will bring the greatest happiness
The ancient Greeks had a way to help them make decisions about virtuous behavior. Applying this lesson to modern-day activities can help us make choices that are not injurious to ourselves or others. Aristotle taught us that good actions could be defined by exercising the “golden mean.” The “golden mean” is the point of moderation between any two extremes. Consider two examples that involve common, everyday activities. The two extremes for alcohol consumption are being a tee-totaler, that is, not drinking at all, and drinking so much that one gets very sick and passes out. The golden mean for alcohol consumption would be having just enough alcohol that a person can relax and socialize. This would be considered “virtuous” behavior. The two extremes for eating would be gluttony and starvation. The golden mean is eating enough healthy foods to sustain oneself, using moderation in all categories of the food pyramid. This good action would also be considered as virtuous behavior.
The next time you are engaging in an activity that, if taken to extremes, could become harmful, consider the golden mean. Aristotle argues that a life of good action, lived according to the principle of the golden mean, will bring the greatest happiness.

11. Why do people engage in unacceptable behaviors?
Leisure participation goes up, boredom goes down
Leisure satisfaction goes up, boredom goes down
Social, sport participation, outdoor recreation and reading work best to reduce boredom
Many purple recreation experiences also provide thrills and challenges
A study by Ragheb examined the question of why people engage in recreation behaviors. He found that people often act out of boredom. That is, boredom is a motivator to action. Interestingly, he discovered that as leisure participation goes up, boredom goes down. Also, as leisure satisfaction goes up, boredom goes down. You probably can note that this is pretty much common sense. When people start doing something they like, they are less bored.
It turns out that activities that were best at reducing boredom were those that were the most engaging. This included social activities, sport participation, outdoor recreation, and reading. These are represented by the upper levels on the Nash pyramid. However, many purple recreation activities can also relieve boredom, and may provide easier, or better, thrills and challenges than other options that a person has available. There are three theoretical explanations for why people make taboo recreation their recreation of choice. They include anomie, differential association, and retreatist lifestyles.

12. Leisure’s Potential for Anomie
Anomie: a lack of purpose and identity in a person or a society resulting in the demise of formerly useful social norms
Examples:
Sports Spectating
Adolescent behavior
Anomie is defined as a lack of purpose and identity in a person or a society resulting in the demise of formerly useful social norms. It is thought to occur when once-viable social norms no longer work to control people’s actions. For example, at one time, people were not violent in the after-game celebration of big victories. In 2002, when The Ohio State University beat Michigan, the usual police force was not nearly enough to contain rioting students and cars and businesses were torched. In the future, they will have much wider restrictions.
Anomie can be traced to an imbalance between people’s goals and their means to attain those goals. A perception of lack of opportunity, economic means, or poor self concept has lead some adolescents to deviant pastimes. For example, if an individual cannot buy what they want, they might as well steal it in their free time.
Research documents that violence in sports is related to violent behaviors by the fans--this means, that when athletes are violent during a game, such as football, the fans are more violent too. If the fans, or athletes, don’t get what they want then they are increasingly likely to resort to violence to get it. The social norms that formerly guided the behavior of athletes and fans no longer have the control they once did.

13. Leisure’s Potential for Differential Association
Differential Association: delinquent behavior is learned through interaction with others in intimate personal groups.
Example:
Youth gangs
Differential association refers to delinquent behavior that is learned through interaction. Put simply, this concept claims that delinquent behavior is learned through social interaction with others in intimate personal groups, such as family and friends. Young people are often affected because their friends are often the center of their universe.
Youth gangs are still very popular in urban, suburban, small towns and rural areas. No location is exempt from gangs. Gang membership is primarily male, but there are a few female gangs. Gang activities often include purple recreation activities that are pretty far down on the scale including robbery, drug sales, aggravated assault, and even pre-meditated murder. Young people join gangs to feel confidence, personal power, excitement, control, and independence. Many community policing programs work directly with youth gangs and provide recreation leagues and activities designed to meet youth needs outside of the gang environment.

14. Retreatist Lifestyles
Retreatist Lifestyle --choosing to live in a way that differs from dominant social norms as a matter of personal expression.
Examples:
Communes
Drugs & sexual experimentation
A third possible explanation for some people’s taboo recreation activities is choosing to adopt a retreatist lifestyle. That is, choosing to live in a way that differs from dominant social norms as a matter of personal expression. During the 1960s many young people gravitated towards San Francisco to live in communes where drug use and sexual experimentation were the norm. Today, many youth are still dropping out, taking drugs, and engaging in sexual experimentation as they seek life satisfaction through alternative lifestyles. Unfortunately, these behaviors are often the un-doing of many young people and their families. At best, a person can successfully re-enter society after getting straight, at worst they die. Prolonged drug use can alter brain chemistry making it impossible to experience pleasure from everyday activities like a nice meal, time spent with friends, or a walk outside on a spring day. Often times, individuals never develop important social skills and coping mechanisms that make success in life difficult if not impossible.

15. The Dilemma of Goodness
Is leisure only leisure when it is good or moral? What about recreation?
The hedonistic error
Dustin’s standard of goodness: “Recreation rightly understood is a matter of virtuous conduct”
Some people argue that leisure is only leisure when it is good or moral. Immoral activities should not be considered as either leisure or recreation. This creates a dilemma because choice and freedom are central to both leisure and recreation experiences. If society chooses for a person what can be leisure or recreation then we have lost a critical element to our life’s experiences.
However, let’s consider if this dilemma might provide us with some guidance for making satisfying choices. Aristotle proposed one system with his concept of the Golden Mean. What about more contemporary authors?
Dan Dustin talks about the problem of the hedonistic error. What this means is that when something is pleasurable we tend to believe that it is also good. Maybe not all things that are pleasurable are equally good.
Dustin goes on to argue for his standard of goodness, and he proposes that recreation rightly understood is a matter of virtuous conduct. It is important to note that a virtuous act must also be freely chosen. So, while a person can be educated according to right behavior, the act of choosing must still lie with the individual.

16. Standards of Goodness
“Things are good when they contribute to our physical and mental health, our sense of being loved and loving, our feelings of belonging and self-esteem and ultimately our personal growth and development. Things that work against the fulfillment of these needs are bad for us no matter how pleasurable they might be.” Dustin, 1986
Dustin gives us some standards that we can use as guides for making decisions about whether and activity is good or not. He states that “Things are good when they contribute to our physical and mental health, our sense of being loved and loving, our feelings of belonging and self-esteem and ultimately our personal growth and development. Things that work against the fulfillment of these needs are bad for us no matter how pleasurable they might be.” These broad guidelines can be used by an individual when making recreation and leisure choices.

17. Standards of Goodness
“A thing is right when it intends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the … community of life. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.” Aldo Leopold
Dustin’s ideas can be extended into an environmental ethic. It can be argued that our recreation activities should not cause environmental harm or degradation. He proposes that Aldo Leopold’s land ethic that states “A thing is right when it intends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the community of life. It is wrong when it tends otherwise” be used for guidance when choosing activities which will impact our environment.

18. Implications of Recreation as Virtuous Conduct
We can educate ourselves and others
We must remember that in order for an act to be virtuous, a person must choose for themselves
Recreation providers should be conscious about ethical behaviors and educate clients accordingly
People cannot make choices for each other without impacting freedoms. Therefore, we can educate ourselves and others and hope that they make wise choices. We must remember that in order for an act to be virtuous, a person must choose for themselves. Recreation providers should be conscious about ethical behaviors and select activities and educate clients accordingly.

19. Final Thoughts
How could knowing about the relationship between leisure and deviance make a difference?
How can the theories and research presented here equip you to live a more satisfying life?
Could this information make you a better citizen?
What would you teach your children to prepare them for difficult choices they may face?
What do you wish you had known, or understood, earlier in life about taboo recreation?
Since freedom remains essential to leisure and recreation experiences, I’ll leave you with some questions. First, how could knowing about the relationship between leisure and deviance make a difference? Do you think being informed could help you live a more satisfying life? Could this information make you a better citizen? What would you want to teach your children to prepare them for the difficult choices they will face? What do you wish you had known, or understood, earlier in life about taboo recreation?