Socialization

Socialization

1. The process by which we learn a society’s norms and values. Lifelong process.

2. Family

   • How we are first exposed to gender. Family functions are impacted by government, economy, politics, geography, media. We see gendered expectations in the family, but families reflect the norms and values of the culture.

3. Toys

   • Girls
     • Pastels, Pink, Glitter, Soft Voices, Music, Care-taking, Passive, Relational, Sexualized, Domesticity, Motherhood, Attractiveness, Relationship to boys.
   • Boys
     • Red, Black, Blue, Green, Loud Music, Active, Aggressive, Creative, Independent, Invention, Building, Military/Sports. Strength. Leading

4. Disney Movies

   • Mean older women are single. Beauty equated with goodness, success. Little Mermaid: Eric is shallow, Ariel can’t talk. Jungle Book: Little girl’s sing. The bear cub becoming a man. Atlantis: so sexualized. Robin Hood: women defined by relationships to men. Visual cues of gender.
   • Era’s of Disney
     • Classic: Retrograde, Princesses looking for Prince Charming. Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty. Speaking Roles Women/ Men: 50/50, 60/40, 71/29.
       • Modern: 90’s. Little Mermaid, Beauty & the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Mulan. Speaking Roles W/M, 32/68, 29/71, 10/90, 24/76, 23/77. Starts to have Body Dimorphism.
         • Current: Tangled, Brave, Frozen. W/M Speaking 52/48, 74/26, 41/59. Extreme Body Dimorphism
           • Body Dimorphism: Men and women have vastly different bodies in films. Starts with Beauty and the Beast. Women get more power, but their bodies are taken away. Rapunzel’s eye is bigger than her hand!

5. 4 Major Theories

   • Psycho Analytic (Freud)
     • Stages: Oral/Anal- Ages 0-3. No distinction between boys/girls. Mother is chief person in life. Phallic: girls model same sex parent. Boys attracted to mother first time they seem mother naked. Assumes mother has been castrated. Castration anxiety occurs. Girls recognize boy’s genitals as “far superior equiptment” Forever jealous of boys and shifts jealousy to love to have penis through father.
       • Critique: Not testable. Not cross-cultural. Timeline is problematic. Phallocentric: men are the standard.
   • Social Learning Theory (Bandura)
     • Behaviorism: Positive reinforcement (reward-based) and modeling (same sex parent).
       • Critique: Intermitten negative reinforcement works better than positive reinforcement. A passive approach, but children are actively sifting through gender expectations. Children model power- not same sex parent. Children model consistent behaviors.
   • Cognitive Development (Piaget)
     • Children develop schemas/frames- mental processes that help us to create patterns in the social world. Create visual cues, apply these to themselves and to peers. Rigidity.
       • Critique: Research takes for granted middle class/ white background. Not applicable to all race/class backgrounds. When you don’t have resources, you find another way to express gender.
   • Bem’s Enculturated Lens Theory of Gender Formation
     • Gender Polarization: Women and Men are fundamentally different
       • Androcentrism: men/males are superior
         • Biological Essentialism: sees difference as natural/biological
           • Two Processes these lenses are produced:
             • Institutionalization: Patterns of relationships that provide society’s needs. Gender exists for society.
               • Metamessages: through media, language, toys. Examples: football team video. For girls, academic ability is socialized out, for boys vulnerability is socialized out. Rosepetal cottage.