Gender Socialization

Gender Socialization describes a process where people are pushed into what appears to be appropriate masculine or feminine behaviors.  This process follows people throughout their lives from the toys they play with as children to the career they choose in adulthood. Some of the most notable ways people are exposed to this gender socialization fis through parents, peers and media. Gender socialization forces people to act in a certain manner that they otherwise wouldn't and because of this, many people feel trapped or limited by their gender.  Isabella Crepsi, a professor at the University of Milan, Italy, describes gender socialization as, "...the process through which the child becomes an individual respecting his or her environment laws, norms and customs." (Crespi).

This article writes a brief overview of gender socialization of the contrast of gender vs sex.

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Beginning at a young age, children learn that certain genders are expected to like things related to that stereotype. Little girls are taught to enjoy the color pink, play with barbie dolls and love princesses, while young boys are expected to like the color blue, play with action figures and engage in more physical activities.  Parents even dress their children according to their gender and give them chores that are gender distinctive. There is a very obvious segregation between genders and children learn from an early age how to reach the expectations given by their nature. A video by Study.com briefly overviews the topics discussed here. 

Photo: https://storify.com/kae_boykin/history-of-gender-sterotypes-in-children-s-adverst

From birth, people are taught how to behave with statements like, "It isn't ladylike!" and "Suck it up and be a man!". It is this kind of upbringing that stunts a person's individuality. Many people feel disturbed when they see people acting without regards to their labeled gender, which leads to people feeling lonely, or misunderstood. The extent to which we force children into their gender stereotypical behavior is at an extreme. In this video by Buzzfeed it shows what life would be like if the amount of stress we place on children and their gender follows them into adulthood. 

As stressed in the video, it seems very controlling to force people into what society deems as 'socially correct'. Even though in adulthood we do not experience this, we do however see it everyday. Media plays a large role in the world today and it impacts our opinions greatly. Television shows, magazines and advertisements are now a part of everyday life and they all have a very similar view on gender. In this article written by Huffington Post writes about the media's effects on gender socialization. 

Media often depicts the "perfect American family" as consisting of a mother, father, and 2 or more children. The father will be the main discipliner and provider of the family, while the mother is shown to be much more loving and be the care-taker for the family. For years the advertising world has depicted that "perfect family" and shaped what should be considered the appropriate behavior of each member. A mother should stay home to clean the house and cook while the father goes off to work. The children are expected to play with their gender specific toys and work on their gender distinctive chores, this idea is what shaped the basic American families for generations. This article contains a timeline of gender stereotyping and its effect on society. "History of Gender Stereotypes in Advertising"

Photo: https://russellbuchanan.wordpress.com/category/political-life/

There is a lot of criticism that comes with breaking the status quo and deciding to follow what they want instead of what is expected of them. Today we see a much larger group that decide to not let their gender define them; more men are joining in once female-dominant fields such as teachers, nurses and social workers. Women have begun to take control of their education and their lives and because of this children are beginning to learn that individuality is not to be feared. Although there is still a lot of gender stereotyping in today's society there is a noticeable change to a more modern way of thinking. 

Citation:

Blumenfeld, W. (2013, August 8). Examining Media's Socialization of Gender Roles. Retrieved September 29, 2015.

McSorely, B. (2014, May 12). Gender Socialization. Retrieved September 29, 2015.

Early Childhood: Early Gender Socialization. (2009, August 7). Retrieved October 3, 2015.

Blaming the Victim

Blaming the victim is described as a practice used by people who view a social problem as emanating from within the individual who exhibits the problem. This is a very broad topic that can be applied to many different situations in today's society, but the one most notably seen today is pertaining to the sexual assault of civilians. Most people are familiar with the ever growing topic of rape today. In recent years the number of rape victims in America is estimated to be 293,066, and of those numbers 68% don't report to the police. This is a very large number considering that approximately every 107 seconds, another sexual assault is committed. However, one may question why these people do not report this abuse. The reason behind their silence leads back to the topic of 'blaming the victim', many people here the phrases and questions, "They were asking for it", "Where you wearing revealing clothing?", "Did you initial the exchange?", "You shouldn't have been there anyway. ". It is statements like these that lead the victim to believe that it was their fault that there were sexually assaulted.

Photo: http://teachinghighschoolpsychology.blogspot.com/2015/01/attribution-of-responsibility-blaming.html#sthash.nOVCP33G.dpbs

One real world example of this issue comes from a very famous pop culture icon, Ke$ha. She filed a claim against Dr. Luke and Sony Music claiming that she was drugged and raped multiple times during their acquaintanceship. She was then countersued with the claim that she was trying to get out of a contract signing. Although this fight is still ongoing we see that the accused is trying to turn the tables to make the women feel like she is in the wrong. Whether this is justified or not, stories like these are becoming much more common in today's issues. 

In my opinion this idea that the victim did something wrong instead of the person that actually completed the crime is extremely upsetting. The criticism that people receive after having been taken advantage of leads to so many psychological issues such as PTSD, anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. No one should ever have to feel that the reason they were abused was because they were wrong. In a similar situation, children are never blamed for the abuse of their parents, even if they were possibly doing something wrong. There is a line that, if crossed, can be considered physical, mental, or emotional abuse. So if children are not blamed for their abuse, why should anyone else be made to feel shameful?

Another issue that 'blaming the victim' can apply to is described in Chapter 2 of the textbook. Chapter 2 is entitled "Wealth and Poverty: U.S. and Global Economic Inequality" and this chapter describes the social issues in the American economic system and the sociological perspectives of them. Here the concept of 'blaming the victim' is used as an explanation of poverty. In today's media one can often hear about the poor. We see it anywhere from the news to comedy shows and they are very poorly displayed in these places. The stereotypical American poor person is either a lazy bum that won't get a job or they are a drug addict/ alcoholic who lost their jobs due to poor behavior. Although this is a possibility, many Americans forget that some of these people are struggling single parents, war veterans, or even disabled/ill people that have all been left with little to nothing. An article written on readerssupportednews.com by Tom Adams reiderates this theory here.

Photo: http://www.meta-activism.org/2015/09/derailment-handbook/

As stated in this chapter, "Individual explanations for poverty view poverty as the result of either attitudinal and motivational problems that cause individuals to be poor." This topic has become such a huge part of today's society. We see reminence of this action in movies, written in books and websites. Everyone today has used the internet at some point and many people go to it as a place to display their feelings or learn about new topics. Websites are popping up everywhere from social media to learning tools, and they have a lot to say about 'blaming the victim'. Numerous websites can be found all over the internet, one I discovered is entitled Everyday Victim Blaming. This website acts as a bridge for those who have experienced blaming or want to take a stand against it. Even just searching 'blaming the victim' brings thousands of court cases, interviews and activist sites. 

Photo: http://thepowerofreality.blogspot.com/2014/05/victim-blaming.html

No matter where a person stands in this conflict, it is easy to see that this topic causes a big issue in the world and causing many debates across the country. I stand against 'Blaming the Victim' because it causes issues on both ends, the 'victims' feel demoralized and the people are misguiding their anger on the very group they should be helping. 

Citation: 

Ehrenreich, B. (2014, January 13). Time to Wake Up: Stop Blaming Poverty on the Poor. Retrieved September 28, 2015.

Weiss, Suzannah. "Why Do We Blame Rape Victims?" Bustle. Web. 29 Sept. 2015.

Women 'to blame' for being raped. (n.d.). Retrieved September 28, 2015.