Gender Socialization

     "A Call To Men" was a very interesting short video that basically explained how men are suppose to act and feel. In the video, Tony Porter explains what the ''Man Box" is. Inside the "Man Box" are phrases that define what it means to be a man or so they say. Such phrases like "Do not show weakness or fear", "Do not cry", "Do not be like gay men" and so on. He also explained how in his life he often followed the guidelines of how to be a man. Until he finally noticed how it was wrong of him to do so, like when he got angry at his 5 yr old son for crying and told him to talk to him only when he can talk to him like a man. He also talks about different things that occurred to him throughout his life that changed him like when he saw his father crying and how his "man card" was in jeopardy when he didn't want to have sex as a child. He also mentions how we as men in this culture, in this society are taught to have less value of women and to view them as property and objects.  

     "Killing Us Softly" was a video that explained how we generally view women in our society. Jean Kilbourne talked about how advertisements are demonstrating how women should look, who they are, and how they should be. She also explains how in her views that society has not changed on how we value women and  also mentions what most women/young females think is important now a days is physical appearance.  She goes on saying the "norms" of our society on how women are often used to reflect images of  sexual identities. She also explains how our society is at fault for all this because of how they praise the idea of physical perfection. For females this starts at a very young age such as their childhood, due to the fact that our society is pressuring these young girls on  how they should act and look or what they should try looking like (example: Models). She also throughout her video talks about the different kinds of stereotypes that go with being a women. Such stereo types like how women are all passive, vulnerable, not powerful, weak, objects, etc. Something that also stood out to me  while watching this is how we have the highest pregnancy rate of teenagers than any country and that this is probably linked to how our society is influencing these young girls into having sex. Another shocking thing she spoke about were the ads that had women with their mouths shut, having no say, no opinions, and that goes back to the days when women were nothing more than housewife's and there opinions didn't matter. 

     I feel that both of these videos were very related to what we have been discussing in class. It is related because of how socialization is the process that we become aware of ourselves as part of a group, and how we learn to communicate with others in the groups and learn the behavior that is expected of us: spoken and unspoken rules of how you think, how you feel, our norms that society puts upon us, our values our beliefs, our desires and our interests. (sociology now, 127) And basically when I underlined the sentence above, I was trying to make the point of what Jean Kilbourne was trying to say about how our society sees women. Throughout her whole presentation she was talking about the unfairness that we have as men brought upon women. And to be quiet honest, I never really saw ad's this way until she pointed it out, and I'm shocked to realize how correct she is on how society has not changed much. And I believe what she is saying is true how this society negative expectations of women is wrong, unfair, unequal, and destructive. It also goes without saying that what we as adults is influencing the people around us as well (such people being children) which is mentioned in the chapter as well how children often imitate what they see as they are being socialized. And when it comes to talking about how the first video I saw is related to chapter 5, I'd say that it is also very similar as well and I feel Tony Porter makes some strong and correct points. He also it talking about socialization among boys/men and how we are expected to act and behave as men. It explains in the chapter what happens when boys/men for example defy gender expectations and what are some of the consequences for breaking the norms , and how sanctions for gender non-conformity are more severe for boys than for girls (sociology now, 146). What us men have been taught from the very beginning of time is how we should not show fear, be scared, etc, and I believe this as a man that it is completely far from the truth. The only reason this is the guideline for men is because of of culture and popular belief that men are superior than women, have more power, control everything, (although some of this can be true to a certain extent). What both of these videos come down to is defined as Gender Socialization, (from the chapter) which is the active learning of the socially acceptable attitudes, traits, and behaviors that are seen in ones society as appropriate for males or females. I believe that this ultimately what these people in the videos are trying to get the audience to understand.