September 30 th

1. September 30th • Attendance • Research Paper: How to Present a Sociological Argument • Lecture 4: Gender Socialization • Homework: • Research Paper #1

2. Growing Up Gendered: • Think back to your childhood and fill in the following: “When I was a child or teenager, I was taught that a proper young man or women should______.” • Think about the following topics: • Etiquette • Physical appearance and hygiene • Sex and Dating • Emotions and affection

3. Lecture Four Gender Socialization: Learning Masculinity and Femininity

4. Socialization • Gender Socialization: the lifelong process of socialinteraction through which individuals acquire a gendered self identity and the rules, roles, and social relationships of the social world • Why is it important? • How society reproduces itself • Through socialization people learn: • Language, cognitive skills • Roles • Self identity • Values, beliefs, ideology

5. Agents of Socialization • Family • Roles, emotion, sexuality • Education • Hidden Curriculum: unstated lessons that we learn at school from peers and teachers • Work • Clerical work vs. managerial work • Mass Media • Vast cultural space in our society

6. Toys and Gender Socialization • Toys and Play • Children separate themselves into same-sex groups for play • Toys foster specific traits and abilities • Girls -Creativity, nurturing, attractiveness • Barbie dolls, Cinderella, Easy Bake Oven • Boys – exploration, construction, competition • Action figures, Legos, Organized Sports

7. Masculinity in Children’s Films http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CWMCt35oFY&feature=related

8. What would you do if your child was gender variant? • Knowing that gender-variant adolescents are two to three times more likely to attempt suicide than other teens, would you choose to provide your child with hormone treatments that delay physical maturity? • Why or why not? Explain • How do you think your choice will affect your child’s adult life?

9. Mass Media and Socialization • There are many agents of socialization in our society today –family, school, peer groups – but one of the most powerful socializing agents today is the mass media • We live in an “advertising environment” • Adults see an average of 2000 advertisements a day • Children see an average of 40,000 commercials a year • We use 6.5 hours of mass media a day

10. Goffman: Gender Advertisements • Presentations of social interaction are equally important as the actual events in studying society • Symbolic representations of behavior • Functional ranking • Relative size • Ritualization of subordination • The Feminine Touch

11. Magazine Ads and Gender

12. What is the focus?

13. TV Ads and Gender • Coors “Wingman” • http://youtube.com/watch?v=POiA8BJ9Psc • Burger King “Manthem” • http://youtube.com/watch?v=vGLHlvb8skQ

14. “Killing Us Softly” • Jean Kilbourne comments that the impossible, ideal image presented by advertisers "wouldn’t matter so much if it didn’t connect with the core belief of American culture that such transformation is possible; that we can look like this if we just try hard enough, buy the right products. If we’re not beautiful, or thin, or rich, or successful, it’s because we’re just not trying hard enough."

15. As you watch the film consider the following questions… • How does Kilbourne say that advertising and violence against women are linked? • Do you feel that the media reflects or creates the ideal image of beauty in our society or both? Why? • Why do you think gender & sexuality play such as significant role in modern advertising?