Happy Halloween!

Submitted by Mirra Watkins

     Halloween….  Known as a day of masquerading for children to trick or treat.  I have always known it to be such a day, to dress up and be whomever or whatever you admire and love: Captain Jack Sparrow, Princess Peach, Batman, Spiderman, etc.  However, due to most of us “doing gender,” I don’t think many realize how Halloween has contributed to the reinforcement of gender socialization (see how our society makes distinct differences in how children should dress for Halloween in the pictures below).  One mother’s decision in 2010 shook up this notion.

     Sarah Manley’s five-year-old son, Boo, decided to dress up as Daphne from Scooby Doo for his preschool Halloween party in 2010.  Much to my and his mother's surprise, it started an uproar.  To add more shock, the controversy did not start because of Boo’s fellow preschoolers teasing him for wearing, what many would assume, a "girl’s costume," which Boo (and I upon hearing the story) expected.  No, it wasn’t his friends who criticized him.  In fact, the children enjoyed his get-up.  The disgust and disapproval came from none other than the children’s parents.  Manley, retelling the incident on her blog, stated that “Two mothers went wide-eyed and made faces as if they smelled decomp…And Mom A says in disgust, ‘Did he ask to be that?!’…Mom B mostly just stood there in shock and dismay.”  Another mother found the audacity to tell Manley how Manley “should never have allowed this” and that she would have to put her foot down in years to come.  Sarah Manley received much backlash not only from the mothers at her son’s preschool but online as well after she vented about the issue on her blog.  In the New York Times online blog, Manley discussed how she “received some pretty terrible comments and name-calling about [her] 5-year-old that [she] couldn’t reprint.”  One individual went as far as tweeting Manley's husband’s police department in order to have her children taken away.

     What’s upsetting to me about this controversy is the hypocrisy of our society and their unrelenting ways to commit everyone to their very specific and limiting gender roles…even on a holiday made for dressing up and being someone that you're not!  What’s even sadder about this situation was the many negative comments Manley received about her son being gay or that she ‘outed’ Boo.  Despite the fact that young 5-year old Boo, as his mother said, has "no sexual conscious choice."  The negative comments further support the social belief that, as quoted in Sociology Matters, “men and women who deviate from traditional expectations about gender roles are often presumed to be gay."  Manley’s son, Boo, was expected to dress up as someone "masculine" for Halloween (most likely similar to the costumes above).  Because he didn't, he and his mother were chastised.  Far as our society’s homophobia and standards of gender roles goes, a boy dressing up as Daphne, Snow White, Storm, a Powerpuff Girl, or any other female character is a huge NO-NO and should be frowned upon and stopped.

     Many fail to realize and to understand that at such a young age, children do not know or understand sexual identity or sexual preference.  According to MSNBC, experts say that it is not unusual for boys under five to dress up in clothing or costumes usually associated with girls.  Not only that, however, many girls dress up as boys (or what’s typically associated with boys) and our society sees no problem with that! Manley said it best in her blog that if her daughter “had dressed as Batman, no one would have thought twice about it.  No one.”  What makes a girl dressing up as a male any different than a boy dressing up as a female?  Nothing.  As children see it, they are just having fun.  However to our society, it is a stigma.  A stigma so influential that children around five years of age become aware of the "differences" between our two genders and the desire to "cross-dress" disappears.

     Sadly, this issue came into light because of one Halloween costume.  I cannot imagine the difficulty our society will have with the larger issue of parents allowing their children to causally "cross-dress."  How will our society handle our children wanting to dress in everyday clothes that are stereotypically associated with the opposite sex?  Will we reprimand and scold our children in order to mold them into society’s acceptable and restrictive gender roles?  Or will we learn to accept, making our children’s happiness our top priority rather than our society’s standards and expectations?  Will we evolve and become a nation that does not subject its children to dimorphic genders?


To read Sarah Manley’s full blog post, go to http://nerdyapple.com/my-son-is-gay/

Even the Entertainment Industry has the "Who Is" and "Who's Not".

BY : TAI VIRGIL


Socialization is commonly described as a continuing process in which a person acquires a personal identity and learns the norms, values, behavioral and social skills of that social group. What one social group may consider a norm another social group may look at as forbidden. Many people today look at our entertainment industry as one large social group, but through a magnifying glass our entertainment industry can and often is divided between what each class considers the "who is" and the "who's not". For example, Ray J is a prominent, wealthy, well known celebrity that has an "indoor pool, outdoor pool, an indoor court and outdoor court" so he claims. But, it was made clear that he was not apart of the self proclaimed "Money Team" (50 Cent and Floyd Mayweather's entourage) as he thought he was.

Here you have two elite women of the entertainment industry LaLa Vasquez Anthony and Kim Kardashian photoed with tennis player Serena Williams and singer/Beyonce's shadow Kelly Rowland. Anyway, both being socialites in their own aspect and often caught in the paparazzi's never ending spotlight these women have made a big name for themselves when it comes to being an "it" factor. They surround themselves with a social group of women that identify with the same social class, wealth, and skills as them while also only dating the top athletes (minus Kris Humphries). These women have landed themselves reality shows in which showcase how they want to display themselves to millions of viewers and have us believe that this is how they live their everyday life.  

 

Within another social group of the entertainment industry you have the cast of the Jersey Shore. They definitely differ from the entourage that Kim Kardashian and LaLa identify with but still have a quite large fanbase. The Jersey Shore cast is no stranger to showcasing the way they live their life, partying, drinking and "smushing" (what they call sex) different guys, girls and each other until 8 am while also being fluent in profanity which displays acts of their social norm. The women  pride themselves on their loud colorful outfits, huge hair and long extensions.While the guys pride themselves on bring girls home that are DTF (willing to have sex easily), GTL (gym, tanning, laundry) and fist pumping. They've created quite a name for themselves.

These two social groups are perfect examples of how the entertainment industry has an umbrella over a social class that branches off  into sections with different values and norms. Yes, both groups of people are wealthy, blogged about constantly, have numerous YouTube tutorials on how to do your make up and hair like them, set trends and have landed many endorsements and publicity off of who they are, but they differ in when it comes to the bigger picture. That bigger picture is who is who. That bigger picture who is really invited to the Grammy's or who is sitting behind who at the VMA's. Yes, these groups may acknowledge each other in passing, can be caught sitting courtside at a game together by chance and smile and chat for a couple of paparazzi flicks, but to bring Jersey Shore castmates Dena or Snooki into Kim K's entourage of who she considers as "friends" is highly unlikely. Their social norms and behavioral skills are displayed to the public totally different. While Snooki and Dena have no problem announcing on national tv that they often don't wash their hands after using the bathroom, openly have sex with men they meet that night and castmates, kissing girls and getting drunk and arrested on the beach, Kim K and LaLa's show displays them vacationing on yachts with family, enjoying brunches with friends, and shopping with small talk and convo.  Nevertheless, America loves the entertainment on both sides of the fence according to ratings whether its consider "ratchet and raunchy" or not. But, through the social aspect of it all, the money, fame and fortune comes within a different light to each social group, a light that doesn't always promise longevity within fame.

Know Your Role

by Kwaamia Gray

We are not born with a culture. We must grow and develop. Our parents, teachers, peers, and siblings are those who help and influence our culture. This is socialization. During this process we are taught the language and the roles we are expected to play in life. For example, a girl learning to became a mother and a wife or something occupational such as a nurse. We are also taught and embrace the norms of the culture. We learn our rights from our wrongs. For example, in some cultures it’s not ok to have sex before marriage. Our parents usually have the most influence on us because they are our main teachers who are there from the beginning. They choose where we live, what schools we attend, and the activities we join in for the most part. Socialization can be described as a molding method. What we are and who we become depends on the people we interact or socialize with. The people around us may influence the beliefs and attitudes we have about certain things.

Role Models (2008) is a comedy film about two associates, Danny and Wheeler, who are ordered to complete 150 hours of community service working with a Big Brother Little Brother program. One underlying theme of this movie could be socialization.  Danny and Wheeler are placed with two boys. Their job is to mold them into what the society would agree to be successful men. Danny and Wheeler’s roles are to be examples of what these little boys should want to become. The title of the movie describes it all. These boys could be describes as deviant because they will not conform to the standards of the culture. The standardized things are what make up the norms we live by.

Socialization is a life-long learning process. With age come new statuses that we will need to know the roles of. Our experiences throughout our lives will eventually help us to socialize even more and help others socialize as well. Experiences help teach lessons and most of the time revise our expectations and beliefs. Take a rape victim, for instance, they may not feel worthy or even will not be able to trust anyone. Different cultures different people, but everyone knows their role.

The Talk of the Town

Many propably reconginze the poeple in the picture above and instaly know that these people are the cast of reality show the Jersey Shore. Shows such as this one and many other such as Keeping up with the Kardashians and Tia and Tameria  have caught the attention of people everywhere and it is these people who will spend hours watching this shows for pure enjoyment. many would agree with the fact that since they spend hours on end watching these shows that socialization as a whole has fallen as people spend more time watching these shows then going to a friends house or simply talking to ones neightbors. however,I think that thos is completely wrong. almost everyone these days has a phone and areable to keep in contact with each other rather simply with a hit of a button. Its my belief that these shows actually cause more socialization. these shows open up new reasons for people to talk to each other and if confronted with a stranger who also has an intertest in the same kind of shows providesa good ice breaker for those who might be nervous and dont know how to approach the situation. These reality shows are so talked about that almost everyone knows about them or at the very least is familiar with the on goings of the show.

while many would speculate that socialization is on the decline,  i would say that the way socialization is looked at is just different then it previously was.

Fitting Into the Cookie Mold

submitted by Maria Figueras


You've just baked a batch of cookies and you're taking them out of the oven to cool. As your eyes wander over the perfectly cut shapes, you notice one or two cookies which didn't quite come out right. Instead of a perfect cutout, you're stuck with an odd-shaped lump of pastry. You quickly stick these cookies at the bottom of the plate, hiding them under all the other cookies that came out like they were supposed to.

Society is not that much different. There are thousands of different molds out there, each one different depending on your circumstances (class, race, gender, etc). We are born and start off as just a blob of cookie dough, waiting to be cut into our perfect shapes by the demands of society. This is what is called socialization. Socialization is the process in which we learn what values we are to have, what social norms we are to follow, and how to behave depending on our position in society. We are socialized through school, media, our peers, family, and religion.

Let's look at education for example. We are told from a young age to excel in school and that some day we will graduate from a good college with a degree that will enable us to have a living. They don't mention things like trade school to an elementary student. We are socialized by our teachers and schools to believe that college is the way to go. Take a year off, or decide to work at McDonald's and society will write you off as a bum.

The same applies for your friends, your family, your religious group, and the media that surrounds us every day. We learn that we can act a certain way with our friends that we simply cannot with our families. We learn to comply with the rules of our faith and to be living representations of our religion's values. We are learn we have to be skinny, to be clear-skinned, to be fashionable, to roll out of bed looking like we're going to a photo shoot. We are socialized by all of these agents until we fit society's perfect cookie mold. Through socialization, we are taught the only way to be a respectable member of society is to follow its norms and values. We come to see those who differ from these values as outcasts. We may often distance ourselves from them, shun them, or smack them with a label --"a problem to society". And in this way, we are hiding these misshaped cookies at the bottom, keeping them out of view.

In conclusion, socialization is something we all face and deal with uniquely. It touches us all in some way- whether it be through our education or through the friends we hang out with. To be part of a society, we learn to fit the cookie mold that has been laid out for us, and hope for the best.