Post #6

In class, we have been discussing the ideas of nature vs. nurture, and what agents of socialization affect the process of our nurture. Our nature includes traits we are born with.  We are born with our sex, our sexuality, our appearance, etc.  All of these traits are inherent in our genes; especially our aptitude to learn.  As children, we learn most everything we know.  As babies, we learn how to speak, how to walk, how to think and form ideas, even how to chew.  We are born unable to do most of these things that we now do subconsciously. We learn how to do these things from the people around us, or the agents of socialization in our lives.  Agents of socialization are things like our family, school, or the media, as described by James Henslin in the reading we read for class.  When we are born, the first and most influential agent of socialization in our lives is our family.  All the things I listed above are things we learn by being around our family.  Proof of the importance of nurture early in our lives can be seen in the examples of feral and isolated children.  In class, we discussed the example of Genie, who was found at the age of 13 locked in a room in her parents home, strapped to a potty-chair that she had never been able to leave since she was born.  Genie had never had any human interaction, had never had any nurture in her life, and as a result, couldn't speak, couldn't chew, wasn't able to stand up straight, could walk without shuffling her feet, couldn't straighten her hands or legs, couldn't feel temperature, the list goes on and on.  Without having any agents of socialization at any point in her life, Genie had remained in the primitive state in which she was born.  

Through the agents of socialization in our lives, we learn both manifest and latent lessons.  Manifest lessons are lessons that people like our parents have purposefully taught us.  For example, when our parents would discipline us as children, and tell us "Don't hit people" or "Don't talk back to me," they were teaching us manifest lessons to not be violent and to be obedient.  Our parents and others also teach us latent lessons, which are things they teach us unintentionally.  A prime example of a latent lesson is how our parents teach us our gender before we are even born.  While we are still in the womb, our parents will paint our room based on our sex, either blue or pink.  These gender norms are so engraved in all our minds, I don't even have to tell you which color is for which gender, you already know.  Once we are born, our genders are further imposed on us from the toys our parents give us to play with, be it Barbies or Matchbox cars.  We are dressed in certain colors and types of clothing that we carry with us our entire lives because from birth, we are shown that girls are supposed to like things that are frilly and pink, while boys like structured and blue.  

Thinking back on the idea of gender norms in my own life, I have realized that my parents actually did a pretty good job of not imposing certain roles on any of my siblings or myself.  Growing up, my favorite color was dark purple, and I was obsessed with the movie Toy Story as opposed to princesses.  I always carried my Woody the cowboy with me, and almost everyday wore my gray, fleece Toy Story hoodie, and never wore shoes, simply because I hated them. Similarly, my older sister was a fanatic about Thomas the Tank Engine, and my little brother would push a football around the neighborhood in a pink Barbie themed stroller.   I also aspired to be a football player throughout most of my childhood, until it was made clear later in life by the rest of society that girls can't be football players.  But, even though my parents never really pushed these gender specific roles on me, once I started school, I began to try and act more like a "girl," even if I didn't really realize it. My favorite color became a lighter shade of lavender, like the color  font I am using right now.  I began to wear more girly clothes, and play with dolls, and decided I wanted to be a chef instead of a football player.  I decided I wanted to be more like the girls I saw on TV and in the ads for Barbie dolls and fun hair accessories.  Even though I wasn't pressured to fill certain gender roles from my family, the agents of socialization of my peers and the media made me want to fill those roles, and be more of a "girl."