Socialization And Identity Project
We, as individuals and as a society, are socialized by everything we have seen or done in our lives. We are taught everything we have ever known in our lives by being socialized, it shapes our identity. In this project, we were taught about the ways our society has told us how to act and what beliefs to have through the different identity categories including religion, ability, race, economic class, and gender. Our final product of this project was to create a mask and essay reflecting each-other about how we personally have been socialized in our lives. The essential question that we were given to answer in our conclusion of this project was: 'What can you do as an individual to break the harmful socialization cycles?'
Stuck.
From the very beginning, we are socialized regarding which actions, personality traits, and items are stereotypical for the gender we are born into as well as everything that we do. These stereotypes shape our identity, pleasant and harmful. Each of our personal socialization is based off of everything that we have seen and done in our lives. We are taught how to act and be by everything ranging from our peers to the media. We create ideas about where we belong and how to act in the way we have come to know ourselves and society; these ideas then form our social groups called targets and agents. Targets and agents are based off of the stereotypes of things that may be ‘right’ in our society including things such as ability, sexual orientation, gender, race and economic class. Targets are the people at a disadvantage such as one in a wheelchair, someone that is homosexual, and one that has a different color skin than white. Agent groups are the ones at an advantage which includes people that are in the upper class and white males. In the United States, we have established cultural norms, something that is typical or a standard that we, as a society, feel needs to be met, and values that must be followed. In the article “The Cycle of Socialization” by Bobbie Harro, it explains how we, as a human race, have been given social identities: “These social identities predispose us to unequal roles in the dynamic system of oppression.” Society has conformed me, as a white woman, to constantly try to attain to society’s standard of ‘perfection’, that I am an object to those around me due to the fact that I am a woman, and to remain unaware of the reality of white privilege.
As a woman, I have been taught, by society, that I have to achieve society’s unreachable idea of perfection in order to be accepted. In the video Miss Representation of Women, the filmmaker of Killing Us Softly named Jean Kilbourne states, “Girls get the message form very early on, that what’s important is how they look. That their value, their worth, depends on that.” I have been taught that all that matters in my life is how I look, compared to knowledge or education. The media is everywhere; whenever I see anything, I receive a message about how I ‘should’ be or act. In order to be accepted in our culture, I must be society’s idea of perfect. Unless I am that idea of perfection, I will not be accepted, because all that matters in our society is looks. If I don’t have those looks, I am not good enough. All of my life, I have been taught that I’m not good enough and I’ve felt like a failure and ashamed of my true self just because I didn’t fit the standards of perfection. One thing people don’t realize is that this perfect image of what a girl should look like is one created by photoshop; that this girl isn’t real. Throughout my entire life I have felt as though I will never be good enough in our culture just because I feel as though I won’t ever be the ‘ideal’ woman. Through the media, society has taught me that all that is important in life is to achieve perfection though my looks.
Being a woman, one in the target group according to gender, I have been taught that my only purpose in life is to be an object, being used without care. In the media, specifically television advertisements, women are portrayed as though they are objects who will do whatever whenever because they are weak and dependent. The video “Gender Roles-Interviews with Kids,” proves the fact that from a very young age we are taught that women have a specific role in life which is to stay at home and clean. Women are objectified as a gender, forming the stereotypes we have come to know. These stereotypical objectifications include ones such as the fact that females only purpose is for childbearing or that they are only there for cleaning and cooking. At one point during the video, the children are asked “Which doll likes to clean the house?”, being shown a male and women doll. Every one of the children answered the question quickly and without a doubt, saying that the women doll did. In everything I see, women are shown cleaning and working around the house rather than working for the family. These advertisements attempt to exhibit the stereotype that men do the working for the family while the woman stays home and cleans the house. I have been taught a very strong message about how I should be when I am a grown woman. These negative messages we are fed makes our society, specifically women, feel as though they need to achieve this goal in order to please the people of our culture. Advertisements portray women, in their state of perfection, as though all they are there for is men, doing whatever they want. Women are shown with men in such sexual ways in commercials that it is to the point where domestic violence is being used to broadcast items. Through these advertisements, me and everyone around me are being taught that woman's only purpose in life is to be a some sort of ‘servant’ to men. Everywhere we look, the media, things such as commercials, advertisements, and even music, teaches this message about how women are weak and constantly depend on men for just about everything. This forms a society in which women have come to think of themselves as an object; they begin thinking in negative ways of themselves. Our culture portrays women, in the media, as though they are only there to be an object.
Since I was born, I have been taught to remain oblivious of the privileges that I have been given being in the white race. In the article “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” Peggy McIntosh, the author, describes her experience in the white race: “As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage, but taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage.” Without realizing it, I have been at an advantage my whole life, being a part of a dominant race, caucasian. I have never noticed these domineering disadvantages due to the fact that, because I am white, they have no negative effect on me. Thus, I would have no reasoning as to why I would have noticed them. We, as a white race, continually deny the privileges that we have been given without doing anything to earn them because we are unwilling to accept the fact that we have more opportunities than those of color. White people are socialized to believe that people may be at a disadvantage rather than think that they are at an advantage. An example of this may be a male admitting that women are at a disadvantage for certain things, but they refuse to admit that they are at an advantage. The understanding I gained from the article “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” includes: when I am learning about civilization in school, I can be almost sure that I will be taught about my race and when I go to the store I can be sure that I won’t have any problem finding band-aids the color of my skin. These ideas that we have come to ignore are creating a more segregated society in which no one feels welcome unless they are in the agent group, in this case the white race. Since I was born, I have always been told to be accepting of my skin just because it is white, and I realize now the virtue I have been given just because of my color. My race has a dominance that we have been taught to ignore. We are oppressors without most of us even knowing it. Being born into the white race, I have been given undeserved privileges and then taught to remain negligent of them.
In order for our society, as a whole, to eradicate our socialization patterns, we must first come to accept everyone for their true selves. Before this can happen, we must become knowledged about the causes and effects that socialization causes each of us individually and our society as a whole. The article “The Cycles of Socialization and Identity,” by Peggy McIntosh, argues against the stereotypes of our society’s culture and comes up with an idea for how to abolish it all together: “We need to take a stand, reframe our understandings, question the status quo, and begin a critical transformation that can break down this cycle of socialization and start a new cycle leading to liberation for all.” In order for this to happen, we must become knowledged about the causes and effects that socialization causes each of us individually and our society as a whole. Once we have this knowledge, it may be easier for us to begin embrace our differences. In the society of our country, we have such a high and unreachable standard of perfection, and in order to be accepted, I must be that standard of perfection. As a woman, I have been taught that my only purpose in life is to be an object for those around me, specifically men, and do whatever they want me to. Being born into the white race, I have been given privileges that I don’t rightfully deserve and I’ve been taught to remain heedless to these rights. As a country, I believe that we can eliminate the negative aspects of socialization with the beginning to accept people for who they are no matter the circumstances. These problems in our society try to make us think and act specific ways in order to conform to their ideas of perfection, but I, as an individual, am going to be content with who I am no matter the stereotypes I may be breaking.
My mask is a representation of how I have been socialized in our society on one side and the other side shows my personality traits and how I may have broken stereotypes but how I am happy with who I am. My first symbol that I used on my mask was the teardrop coming out of my eye on the negative side. This shows how I feel as though I won’t ever be able to reach society’s concept of perfection. I also used negative words on the adverse side which are all stereotypes that I have been given in my gender. The positive words on the happy side are my personality traits and how I’ve gone against the negative stereotypes that I have been fed since day one. The capital UNFAIR and white skin represent how unfair white privileges really are. My final symbol that I decided to use what the colorful array of teardrop shapes going towards the top of my mask prove to show that I am different and how I have gone broken the common stereotypes. Through my mask, I want to show that no matter what people have told you, you can still act like yourself and be your own person despite society.
From the very beginning, we are socialized regarding which actions, personality traits, and items are stereotypical for the gender we are born into as well as everything that we do. These stereotypes shape our identity, pleasant and harmful. Each of our personal socialization is based off of everything that we have seen and done in our lives. We are taught how to act and be by everything ranging from our peers to the media. We create ideas about where we belong and how to act in the way we have come to know ourselves and society; these ideas then form our social groups called targets and agents. Targets and agents are based off of the stereotypes of things that may be ‘right’ in our society including things such as ability, sexual orientation, gender, race and economic class. Targets are the people at a disadvantage such as one in a wheelchair, someone that is homosexual, and one that has a different color skin than white. Agent groups are the ones at an advantage which includes people that are in the upper class and white males. In the United States, we have established cultural norms, something that is typical or a standard that we, as a society, feel needs to be met, and values that must be followed. In the article “The Cycle of Socialization” by Bobbie Harro, it explains how we, as a human race, have been given social identities: “These social identities predispose us to unequal roles in the dynamic system of oppression.” Society has conformed me, as a white woman, to constantly try to attain to society’s standard of ‘perfection’, that I am an object to those around me due to the fact that I am a woman, and to remain unaware of the reality of white privilege.
As a woman, I have been taught, by society, that I have to achieve society’s unreachable idea of perfection in order to be accepted. In the video Miss Representation of Women, the filmmaker of Killing Us Softly named Jean Kilbourne states, “Girls get the message form very early on, that what’s important is how they look. That their value, their worth, depends on that.” I have been taught that all that matters in my life is how I look, compared to knowledge or education. The media is everywhere; whenever I see anything, I receive a message about how I ‘should’ be or act. In order to be accepted in our culture, I must be society’s idea of perfect. Unless I am that idea of perfection, I will not be accepted, because all that matters in our society is looks. If I don’t have those looks, I am not good enough. All of my life, I have been taught that I’m not good enough and I’ve felt like a failure and ashamed of my true self just because I didn’t fit the standards of perfection. One thing people don’t realize is that this perfect image of what a girl should look like is one created by photoshop; that this girl isn’t real. Throughout my entire life I have felt as though I will never be good enough in our culture just because I feel as though I won’t ever be the ‘ideal’ woman. Through the media, society has taught me that all that is important in life is to achieve perfection though my looks.
Being a woman, one in the target group according to gender, I have been taught that my only purpose in life is to be an object, being used without care. In the media, specifically television advertisements, women are portrayed as though they are objects who will do whatever whenever because they are weak and dependent. The video “Gender Roles-Interviews with Kids,” proves the fact that from a very young age we are taught that women have a specific role in life which is to stay at home and clean. Women are objectified as a gender, forming the stereotypes we have come to know. These stereotypical objectifications include ones such as the fact that females only purpose is for childbearing or that they are only there for cleaning and cooking. At one point during the video, the children are asked “Which doll likes to clean the house?”, being shown a male and women doll. Every one of the children answered the question quickly and without a doubt, saying that the women doll did. In everything I see, women are shown cleaning and working around the house rather than working for the family. These advertisements attempt to exhibit the stereotype that men do the working for the family while the woman stays home and cleans the house. I have been taught a very strong message about how I should be when I am a grown woman. These negative messages we are fed makes our society, specifically women, feel as though they need to achieve this goal in order to please the people of our culture. Advertisements portray women, in their state of perfection, as though all they are there for is men, doing whatever they want. Women are shown with men in such sexual ways in commercials that it is to the point where domestic violence is being used to broadcast items. Through these advertisements, me and everyone around me are being taught that woman's only purpose in life is to be a some sort of ‘servant’ to men. Everywhere we look, the media, things such as commercials, advertisements, and even music, teaches this message about how women are weak and constantly depend on men for just about everything. This forms a society in which women have come to think of themselves as an object; they begin thinking in negative ways of themselves. Our culture portrays women, in the media, as though they are only there to be an object.
Since I was born, I have been taught to remain oblivious of the privileges that I have been given being in the white race. In the article “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” Peggy McIntosh, the author, describes her experience in the white race: “As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage, but taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage.” Without realizing it, I have been at an advantage my whole life, being a part of a dominant race, caucasian. I have never noticed these domineering disadvantages due to the fact that, because I am white, they have no negative effect on me. Thus, I would have no reasoning as to why I would have noticed them. We, as a white race, continually deny the privileges that we have been given without doing anything to earn them because we are unwilling to accept the fact that we have more opportunities than those of color. White people are socialized to believe that people may be at a disadvantage rather than think that they are at an advantage. An example of this may be a male admitting that women are at a disadvantage for certain things, but they refuse to admit that they are at an advantage. The understanding I gained from the article “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” includes: when I am learning about civilization in school, I can be almost sure that I will be taught about my race and when I go to the store I can be sure that I won’t have any problem finding band-aids the color of my skin. These ideas that we have come to ignore are creating a more segregated society in which no one feels welcome unless they are in the agent group, in this case the white race. Since I was born, I have always been told to be accepting of my skin just because it is white, and I realize now the virtue I have been given just because of my color. My race has a dominance that we have been taught to ignore. We are oppressors without most of us even knowing it. Being born into the white race, I have been given undeserved privileges and then taught to remain negligent of them.
In order for our society, as a whole, to eradicate our socialization patterns, we must first come to accept everyone for their true selves. Before this can happen, we must become knowledged about the causes and effects that socialization causes each of us individually and our society as a whole. The article “The Cycles of Socialization and Identity,” by Peggy McIntosh, argues against the stereotypes of our society’s culture and comes up with an idea for how to abolish it all together: “We need to take a stand, reframe our understandings, question the status quo, and begin a critical transformation that can break down this cycle of socialization and start a new cycle leading to liberation for all.” In order for this to happen, we must become knowledged about the causes and effects that socialization causes each of us individually and our society as a whole. Once we have this knowledge, it may be easier for us to begin embrace our differences. In the society of our country, we have such a high and unreachable standard of perfection, and in order to be accepted, I must be that standard of perfection. As a woman, I have been taught that my only purpose in life is to be an object for those around me, specifically men, and do whatever they want me to. Being born into the white race, I have been given privileges that I don’t rightfully deserve and I’ve been taught to remain heedless to these rights. As a country, I believe that we can eliminate the negative aspects of socialization with the beginning to accept people for who they are no matter the circumstances. These problems in our society try to make us think and act specific ways in order to conform to their ideas of perfection, but I, as an individual, am going to be content with who I am no matter the stereotypes I may be breaking.
My mask is a representation of how I have been socialized in our society on one side and the other side shows my personality traits and how I may have broken stereotypes but how I am happy with who I am. My first symbol that I used on my mask was the teardrop coming out of my eye on the negative side. This shows how I feel as though I won’t ever be able to reach society’s concept of perfection. I also used negative words on the adverse side which are all stereotypes that I have been given in my gender. The positive words on the happy side are my personality traits and how I’ve gone against the negative stereotypes that I have been fed since day one. The capital UNFAIR and white skin represent how unfair white privileges really are. My final symbol that I decided to use what the colorful array of teardrop shapes going towards the top of my mask prove to show that I am different and how I have gone broken the common stereotypes. Through my mask, I want to show that no matter what people have told you, you can still act like yourself and be your own person despite society.
Project Reflection
I am most proud of the right side of my mask, the side that represents how I may have broken the negative stereotypes that I have been fed being a female. I feel as though I showed my true self on this side through writing my personality traits, words such as athletic, kind, and caring, in bright colors. I showed that I am happy with who I am although I may be seen as ‘different’ by that half of my mouth, normal without lipstick on, smiling. On the positive side of my mask, I also did a group of bright colors going up, in teardrop form, towards the top of my mask from the corner of my mask. I think that this truly showed how I’m not going to waste my time being sad about some standard of perfection that I will never achieve, nor will anyone else. A simple symbol that I used on my mask was making the eyebrow lift up a little and normal without the extra brown drawn in to make it ‘perfect’ to show that I am happy with my true self and that I won’t change everything about myself in order to please those around me. Instead I am going to please myself. In my mask, I showed that I am aware of the stereotypes that I have been taught, but I showed, in the positive half of my mask, that I am going to be content with who I am.
“In order for our society, as a whole, to eradicate our socialization patterns, we must first come to accept everyone for their true selves. Before this can happen, we must become knowledged about the causes and effects that socialization causes each of us individually and our society as a whole.” I am proud of this specific quote from my essay because I feel as though I showed the way that I personally feel we can eliminate the harmful cycles of socialization. I really think that we, as a society, can remove ourselves from this harmful way of life by beginning to accept everyone for their genuine selves. Instead of placing myself and those around me into stereotypical groups, I will accept their looks, personality, and choices as a part of who they are and the decisions they make. I believe that I truly showed my opinion about how we can rid ourselves of the negative in our society today.
I think that my biggest take-away from this project is the fact that not all stereotypes are true and to accept everyone for their true selves rather than objectifying everyone. Throughout this project, we covered how we have been socialized in different groups including gender, age, religion, ability, and race. Throughout the all of the readings and different parts of the project, I learned that we are socialized through everything that we have ever seen or done in our life, some not by choice. I really learned that people make their own choices in life, and instead of judging them for who they are, I should accept them. I will remember that the choices we make in our own lives are up to us, why judge someone else for their own choices?
The habit of heart and mind that I need to work on in my next project in order to get a better Project Based Learning, would probably be perserverance. Throughout this project I would find myself getting distracted easily and sort of scattered in a way. It may have been getting writers block or running out of ideas for my mask, but I feel as though I would just sit in class rather than use my time wisely so I would end up having to work more out of class. If I perservered more during class time, my essay may have turned out stronger, as well as my mask. In my next project, I will use my time wiser and not waste as much class time as I did in this project. Having this habit of heart and mind will allow me to refine my project further and possibly have a better ending product.
I am most proud of the right side of my mask, the side that represents how I may have broken the negative stereotypes that I have been fed being a female. I feel as though I showed my true self on this side through writing my personality traits, words such as athletic, kind, and caring, in bright colors. I showed that I am happy with who I am although I may be seen as ‘different’ by that half of my mouth, normal without lipstick on, smiling. On the positive side of my mask, I also did a group of bright colors going up, in teardrop form, towards the top of my mask from the corner of my mask. I think that this truly showed how I’m not going to waste my time being sad about some standard of perfection that I will never achieve, nor will anyone else. A simple symbol that I used on my mask was making the eyebrow lift up a little and normal without the extra brown drawn in to make it ‘perfect’ to show that I am happy with my true self and that I won’t change everything about myself in order to please those around me. Instead I am going to please myself. In my mask, I showed that I am aware of the stereotypes that I have been taught, but I showed, in the positive half of my mask, that I am going to be content with who I am.
“In order for our society, as a whole, to eradicate our socialization patterns, we must first come to accept everyone for their true selves. Before this can happen, we must become knowledged about the causes and effects that socialization causes each of us individually and our society as a whole.” I am proud of this specific quote from my essay because I feel as though I showed the way that I personally feel we can eliminate the harmful cycles of socialization. I really think that we, as a society, can remove ourselves from this harmful way of life by beginning to accept everyone for their genuine selves. Instead of placing myself and those around me into stereotypical groups, I will accept their looks, personality, and choices as a part of who they are and the decisions they make. I believe that I truly showed my opinion about how we can rid ourselves of the negative in our society today.
I think that my biggest take-away from this project is the fact that not all stereotypes are true and to accept everyone for their true selves rather than objectifying everyone. Throughout this project, we covered how we have been socialized in different groups including gender, age, religion, ability, and race. Throughout the all of the readings and different parts of the project, I learned that we are socialized through everything that we have ever seen or done in our life, some not by choice. I really learned that people make their own choices in life, and instead of judging them for who they are, I should accept them. I will remember that the choices we make in our own lives are up to us, why judge someone else for their own choices?
The habit of heart and mind that I need to work on in my next project in order to get a better Project Based Learning, would probably be perserverance. Throughout this project I would find myself getting distracted easily and sort of scattered in a way. It may have been getting writers block or running out of ideas for my mask, but I feel as though I would just sit in class rather than use my time wisely so I would end up having to work more out of class. If I perservered more during class time, my essay may have turned out stronger, as well as my mask. In my next project, I will use my time wiser and not waste as much class time as I did in this project. Having this habit of heart and mind will allow me to refine my project further and possibly have a better ending product.