Mask Project
Mask Essay
Gender
We are socialized almost instantly in our lives, straight from the moment we are born. We start being shaped and changed in different ways by many different things. For example we are told what to think, and how to act. In this essay I am going to focus on the ways we are socialized because of our gender.
When we are young, I think it is more nature that’s shaping us than society or the media. Boys start doing “macho” things before they even know what they are. For example, when I was around 4-5, I would always play with legos, and I would always turn them into a gun or a sword even though I had never even seen any movies or or TV shows with violence in them. I didn’t really understand the concept of these things, but I would always play with them and have lots fun while I did. My mom would get my brother and I things like dolls and other “genderless” toys to play with when we were very little, but we still always neglected these toys and went out to be soldiers with our sticks to fight the imaginary bad guys. A lot of the time we would even compete with each other in these imaginary battles, like seeing who could “kill” the most bad guys before we were done. My mom says she would watch in amazement as we did these things, and just watch her principles go down the drain, and gave up trying to make us into something we weren’t.
Media like TV tries to socialize young kids to think that men need to be the strong, athletic man like in the movies. All these things seem like they’re always written specifically for boys or for girls, and is very seldom written to appeal to both. For boys, they make commercials where there’s the awesome fast car toys that go around a track while dodging all of the flames and monsters on it. They also show these manly, cool, action heroes on TV and in movies that young boys that see and instantly think “Wow! That guy is cool, I want to be like him when I grow up!”. This is creating false role models for kids to follow, and is getting them motivated to be something they most likely can’t. Although, my home environment has socialized me very differently than the media has. I learned at an early age that the guys on TV can be pretty cool, but almost all of them aren’t very real. I still thought that these action heros were awesome and I thought of how fun it would be to live their life, but I knew they were all just fictional characters.
As a male, I think the more dramatic socialization effect on me personally has to do with not showing any emotion. In books, movies, and video games, the men are always these tough guys who never shows any sign of fear, sorrow, and pain. The media tells you that you need to hide your emotions from other people, and this leads to a lot of problems, especially with teenagers, because they’re having hormone overloads and it can get very hard to conceal the many emotions that have been bottled up inside for years. You’re told that if you show your emotions, you are weak, and that you are not an adult.
Nature may just program us to be the protector, or the nurturer, but no matter what gender you are, you will always have emotions that are a very real part of your life, and we need to express and share those feelings in one way or another. Even though modern society has come a very long way in letting people be free to expressing their emotions and feelings, the current media doesn’t support it. It’s very difficult to develop individually against these norms when you are constantly surrounded by the media.
In the end, no matter if you are male or female, we are all just a colony, working and cooperating to survive, thrive, and help each other succeed.
We are socialized almost instantly in our lives, straight from the moment we are born. We start being shaped and changed in different ways by many different things. For example we are told what to think, and how to act. In this essay I am going to focus on the ways we are socialized because of our gender.
When we are young, I think it is more nature that’s shaping us than society or the media. Boys start doing “macho” things before they even know what they are. For example, when I was around 4-5, I would always play with legos, and I would always turn them into a gun or a sword even though I had never even seen any movies or or TV shows with violence in them. I didn’t really understand the concept of these things, but I would always play with them and have lots fun while I did. My mom would get my brother and I things like dolls and other “genderless” toys to play with when we were very little, but we still always neglected these toys and went out to be soldiers with our sticks to fight the imaginary bad guys. A lot of the time we would even compete with each other in these imaginary battles, like seeing who could “kill” the most bad guys before we were done. My mom says she would watch in amazement as we did these things, and just watch her principles go down the drain, and gave up trying to make us into something we weren’t.
Media like TV tries to socialize young kids to think that men need to be the strong, athletic man like in the movies. All these things seem like they’re always written specifically for boys or for girls, and is very seldom written to appeal to both. For boys, they make commercials where there’s the awesome fast car toys that go around a track while dodging all of the flames and monsters on it. They also show these manly, cool, action heroes on TV and in movies that young boys that see and instantly think “Wow! That guy is cool, I want to be like him when I grow up!”. This is creating false role models for kids to follow, and is getting them motivated to be something they most likely can’t. Although, my home environment has socialized me very differently than the media has. I learned at an early age that the guys on TV can be pretty cool, but almost all of them aren’t very real. I still thought that these action heros were awesome and I thought of how fun it would be to live their life, but I knew they were all just fictional characters.
As a male, I think the more dramatic socialization effect on me personally has to do with not showing any emotion. In books, movies, and video games, the men are always these tough guys who never shows any sign of fear, sorrow, and pain. The media tells you that you need to hide your emotions from other people, and this leads to a lot of problems, especially with teenagers, because they’re having hormone overloads and it can get very hard to conceal the many emotions that have been bottled up inside for years. You’re told that if you show your emotions, you are weak, and that you are not an adult.
Nature may just program us to be the protector, or the nurturer, but no matter what gender you are, you will always have emotions that are a very real part of your life, and we need to express and share those feelings in one way or another. Even though modern society has come a very long way in letting people be free to expressing their emotions and feelings, the current media doesn’t support it. It’s very difficult to develop individually against these norms when you are constantly surrounded by the media.
In the end, no matter if you are male or female, we are all just a colony, working and cooperating to survive, thrive, and help each other succeed.