Gender Socialization Analysis

Socialization is defined as being a lifelong dynamic process of learning one 's culture. This process starts from the moment of birth, until eventual death. It takes on different forms depending on what part of the world is being studied, which means it is the product of the social construction of reality. As we have seen in class, much like in the case of isolated children, a person that has not been socialized will inevitably die. The important effects of socialization are reflected throughout our lives, from the way we perceive gender, to the way we build and market the world around us. Therefore, this paper will demonstrate how products are marketed differently according to gender, and how it reflects the way socialization takes place in …show more content…
These two phenomena are related to marketing in that, products are created and packaged in ways that would target males and females, according to the gender in which they have been socialized. In other words, marketers sell the same exact products in different packages, in order to cater to the gender stereotypes which men and women have been socialized into following. For example, if we are to look at Photo A (PA) illustrating the Dove Shampoo product, we can see that marketers use gender socialization in order to sell their product to a specific audience. Moreover, to show how important and widespread socialization is, any person socialized in a Western culture could identify that the white container is for women, whereas the darker one is for men. The colours for the male shampoo containers are darker, because men have been socialized to be indifferent towards shade or …show more content…
The Pampers Easy Ups for girls are sold in pink packaging to fit recent Western gender stereotypes. Marketers use Dora the Explorer and Disney princesses to appeal to young girls and to help socialize them from a young age. Princesses are portrayed as the damsels in distress teaching girls to assume their role as the weaker and more emotional sex. On the other hand, Dora represents an anti-barbie character, but nonetheless teaches young girls how to act. In contrast, the boys version of Pampers Easy Ups are found in blue packaging to also establish gender stereotypes. Moreover, marketers use the animated character of Thomas the Train, to give boys an early sense of work and also creates an interest in cars and motorized vehicles in order to cement the male gender