Imagine you are sitting in the front pew of the family church, you decided to wear a dress that was normally reserved for school, your mom hesitated before letting you walk out the door but mostly because you were already late, but you are sitting in the front pew and one of the female deacons comes by and places a sheet over your already crossed legs. You smile politely but wonder what’s up with that, you weren’t wearing anything to revealing, yet fault still seemed to be put on you for the hypothetical wandering male gaze. This is socialization. It is the process of enforcing social “do’s and don’ts” on an individual. Socialization can also occur within groups rather than just within society as a whole. We are all responsible for socialization.
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Because I am a young, questioning, middle class, black woman, I have experienced a socialization unique to who I am. I am also from the south which also has a huge impact on the ideas and thoughts enforced upon me. Being black I have always been compared to the stereotype of what black is, growing up I liked reading and spoke properly, because of this I was often told that I talked white or that I was the whitest black person. This is an example of socialization because it reinforces the idea of how a black person should act. When in reality being black is not a set of certain characteristics or interests. My blackness also intersects with me being a woman. Black women are seen as curvy, so often I received the message that I was simultaneously not “woman” enough and not “black” enough for having a certain body type. A socialization also occurred when it came to mental illness. This is something that is often not discussed within communities of people of color. Being ‘crazy” or “depressed is often seen as a “white” thing to be. And my parents and other family member around had often discussed how depression was not a real sickness, and that it is a choice you make. So initially when I found myself feeling what I now know as depressed, I often blamed it on myself and wondered why I could not just be happy. I had been socialized to …show more content…
When I was younger I always wondered why every time somebody bought me something it was in pink. And to this day both my mother and my grandmother claim that I should always wear a pair of earrings as it just looks better. Now maybe this is true, or maybe it comes from their internal fear of me being mistaken for a boy, or maybe, just maybe it is another example of socialization. I mean my brother doesn’t always have to wear earring, but I do. And then there’s this constant rhetoric of what’s your husband going to do if you don’t cook or clean something… umm maybe do it for himself? I’ve always found It comical when people try and claim that a woman is less of a woman because she does not want to do household chores or perhaps does not want kids, or when a girl complains about having to look after her younger AND older
Because I am a young, questioning, middle class, black woman, I have experienced a socialization unique to who I am. I am also from the south which also has a huge impact on the ideas and thoughts enforced upon me. Being black I have always been compared to the stereotype of what black is, growing up I liked reading and spoke properly, because of this I was often told that I talked white or that I was the whitest black person. This is an example of socialization because it reinforces the idea of how a black person should act. When in reality being black is not a set of certain characteristics or interests. My blackness also intersects with me being a woman. Black women are seen as curvy, so often I received the message that I was simultaneously not “woman” enough and not “black” enough for having a certain body type. A socialization also occurred when it came to mental illness. This is something that is often not discussed within communities of people of color. Being ‘crazy” or “depressed is often seen as a “white” thing to be. And my parents and other family member around had often discussed how depression was not a real sickness, and that it is a choice you make. So initially when I found myself feeling what I now know as depressed, I often blamed it on myself and wondered why I could not just be happy. I had been socialized to …show more content…
When I was younger I always wondered why every time somebody bought me something it was in pink. And to this day both my mother and my grandmother claim that I should always wear a pair of earrings as it just looks better. Now maybe this is true, or maybe it comes from their internal fear of me being mistaken for a boy, or maybe, just maybe it is another example of socialization. I mean my brother doesn’t always have to wear earring, but I do. And then there’s this constant rhetoric of what’s your husband going to do if you don’t cook or clean something… umm maybe do it for himself? I’ve always found It comical when people try and claim that a woman is less of a woman because she does not want to do household chores or perhaps does not want kids, or when a girl complains about having to look after her younger AND older