After you post your answer, your classmates' responses will become available. Follow one or more of the following:
1. A specific point they made that you think is particularly relevant
2. A specific point they made that you (respectfully) disagree with
3. Something else they may want to consider in their analysis
Review the nedquerte guidelines from Module 1 and the discussion board participation grading rubric in the syllabus, and remember to be as clear and specific as possible in your post and your responses
• Instead of ':You are clearly oblivious to the fact think ifs irriportont to consider...
• Instead of read somewhere that.: 'Conley (p. 16) and Mdis (p. 14) point out that...'
Always keep in mind that the best posts/responses directly incorporate specific references to course material (with citations) and specific sociological terminology.
Noah's family illustrates the complex relationship between the individual, the family (and other agents of socialization), and the wider social world. On one hand, the family is responsible for teaching an individual child their gender status, and the gender norms associated with this status. They impart this aspect of culture to their child, but they didn't make it up from scratch; they're drawing from available cultural definitions of gender.
On the other hand, they must decide how to respond to their child's gender nonconformity. Do they allow their child the freedom to express their gender in whatever way feels personally relevant? Do they insist that their child conforms to gender norms in order to be interpreted as "normal" by society?
One can easily imagine how parents with the best intentions for the well-being of their child could feel conflicted about which option to choose. A parent may wish for more freedom of gender expression in society (which would represent a challenge to existing norms in order to change them).
At the same time, they may be concerned about sending their child out into the social world as it currently exists expressing gender in a nonconforming way that will make them targets of, at the least, social awkwardness, and at the most, violence and danger of extreme harmIdeath.
The point here is that our families impart important social constructions to us, some of which form important components of who we become as individuals. As they do so, they may reproduce those norms or challenge and contradict them. Either way, these parenting (i.e.. socializing) decisions are made within a social context that has been constructed and passed along to them as well.
Your reading by Kane, F: t13 Kane, 'Nilo Way My Boys Are Going to be Like That!'" also gets at this question of gender nonconformity in children. Now go to the discussion board By Wednesday in a few sentences answer these questions:
1. How did the parents Kane interviewed feel about gender nonconformity in their children?
In their girls?
In their boys?
Why were they concerned about boy's conformity?
2. Would you (or are you) willing to raise your children to contradict these gender norms?
3. Why or why not?
4. How could we change society to make gender deviation a more reasonable option?
Agents of Socialization & Identity Development
As you read, the family is considered the most influential agent of socialization, particularly as children undergo primary socialization, or the learning of fundamental aspects of the social world that each member of society must understand in order to function.
In other words. our families teach us to he civilized human beings, able to speak, understand right and wrong, follow directions, sit in a chair, and so on the kinds of things feral children never learn).
Families also teach us (directly and indirectly) important lessons about what it means to be members of various social categories. They teach us the roles associated with our various social statuses, as well as how various social statuses fit within a social hierarchy.
Let's consider the family as an agent of socialization in relation to one of our most important social statuses: our gender status.
We saw in our previous module how gender is a social construction. Our families are very important in instilling in us that we are a boy or a girl--and that this is distinction is fundamental to defining who we are. They also teach us a lot about the gender roles associated with our gender status. Think about how your family shaped your understanding of what it means to be a girl, viroman, boy, or man and how your own gendered identity was influenced by that socialization process.
What about when children resist gender norms?
When the degree of resistance is minor, it can be interpreted by families as cute or comical, particularly when children are very young. As children get older, and as gender nonconformity becomes more significant, this resistance can be very upsetting for parents.
Consider the following clip, which shows a family grappling with this issue. While the entire documentary is fascinating and informative, for our purposes, you only need to watch,Middlesexes dip: raising male child as girl (5 Y2 minutes: 2210-8:-00)