Gender & Identity Beyond Pink and Blue

We have identified four "agents of socialization" when it comes to socially constructed differences between males and females.

1. Family
2. Peers
3. Culture and/or religion
4. Media

Each of these have their own positive and negative examples, messages, and impacts.

Firstly, the tradition in the twenty-first century of family households has shifted a bit where as many years ago there used to be a more traditional way of living in a family. For instance, a positive example for family in today's generation results in a household where chores are distributed equally between male and female children. Chores include cleaning and cooking. On the other hand, a negative example would be that chores assigned based upon more traditional roles. For example, girls would normally cook and clean whereas boys would mow the lawn and do the laundry.

Secondly, peers have a huge influence on us in many ways. A positive example can be that by talking to your opposite gender and the same gender is useful and helpful in many ways. For example, getting opinions from girls and boys in helpful because you are hearing from both sides and how they think about something. Perhaps, if you want to make a strong decision, you should be prolonged to ask both genders to see what they think. On the other side of the spectrum, a negative example would be asking the same gender about what they think about something. By doing this, you will not hear the opinions of the opposite gender and this way you can be misguided.

Furthermore, our religion and culture also has an affect on our daily lives. In today's generation a household system has no head of the family. The mom and the dad have equal rights and have a equal say in everything which would be considered as a positive example. On the other hand, in some religions, the head of the family is usually the dad. He is the one who controls everything and he is more superior than the mom. For example, everything needs to get approved by him in order for something to happen. This is considered as a negative example because the mom and dad don't have equal rights. Therefore, the mom lacks and is limited to what she can say in the household.  

Lastly, media has a great impact on our lives. A positive example would be that some advertisements, images, commercials and magazines are only aimed towards one gender. For example, a Gillette razor commercial is only aimed towards men whereas a Victoria secret commercial is only aimed towards women. A negative example can be that, research shows that there are many fewer females than males in almost all forms of mainstream media and those who do appear often portrayed in very stereotypical ways. In everything from advertising, television programming, newspapers and magazines, women and girls are more likely to be shown in a home, performing domestic chores such as doing laundry or cleaning. Men are also stereotyped by the media where they are often associated with competition, aggression and violence. They have considerably more economic and political power in society than women.