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Socializing Agents
Teachers serve as socializing agents in daycare centers, nursery schools, and kindergartens. Females are often more common in these venue and may reinforce ideas that women are concerned with children and men are not. They encourage different activities and abilities in boys and girls. For example, contact with sports, math, and science are for boys and gymnastics and language skills are for girls. Peers define gender role norms through play activities and toys. Girls play with dolls, babies, or want to be glamorous women. Boys play with video games in which they kill and maim to dominate and win. Peers influence the adoption of gender role norms through verbal approval or disapproval. The perceptions of friends' attitudes, behavior, and beliefs encourage them to adopt similar ones to be accepted. And last but not least, the media as a socializing agent promotes and condones negative stereotypes about gender, ethnicity, age, and ability, as well as sexual orientation. To the right you can see an ad that was run in J.Crew in 2011. In the ad, the president of J. Crew is painting her son's toes with neon pink nail polish. This ad sparked a lot of controversy and was discussed on all major news stations. Debate was regarding the gender-appropriateness of the mother painting her son's toes pink. The controversery highlights the media's role in defining gender-role appropriateness and people's comfort when these traditional roles are defied or challenged. Image: http://www.alllacqueredup.com/2011/04/controversial-jcrew-pink-nail-polish-ad.html#.Ubcwuvmcdx4