Hannah Shew

Socialization and Identity Project

This Is Me

From the minute we are born, we begin our journey through the cycle of socialization.
According to the article The Cycle of Socialization

written by Bobbie Harro, socialization is defined

as: systematic training in how to be each of our social identities throughout
our lives. If you break
down socialization as a whole, that definition, is exactly right. It is the training on how to be or
how to fit into todays society. What we wear, what we value, what we say, and how we form
relationships , are all examples of how socialization teaches us how to be. Socialization, or the
cycle of socialization starts from birth and we are immediately set into specific social identities.
Social identities in our society include race, religion, social class, ability/disability, gender, sexual
orientation ect. These identities are what society categorizes us into, and are told this is who we are-because of the social identity(s) we are born into, this is how we should act our whole life. The
social identities we are set into are strict and can be extremely suffocating. If an individual in society
tries to break these strict identities or ideals, they are met with negative sanctions. These sanctions
can include anything from a dirty look, to being arrested. Negative sanctions are a part of the reason
that this cycle is so harmful. If we try to be ourselves, or different than what society tells us, we are
punished. The way society has set the way of life, the ideals that everyone should have, the way we
should dress, everything down to how we talk to each other, are so ingrained into our minds, that
when we think of changing, a warning goes off in our minds. The warning says this is wrong,
stop you will be judged for this, just be normal, be like everyone else. Harro writes, the reason
why the cycle is ongoing and never broken, is because we are blocked from action by the fear and
insecurity that we have been taught. There are many important agents that we are socialized
through. Some of these include media, schools, family, peers, religion, and sports groups. These are
the agents that are most prevalent in our society. Growing up in this society, I have been socialized
to think that my body is solely for mens pleasure, that everyone my age is irresponsible, reckless
and should not be taken seriously, and that because of my race I was born with more opportunities,
than a person of color might possibly get in a lifetime.
The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor
says Its a girl according

to Shirley Chisholm. From a horrifyingly young age, society tells girls

that they need to look like this, and act like this towards men, or they are not valued. Girls are
influenced by cultural images that favor bodies that are underweight, to be healthy and to be the
ideal body. From a young age girls are idolizing these photoshop perfect images, and asking
themselves, why dont I look that that? If I dont have her body, then is anyone going to like me?
Will I be considered pretty? These images that we see everyday are so harmful to young girls, not
only mentally, but physically. In an article written by the American Academy of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry, Harper Collins states In the United States, as many as 10 in 100 young
women suffer from an eating disorder, before the age of 16. Because of these messages that have
been wired into my brain, my everyday decisions are based on how I am going to be perceived by
my peers. I base what I wear on if I am gonna look hot, but not too slutty. I battle against my brain

and my stomach on whether or not to eat the last piece of cake or to eat an apple instead. I do all of
this because I am always subconsciously thinking not only how my peers are going to see me, but
how guys are going to see me. The media constantly pushes these ideas into our minds that tell us
that we need to look a certain way for guys to like us; the way we are valued is based on the number
of guys who check us out or want to be with us. To men, women are seen as objects for them to
win, or brag about to their friends. That in itself is extremely harmful to our self esteem. If we are
not the girl that every guy likes, or wants to be seen with, then there must be something wrong with
us, right?
Are you the same person you were 5 years ago? What about 10? I most certainly am not.
People change with time. Does this mean that when we become a teenager, we all change the exact
same way to act like everybody else our age? No. All teenagers do not act exactly the same from the
ages of 13-19, in the same way that all adults do not act exactly the same. So why is it that when I go
into a store with a group of my friends, we are watched to make sure we dont steal? Why is it that
my opinions are rarely heard, or my suggestions never used? This is all due to how teenagers are
perceived in the media. The media has such a powerful impact in the cycle of socialization. We are
influenced by the media everyday. The media portrays teenagers as reckless, selfish, untrustworthy
-- not respected citizens. This impacts the way adults see teenagers. Movies, TV shows, videos on
the internet, all support the stereotypes adults have about teenagers. If you google search the
keywords teen or teenager you will find a full page of articles, and news stories about teens
involved in violence, committing crimes, or any other form of trouble. An article in the Huffington
Post titled Heres What the Media Is Doing to Teenagers Today Deborah Dunham states There are
roughly 7,500 youths in adult prisons or jail and 96,000 in the juvenile justice system. Thats only
.25 percent. So does that mean one-quarter of one percent of our teenage population deserves 95
percent of the media attention about them? These are the messages that are getting thrown at us
everyday. These messages not only tell us what is expected of us, but to never rise above these
stereotypes. To change these stereotypes, we need to put ourselves out there. Make our voices heard
by writing articles celebrating our accomplishments, working with our parents to stop using the
negative stereotypes that are so normal for them, and putting a positive spin on the media. By doing
this, we can create a positive impact in the direction for change, and show the world that we are not
the reckless, selfish, immature and untrustworthy citizens the media makes us out to be.
When was the last time you were discriminated against because of your race? If you are
white, the answer to that question might be never. If you are anybody else? The answer could likely
be everyday. As white people, we are born with more opportunities than someone of color, and we
havent even spoken a word. From the the day they are born, people of color are put into a category
that tells them that they are not good enough, not equal. A fourteen year old boy from Atlanta,
Royce Mann, created a poem about how he has been socialized as a white teenage boy. He titled it
White Boy Privilege. In it he writes, If I lived a life lit by what I lack, not what I have, if I lived a
life in which when I failed, the world would say, 'Told you so.' The world expects for blacks and
other people of color to fail, to commit crime, to prove that they in fact, are worth less than any
white person. So when that message is constantly thrown at them, they start to believe it. They start
to think that everything society says about them and their race, is how it should be, so why would
they work hard and prove everybody wrong? Theres no use, right?

Society says if you are white, you will be successful, you will get the job you want- the life
you always dreamed of. Everyone else can have those dreams, but because of their race, they are
deprived of the same opportunities and resources to reach those dreams. So why does white privilege
still exist? When agents, dominate groups in a society, are met with the problems that the target
groups face everyday, they continue to believe that it is not a problem, because it does not negatively
affect them. It might even positively affect them. So, if we can see it, why arent we doing anything
to change it? We are scared to admit that it exists. In the article White Privilege: Unpacking the
Invisible Knapsack written by Peggy McIntosh, she says The pressure to avoid it [white privilege]
is great, for in facing it I must give up the myth of meritocracy. If these things are true, this is not
such a free country; ones life is not what one makes it; many doors open for certain people through
no virtues of their own. Whether or not we choose to acknowledge it, white privilege exists, and it
is creating problems everyday for all the people of color in this country. As a white person, I face
privileges that sometimes I dont even acknowledge are there. These privileges are not material
things, but they are what people of color lack. People of color lack the trust of police officers, while I
see a police officer and feel protected. It is privileges like this, that I believe everyone should
become aware of and work for a direction of change.
What is identity and why is it so important? Through socialization, I feel we, as a society lose
this sense of identity and who we really are. Identity allows people to stand out as individuals in this
strict and ongoing cycle of socialization. It is a way for humans to feel like they are an important part
of this society. A lot of the time that feeling of importance can get lost in the strict social identities
we are forced into. In the same way that we crave the idea of fitting into society, we crave close
human relationships. This means that when someone who we care about tells us who we are, or who
we should be, we conform to be who they say we are. In The Complexity of Identity written by
Beverly Daniel Tatum, Erik Erikson, a psychoanalytic theorist who coined the term identity crisis,
is quoted saying We deal with a process located in the core of the individual, and yet also in the
core of his communal culture. By writing this, Erikson helps us understand it is not the struggles
within ourselves that cause this lost identity, but in the way others see us. So who are you? What is
your identity? Who are you despite what society tells you to be? I am not an object only for mens
pleasure. I am not irresponsible or untrustworthy because of my age. I am someone who cares
deeply about the people I love. I am very passionate about what I think is important. I am someone
who believes that education can change the way the next generation thinks about society and the
cycle of socialization. I am a musician. I am a daughter. I am someone who wants to break these
harmful cycles in our society. I am someone who believes that if target and agent groups work with
each other, not against, a change can be made. I am not someone who believes that because of
someones race they should be treated differently than anyone else. I am someone who values being
accepting of everyone I meet. I am someone who believes in change for this society, if we all strive
for it. I am Hannah Shew, and This is Me.

Mask ParagraphBeing the student I am, I chose to create 4 masks. Three of the masks were the way
society has socialized me using the topics I chose in my essay. My fourth mask, was who I was
despite what society says, like I talked about in my conclusion paragraph. I really the like the
way they turned out. My gender mask was pretty self explanatory, and didn't have much
symbolic meaning. It was filled with harmful messages about how my body should be, and what
I should look like. It had messages like Be sexy like her showing how young girls compare
themselves to these models, when in reality that is not normal. My age mask, was pretty much a
representation of what I talked about in my age paragraph. In my paragraph I say something
about searching the word teen, into google, and the only things that would show up were
negative. I really wanted to show that, because it really made me think about this topic of age
stereotypes. So, I decided to do just that. I literally looked up teen into google, and pasted what
I found onto my mask. I was right. Everything that came up was negative and only proved to
adults that all teens are irresponsible and reckless. My race mask has a lot of symbolic meaning.
Written above the mask, I wrote All Men Are Created Equal which is what one of the founding
fathers said for this country in the Declaration of Independence. I then draped an American flag
over my mask. This showed how white privilege is kept hidden under the message of this idea of
a free country. I thought this mirrored the quote from Peggy McIntosh in my race paragraph. The
mask underneath represents, how this country actually handles race. The puzzle pieces represent
white and black stereotypes in this country. The mask that represented me, was the mask on the
bottom of the box. The front of the mask says Look Inside Me representing that on the surface,
I am really what society tells me to be. When you look inside (literally) you see who I really am
despite society. I used the sentences from my conclusion paragraph to represent me.