Social Construction of gender = school shootings?

The Kimmel reading that we read was surprisingly interesting. I was expected it to be about what I've heard over and over again --  that kids who shoot are black, from inner city schools, from messed up families, and influenced from violence in the media. But I was wrong. I made a generalization. The reading talked about how all of the recent shooters were seemingly normal, white boys from suburban areas, and middle to upper-middle class homes. This shocked me. I always thought something like this would never happen to me, but now, I realize that even though it's still not likely that it will, it still could happen. The idea of a school shooting is scary and concerning. Why is this happening? The reading examined this problem and said the boys who shoot are "gay-baited". They are bullied and teased because they aren't masculine enough for society. The media influences society a lot. TV shows, commercials, movies, toys and so much more create an image of what men should be like. They are supposed to be strong, muscular, tough and like fighting. In reality, this idea is crazy. Sure, there are boys who are like that, but there are many who aren't. And that is perfectly okay. But the problem is that men who aren't like this think they need to change who they are to be like the stereotypical man. This is a problem for men and women because the media influences everyone. Now that I am aware and understand that I and everyone around me is influenced, I will try to be more like myself and not what the media says I should be like.

Media's Influences...

In class, we discussed the media and how it acts as an agent of socialization. The media, which includes TV, radio, and internet is anyway society communicates to the people. When I did the Un-TV experiment, I mainly realized that when we watch TV, we are entranced in the "TV world". This trance we are in makes it easy for the media to influence our thoughts, whether we are conscious of this or not. Before this experiment, I wasn't conscious that the media was influencing me, but now I am. This makes me sociologically mindful of the media's influence on me. This will benefit me because now, I will be able to make my own decisions more. The media has always been in my life, so I never really thought of it as a way of communication or society sending me messages, both blatant and subliminal. The TV sends us blatant messages from commercials that say, "buy this product!". A lot of commercials are now geared toward kids because they will influence their parents to buy things. It also sends subliminal messages from shows like Jersey Shore. They drink and use bad language. By watching this show, they are sending the message that it is okay to do all of that and that it's cool to do it. I think that this can be very dangerous to children. Kids are very easily influenced, and if they see a show like this, they think that's okay to do. This is one of the many ways that the media influences us. Now that I'm aware of this large influence on my life, I will be able to try to live my life more as me and not how the media wants me to live my life.

Nature AND Nurture...

The other day in class, we talked about nature and nurture and how they affect socialization of humans. It's not a matter of nature vs. nurture; they work together to make us human-like. Without our human instincts like the sucking instinct and without nurture and social interactions with other humans, we would not be humans. But what I was more intrigued with was the feral children and children who grew up in isolation. This was so disturbing to me. It was amazing to see what looked like almost normal people act unlike humans by so much. I guess I always thought that I acted like a human because I was born a human. But now I realize that that is not all true. The social environment that we experience when we are babies allow for our development into human beings. That is basically what socialization is -- the development of humans. Also, the agents of socialization or what influences us to become who we are is very relatable. I see what influenced and still influences my life today. My family instilled my values and priorities. My friends taught me how to be myself in a group of your peers. My religion taught me how to be part of a community. My work taught me how to interact with all different types of people. It is so interesting to me to learn about socialization and what influences us because this goes on every second of our lives, and I didn't realize it was going on or what was happening until now.

Tuesdays with Morrie...

The movie, Tuesdays with Morrie is a very sad and moving movie that relates to culture a lot. Throughout the movie, many aspects of American culture were prevalent. Mitch's actions and Morrie's wisdom showed this. Three of the aspects go together well. Morrie talks a lot about love, death and dependency. Americans tend to fear these things because of the influence of American culture. The norm is to be embarrassed by dependency because American's value independence. The norm is also to fear death and love because it takes the control away from you and puts it in someone else's hands or puts it in "God's hands". I can relate to this because when my Grandma died, my family was fearful of what would happen next. I think we should try to live more in the present and not the future or the past. Independence and control are valued highly to Americans. This explains why Americans may be embarrassed by or fear dependency, love and death. This connects to the fourth aspect of American culture in the movie. Mitch is a workaholic at the beginning of the movie, and he mirrors many other Americans who are like this. Americans value achievement and success, almost too much sometimes. I think that some people who are too success oriented need to take a step back and think about why they value success so much. Sometimes, it can take away from their life too much, like Mitch. He almost lost the love of his life, Janine, to his work. I think people who are like this need to revaluate their values and priorities.