I found our read in the 50 Key Concepts in Gender Studies book to be a bit like a reading of

Merriam Webster’s, don’t get me wrong, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. After a quick scan through
the book, I soon concluded that much like a good dictionary, I’ll find this resource extremely valuable
now and well into the future, but none the less, admitting to enjoying reading a dictionary would
probably earn you the same looks Dustin Hoffman received from his materialist brother, played by Tom
Cruise in the Oscar winning movie, Rain Man, when found reading a phonebook (Rain Man). I recall
something my father used to say, “Dictionary: Good book, lots of characters… not much plot!” Take it
for what it’s worth. That is enough of my personal take on our text, now for something hopefully
relevant.

It seems logical that the primary stage of socialisation would overlap that period in a human’s
life when they learn, absorb and assimilate more rapidly than at any other comparable timeframe in thei
life. The school of monkey see, monkey do, would be a fitting name. No one is saying you must conform
to society’s behavioral expectations, with the exception of maybe mom, but there does seem to be an
enormous amount of pressure to conform to societal expectations, especially involving gender. What a
mixed message we are sent as youth, being told that it is good to be different, even being encouraged to
be unique, but then are, not always nicely, kept in check when one ventures too far outside of those
expectations, with ridicule, torment or even ostracization. The majority of society certainly expects
socialisation to result in masculine men and feminine women, often displaying a very low tolerance of
anything in between. If one chooses to express viewpoints outside of that “generally accepted binary
norm,” there will invariably be those that will totally miss any sort of underlying message one may be
trying to convey and choose to fixate on their narrow minded, and most likely inaccurate, interpretation
of your viewpoint. Unfortunately people like that are more prevalent than not, but most would
hopefully find it unacceptable when an alleged professional chooses to join in that ridicule. I am fairly
certain that a court would rule on that as some form of sexual harassment.

Honestly, this was supposed to be the short response. I am curious to know how many other
agree that, we cannot achieve any socialisation without some socialization?
Works Cited

Rain Man. Dir. Barry Levinson. Perf. Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise. MGM. 1988. DVD.