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My picture didn't attach to my original post. -Shayla McDaniel

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As a child I was socialized in to main ways , by my family and by religion. When I was a child I wasn't a the type of little girl who liked pink , who liked wearing dresses , who played with barbies. I was a little girl who was obsessed with wearing overalls and a cool shirt! I liked playing outside and making new friends, I liked watching blues clues , I loved being on the computer pretending I was amazing businesses person writing nonsense. My little brain was full of imagination , I was so curious , I wanted to do what boys did, I wanted to collect toy cars , (which i did). In school which was a catholic private school I was told not to play with the Legos , to play with the babies and the kitchen. I was told little girls to sit a certain way and they dont play with certain toys. My father was very strict on what I played with because he was afraid I'd end up liking girls based on playing with toy cars and playing in the dirt with monster trucks. Someone liking the same sex was not okay in my fathers eyes .. and back then in any Hispanics eyes. But as I got older and was forced to play with barbies and be a princess for Halloween, I did .. but i still played with toy cars , and didn't sit like a lady. At a young age I was told I can be who i wanted to be , and i knew i wanted to be someone who wasn't told what to like and what to play with .
-Andrea Gallardo

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I was raised as what is known as a military brat.  I traveled a lot and had to learn at an early age what sacrifice, and discipline were.  I couldn't get unglued every time  I would lose friends, or get upro
oted  when my Dad got orders to move.  I watched him work long and hard.  I watched my parents work together to organize and make each relocation as smooth as possible.  I learned that I must always conduct myself so that there was never a negative reflection on my family or my country when I lived abroad.  All of these values and more have really helped me in school and at work as an adult to this day.

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Growing up I had a pretty cookie cutter childhood. My dad worked and my mom stayed home for the first few years until I was old enough for pre-school. Pre-school is where I believe I was first introduced to the different toys being specific to boys and girls. My parents have pictures of me sitting with all my friends on a pink carpet and in the background a group of boys that are all sitting on a blue rug. That's how we would be separated so we'd "be social and make friends." We would than be given our toys to play with (girls got dolls and the kitchen sets and boys got their building blocks and trucks) although I never wanted to play with any of the boys toys, I know other kids did and its unfortunate that it become so accepted for things to be this way. I don't believe this affected my life to much, as I am a very open minded person and am acceptable of just about everybody, I know that this type of thing is what makes people have such stigmas of the LGBT community and aren't able to understand their point of view. Kids aren't born judgmental, they're taught.

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How I was socialized growing up- Michelle Powell

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How I was socialized growing up- Michelle Powell

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When I was a little girl I would say my biggest influence on how I see life and view things to this day would be my mother. While I did more "girly" oriented things because my brothers always left me out and didn't want me to play video games with them or thought since I was a girl and younger we couldn't play together my mom took it upon herself to make sure I was exposed to the world than just my Bratz dolls and kitchen set. She took me to see so many Broadway shows growing up and put me in swimming, dancing, music, drawing, and soccer classes so I can be exposed to all different activities. While I did feel left out with my brothers I grew a sense of love and appreciation for viewing the world and appreciating the arts that even though those activities may seem "girly" I learned a lot about accepting people and the beauty in the world.

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How I was socialized throughout my childhood

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How I was socialized throughout my childhood

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Throughout my childhood I was always told if I want something, I should go for it. I have an older sister who is four years older than me, who was more of a girly girl than I ever was, or will be. My sister and mom did more things together, and I did more things with my dad. I was the one interested in sports and outdoor activities, and never once felt bad about it. My parents treated me just as they treated my sister who loved to be indoors playing with dolls. My interests were more of being outside playing sports, helping my dad with the yard work, swimming, etc. I was raised to accept everyone for who they are on the inside, and not to judge them by the outside. Being different isn’t always a bad thing, if every male and female in this world were exactly the same nothing would be fun! We would all be robots acting like each other.
-Katie Kelly

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I was socialized as a child through religion. I grew up in rural Indiana, a place where a majority of the population followed God and fell into three sub-categories, Christian, Catholic, and Baptist. Mind you, my parents were devoted Christians so I was brought up through that subcategory with beliefs that Catholics and Baptists are wrong in certain beliefs of the God-following religion. Everything around myself as a kid growing up in this type of setting had something to do with being a Christian. The school I attended, friends I had (and was only allowed to have if they were religious), and the general public places I went to all tied into this religion of Christianity. Looking back I feel like it gave me a wrong sense of how the world really is, and it almost makes me want to blame that for how long it took me to realize the true reality we all face today when it comes to crime and how people treat others in general. “Do to others as you would have them do to you” –Luke 6:31 is a verse I can still quote to this day, and I am referring to it because growing up I felt as if no one ever would do wrong to myself or anyone around me. Although I truly do not have anything against religions, I feel like if it is all you are surrounded by in your upbringing, you might not be as well prepared as people who grew up seeing certain situations that you were concealed from.

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I was born and raised in a culture where the girls must play with dolls and guys must love cars. I was nothing like that, I grew up with my older brother , his friends and our cousins. I used to play with cars, nintendo games, soccer, and drive small manual cars since I was pretty young. My parents were always open minded and they used to let me do and play with whatever I wanted, however,  in my religious school everything was different. Girls used to put me apart because I wouldn't play with dolls like them and this made me frustrated for several years in the elementary school. I started changed my ideas and I started be more girly and more "common" for them because of their standards of "girls" and "boys".
-Marta

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Growing up with two brothers and all male cousins (2 out of about 11 of my cousins were girls), the boys wanted to help raise me like they were being raised. To be strong, violent, and always in control. Often times my little brother and I would fight to assert dominance in certain situations and to declare who was "in the right" during an argument. My mother on the other hand would freak out as soon as she saw us wrestling and would immediately pick me up and tell me to never put my hands on a boy because it wasn't "lady-like". Which confused me because I never knew why we were being treated differently even though we were all growing up together. So being socialized by my mom and having to be told that fighting was not lady-like made me grow up to become a pacifist. That to be a woman I had to always be caring, forgiving, and I must always avoid violence.

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Growing up I remember my brother would get in trouble for playing with my toys. Like my baby dolls, dresses, play heels etc. I never understood why they would always yell at my brother for being interested in my toys. I never got in trouble for playing with his toys from time to time. As I got older I found out that my parents were afraid that if my brother played with girl toys he would become gay. Sadly, they we're victim of socialization, now that I'm 22 I still hear the saying. To be honest I know guys that actually do hair better than any female hairdressers.  - Shayla Mcdaniel 

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Growing up I remember my brother would get in trouble for playing with my toys. Like my baby dolls, dresses, play heels etc. I never understood why they would always yell at my brother for being interested in my toys. I never got in trouble for playing with his toys from time to time. As I got older I found out that my parents were afraid that if my brother played with girl toys he would become gay. Sadly, they we're victim of socialization, now that I'm 22 I still hear the saying. To be honest I know guys that actually do hair better than any female hairdressers.  - Shayla Mcdaniel 

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Growing up I had the benefit of being the fourth sibling so my parents had a much more relaxed Idea of what parenting style they wanted to use. I had really bad Asama when I was a kid so playing with toys was never something I could do outside, until one day my dad brought me home an Xbox. This was something that would lead to me talking to people all around the world and cultures who I plaid video games with. It lead to me seeing the world very differently because News outlets would scream how video games where making boys violent and causing school shootings. Meanwhile I was playing those same video games with girls, guys, and it didnet matter what peoples gender or sexuality was. I was socialized with a world of kids who just wanted some friends and it lead to me never caring about gender or sexuality, but rather the person on the other end.

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- My mother was my main source of being socialized, as well for experience. She encouraged me to be active instead of being stuck on videogames and watching TV, this lead me to explore the world through my own eyes, thus becoming an independent individual. Gaining experience throughout vastly different areas allowed me to gain knowledge, in my opinion experience is key to succeeding in life; the more experience you have on subjects the more aware you’ll be towards obstacles in order to overcome them.

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asma benazergui Socialization:            My mom was and still my biggest hero in life. Even though i love my father, but i always feel a special bond with my mom. the fact that she is very peaceful and laid back person played a huge role in how close we got to each other over the years. The main thing that my mom kept telling me since i was a little child is to forgive. She was very insisting on the fact that i should forgive others no matter what they do. I never had a problem with apologizing to others but forgiving was a little bit of an issue. I never got what she was telling me nor why?!  Now, i totally get it! Holding a grudge against others doesn't change anything in the situation, it just weights us down and distract us from focusing on ourselves and our lives. Like they say " Moms are always right" .

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asma benazergui Socialization:            My mom was and still my biggest hero in life. Even though i love my father, but i always feel a special bond with my mom. the fact that she is very peaceful and laid back person played a huge role in how close we got to each other over the years. The main thing that my mom kept telling me since i was a little child is to forgive. She was very insisting on the fact that i should forgive others no matter what they do. I never had a problem with apologizing to others but forgiving was a little bit of an issue. I never got what she was telling me nor why?!  Now, i totally get it! Holding a grudge against others doesn't change anything in the situation, it just weights us down and distract us from focusing on ourselves and our lives. Like they say " Moms are always right" .

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When I was young I grow up in a christian church and was raised that drink,sex,smoking is a sin. I also was taught that being gay is not acceptable. What your parent teach you when you are younger stick but I grow out of that really quick in High  School. I started thinking for myself and not going by what my parents thought was right and wrong.- Christina Walther

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When I was young I grow up in a christian church and was raised that drink,sex,smoking is a sin. I also was taught that being gay is not acceptable. What your parent teach you when you are younger stick but I grow out of that really quick in High  School. I started thinking for myself and not going by what my parents thought was right and wrong.- Christina Walther

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Growing up, both my brother and I were given different chores to help out around the house. My assigned daily chore was the dishes, which consisted of loading and unloading the dishwasher, and hand washing what needed to be hand washed. My brothers assigned daily chore was the trash, which consisted of emptying the inside trash can and bringing it outside, as well as bringing around the big outside trashcan to put out on the curb. My parents were the agent of socialization that gave us these chores and the knowledge on how to execute them. Being older, I feel that I now have no issue with "dirty" jobs like taking out the trash, but as a child I absolutely felt that that was a "boys job."  -Mylissa Stanco

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I have a brother who is just 13 months younger than I am so when we were growing up we would always share toys and we both had the same group of friends. He would dress up in my pink princess clothes and I would dress up in his manly construction worker outfits. We would share everything and our parents would let us be who we wanted to be which isn't very common now a days. Parents expect girls to play with dolls and make-up and boys to play with anything that had wheels, and when girls and boys don't play like this society starts to lash out at the parents.

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Although I was given pretty dresses, Barbie dolls, pink doll houses, taught to sew, cook, can food, I was also allowed to play with my brother's Hot Wheel cars, shoot bow and arrows, and climb trees. I was also taught how to bale hay, drive tractors, trucks, and dress in masculine clothes such as jeans, boots, plaid shirts. Growing up on a farm in the mid-west, I witnessed the females in my family take on the typical female-gendered domestic roles, and the males performing the male-gendered masculine duties/tasks. However, I was taught and raised with non-gender roles and tasks. I was allowed to learn whatever I wanted to learn, and no one thought it was out of the ordinary. I am very fortunate.

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How I was socialized as a kid. Viviana Bernasconi

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How I was socialized as a kid. Viviana Bernasconi

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When I was a little girl, my parents used to buy me girl toys, such as houses for barbies, vaccuums, kitchens, babies, sets of makeup, and all kinds of girl toys. However, I liked also to play with my brother's toys. He had cars, and trucks. I was very open-minded, and my parents let me play with the toys that I wanted to use. As a result, I believe that it is a great idea to let your child play with the toys that they want so that they would not experience the stereotypes and rules that are presented in society. I think that they have to look things in different perspectives.

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Growing up as the eldest child of three (one younger sister and my brother being the youngest), my parents were very quick to show me that playing with dolls was for girls and not for boys. When I was younger I always wanted to play dolls with my sister, but my parents told me kids would make fun of me at school and that was not a very boyish thing to do, so I stopped playing with dolls, and playing with more boyish toys like trucks and cars. I feel like a lot of parents are like this. Parents want their kids to be normal, so I think this is why they socialized me to to only play with boys toys and not girl toys.
- Niklas Hopkins

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How I was socialized as a kid - Teresa Loutfi 

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How I was socialized as a kid - Teresa Loutfi 

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When I was young and growing up I was always taught by my parents that boys and girls were different. From the way they dressed to the toys they played with , just like all the commercials and ads we have seen through out this chapter I grew up to bratz dolls , kitchen sets , make up sets and more. Like a young girl is suppose to at least. But as I grew older and began finding my way in society I began to experience new things and was able to push past all the stereotypes and rules set for me by society and my parents. Turning me into a well rounded individual with the ability to look at things in many perspectives.

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Socialized by my family, coaches, and teammates to think crying is for the weak.

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Socialized by my family, coaches, and teammates to think crying is for the weak.

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Growing up my mother made it a point to put me in every activity my older brother did so that she could take us to practices together. I participated in baseball, swimming, and karate, along side my older (by 5 yrs) brother. That is where I learned crying was a sign of weakness. Especially in baseball and karate. I was told by my coach "crying meant the other team already won regardless of the reason". My brother would often say things like "Awww are you going to cry like a baby"? when he would see me getting emotional. This stuck with me all through my childhood. It was hard for me to cry as an emotion. I learned to replace crying with laughter. I'll never forget watching Titanic in the movie theater and laughing as Jack went under water, and getting nasty responses from the people (mainly women) sitting around me. I too viewed people who cried as being weak. Thankfully that all completely changed after I gave birth to my first child.  - Sarah B.

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When I was young, I was very open minded. I think I got this from reading (education system), but as I grew older 11-14, my family, who was very discriminatory, told me all kinds of things. One day, my grandmother told me bisexual people carried AIDS, and that there were bisexuals at my school. She told me this on the cusp of me getting a crush on a girl. I felt disgusted with myself and my gay friends. This led to some negative views about homosexuality during my youth. It was frustrating -- my mom also told my baby brother that theatre would turn him gay. It drives me crazy to think that my family had such an effect on my views!! I turned from someone who was full of confidence, to someone who doubted what to believe in.