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Agents of Socialization Essay 6

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Agents of socialization in short are the people, groups, and social institutions, as well as the interactions within these groups that influence a person's social and self-development. Agents of socialization are believed to provide the critical information needed for children to function successfully as a member of society. Some examples of such agents are family, neighborhood, schools, peers, religion, sports, the workplace, and especially the mass media. Each agent of socialization is linked to another. For example, in the media, symbolic images affect both the individual and the society, making the mass media the most controversial socialization agent. One of the most obvious places agents of socialization lay is in the malls of …show more content…

Again, there wasn't a single gun in the girl isle. For the girl toys, they have lifelike babies, which encourages them to practice or prepare to fill the role of motherhood someday, and kitchen play sets, which encourages and teaches girls that cooking, and making play food is part of their "role" in society. You won't find the face of a single boy on any of the Easy Bake Ovens.
Arcades filled with video games are also agents of socialization. Tilt, a well known arcade, is filled with different kinds of video games. It is evident by mere observation that the majority of the crowd attracted to this particular entertainment scene would be boys. The arcade is filled with race car, and shooting games, neither of which positively portray female characters, if at all. The vast majority of characters in the games are men. In Mortal Kombat II, the women are dressed in skimpy revealing leotards, and hide behind "harem masks". The portrayal of both male and female characters inevitably has an affect on the expectations of gender roles for both boys and girls. The object of the game is to kill. There are very few instances in which a female is depicted as the active character or hero in any of the games, and when there was, she still portrayed stereotypical female persona. In Super Mario for example, the princess is wearing a pink dress and tiara. The majority of kids playing the games are males. Theory has it that because boys spend so much time

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