Anticipatory Social Norms

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Society revolves around social norms and roles, society uses anticipatory socialization to help teach people. Anticipatory socialization is basic and informal preparation for future roles people take in society. The purpose of anticipatory socialization is to directly or indirectly “train” people for roles they make take in the future. A major goal in society is anticipatory socialization because it teaches social norms. By teaching social norms it makes society “flow” better.
Gender socialization is the process of learning social norms that are associated with your gender. Things like toy isle and clothing departments are key to gender socialization. For example, at Walmart in Raleigh the toy aisles are divided into primarily boys toys and …show more content…

Men are supposed to be masculine and fix things when they break. Boys at a young age learn to fix things and help their moms because of toys like the tool bench and watching their fathers. By exposing young boys to tool bench toys they learn to fix thing, and in society men are supposed to fix everything.
Next, the Nerf gun found in the boys department is a more violent toy, which also represents masculinity. Boys are encouraged to get the biggest guns and see who can shoot what the most. Shooting is associated with hunting and the military, both of which are manly activities. The message of violence and masculinity functions in society as encouragement for protection. Men are supposed to grow up and be protectors.
In this assignment I have learned why children's toys are so divided. Toys are used as conditioning methods and anticipatory socialization. After looking at toys I realized that many of my social norms were learned by play. I played with cooking sets for years and now stress cook. My brother had Nerf guns his entire life, which made him want to learn about hunting. I have learned that toys are great ways to introduce roles to

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