Reminded that “socialization” theory, or whichever name you want to call it by, is the way the modern feminist movement managed to argue (for the first time in human history) that the oppression of women was not rooted in nature but in nurture in a misogynisitic culture.
Like I cannot stress enough how being asked to drop the idea that being assigned and raised female socializes you in a certain way is not just to ask people to close an eye and say a small white lie in order to spare people’s feelings, it is to drop a bomb that has the power to undo all of feminism on a molecular level.
agreed
caveat
if presented with an argument with the trappings of socialization theory one should ask if it is ACTUALLY socialization theory or if it just looks like it and uses the proper language
there are 2 things that socialization theory necessarily hinges on and that without renders the argument something that is fundamentally not engaging with socialization theory on its core principles
ᴬ-verifiable sociological trends
ᴮ-that the behaviors are indeed learned and can be unlearned
we should shut down any conversation of socialization theory that is so narrow as to be easily weaponized
trans women do not innately have "male socialization" because
1 ᴬyou do not have to have been assigned male at birth to be a trans woman and
2 ᴬinternal self conceptialization and behaviors and expression informed by such also affects socialization in ways unique to specific groups and
3 ᴮsocialization never ends so no trans person is innately a specific socialization based on the sex they were (assumed to have been) born as especially if they transition socially in any way)
4 ᴬin fact functionally no one has "male socialization or "female socialization" because it is not a one size fits all its inherently a generalization in some instances this can be useful to explain broader trends but there is no one default male or female experience especially with regard to race and class and from a global scale rather we live in a much more complicated system of intersectional oppression than that ᴮand socialization is not innate fixed and universal and the effects of which are not unchangeable
in other words how this manifests in rhetoric deserves to be closely gatekept so that we are not simply repainting biological essentialism with the idea that one is innately raised a specific way based on their "sex"
all of that might sound like a lot to ask in order to defend socialization theory as a concept without it being used in ways that discredit it rhetorically and allow others to use it to harm many but in effect its fairly simple
here are two more simplistic examples in practice
what male privilege is: many men (specifically cis men and especially white cis men) typically do not have to pay pink tax they have a higher rate of pay are systemically defended from the consequences of harming women and their reproduction rights not constantly under attack etc. <-statements that describe verifiable social trends in experiences that many men (but not all) tend to have wrt privilege ᴬwhat male privilege isnt: you are a man (or youre perceived to be one based on "sex" or "gender" appearance) therefore you are innately benefited at the express subjugation of women <-ascribing experiences to men based on (the perception of) their sex or gender that may fly directly in the face of reality
ᴮwhat toxic masculinity is: many people* as a result of the system of patriarchy are taught a very strict lens of what masculinity is one that grooms people into behaving badly towards women and enforcing masculinity in men at the threat of violence and exclusion in negative harmful and self destructive ways in order to sustain and reinforce the status quo it is far more noticeable and common in men and boys and it is a set of learned behaviors that can and should be unlearned
what toxic masculinity isnt: you are a man (or youre perceived to be one based on "sex" or "gender" appearance) therefore you are innately a threat to women and you always will be
*notably women of all stripes are also subject to toxic masculinity and also enforce and perpetrate it upon others but in a number of ways both similar and different from how it tends to manifest in men and boys
notice how both examples in green are longer and more nuanced takes and the ones in red are fairly flattening ways to discuss these concepts seeded by socialization theory if we are to gatekeep and protect this important feminist thought we should not allow people to boil the actual socialization element out of their understandings of these concepts or even rather refuse to allow people to call it socialization theory when it functionally is not
