Socialization and male sexuality in western sports culture

Sociology

"the Myth of the Sexual Athlete"

What does this article have to do with socialization?

Socialization is one of the primary elements of the article. The author writes of the various settings and describes the methods by which males are likely to be socialized about sexuality before adulthood. The article describes the socialization of western, male sexuality within the context of sports. Later, the article explains the tension between how males feel, what they want, and how they have been socialized as sexual beings. The article may not directly state that a certain paragraph or point is about socialization; nonetheless, socialization is a pervasive theme in this article.

3) Does the article suggest anything about biology and behavior?

There is some mention of how there is a link between sexuality and what is primal in men. The author makes an interesting and apt metaphoric statement about how western men suffer from sexual schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a neurological and psychological disorder. It manifests biologically and is a disorder that directly affects a person's behavior.

4) Would you say that individuals are "prisoners" of socialization? Why or why not?

People who lack critical thinking skills suffer from socialization in that they participate in systems and processes without awareness and activity. These people will be passive in the socialization and acculturation processes. They will always go with the crowd, and have significantly less independent thoughts and actions relative to the crowd. People who have critical thinking skills and use them will probably be prisoners of socialization as well in that they will be different. Their relative lack of conformity will marginalize them from the majority of their peers. Though this experience may cause some alienation, these people, just as the author implies for himself, have greater piece of mind and clearer sense of self.

Different modes of thinking about information, social knowledge, and cultural capital afford people awareness about their peer groups and what they believe is true. The author clearly connects the information about sex that males take to be true with the quality of the heterosexual sexual experience from the perspective of the male and of the female partner. When men believe false information about sex, sexuality, women, etc., they are more likely to suffer from a spectrum of performance issues. When men deviate from the schemas of masculinity and male sexuality as prescribed and expressed within a patriarchal context, they are more likely to discover and craft an individual expression of sexuality that brings more satisfaction to them, often on more platforms than physical satisfaction, such as emotional intimacy, romantic love, committed love, and companionship. In these ways, people have the potential to imprison themselves by means of socialization indefinitely, but at the same time, individuals have the power to liberate themselves from socialization, though the process is not without its own type of pain or imprisonment.