G. I Jane Socialization Examples

In the movie G.I Jane, it tells a fictional story of the first female to undergo US Naval training and succeed very well. Not only that, but also tells how she was desocialized and resocialized. She underwent a series of test to mental, physically, and emotionally break her down. This made her forget about everything, including her lifestyle that she was in. she wanted to fit in and be treated no differently than anyone even though she was the first female. The 1997 film demonstrated examples of the socialization process viewing the methods of desocialization and resocialization used by the Navy SEAL CRT program from giving up the attitudes, norms, behaviors, and values and create new ones.
Socialization is a learning process that we adapt
in our early childhood stages until adult hood. We are learning different things from our surrounding everyday whether we notice or not. In the movie, Jane began to change during the first scene. She was asked about getting men to safety and went up against the boss and she ended up being correct. This led to the senator wanting her to go into training to see if she could last more than two weeks. Which she did. When she arrived at the Navy SEAL CRT program, she was immediately hated by the men there. What they didn’t know is that she would change US military history. During the socialization process, she went through test to make or break her. For example, holding water barrels filled while going up a sandy hill without people she didn’t know (trust). This was beneficial to the master chief because it was breaking her down physically but she succeeded.
Socialization impacts our lives daily. During our whole lifetime, we adapt new behaviors, ideas, attitudes, norms, and values. Desocialization is the process of giving up old norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors. Some example of this are followed; 1 example of desocialization Jordan going into the program training for 3 months. During this process, the program trains the candidates to lose their individuals to become more devoted and skilled soldiers. Another example of this idea of desocialization is having to give up what she has learned and adapt new things. Now this idea resocialization is totally different. Resocialization is the process of adapting new norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors. Some examples follow; 1 example of resocialization is Jordan actually committing in the program and actually doing very well than everyone thought she was. Another example is eating food out of the trashcan. Before this, she was able to make dinner and enjoy it, and now she is eating food that has been sitting in there, and soggy and nasty. Resocialization was expressed in the various challenges put to the candidates to provide them with strategies by placing them in real life and war situations.
The functionalist perspective examines the conflict between the genders in the film. A great example of this would be when they were doing training and they got captured by the “enemies” which were their program proctors. Jordan took head a platoon and they got captured and she was beaten until she broke (by broke I mean until she told them the information they needed to know). She didn’t break, instead her and the master chief went at it until Jordan took a stand and gained his respect by beating him brutally.
Even though things were going against her, for what I just talked about to the senator going against her with sending in pictures to the Navy for votes, she still managed to be brave, strong, and courageous and do what she needed to do to succeed. She was resocialized and adapted very quickly. G.I Jane provides a critical analysis of the socialization of the military through lens of resocialization, desocialization, and functionalist perspective.