ABSTRACT
In the early stages of socialisation, children are unable to distinguish between the objectivity of natural phenomena and the subjectivity of social construction. Therefore the world is experienced as an objective reality; this reality of everyday life is taken for granted; it does not need to be constantly verified, it is known as real. In the current social conditioning of sexuality, individuals learn behaviour which represses their natural drives; the sexuality that remains channelled and limits are applied as part of the structural definition of reality. Sex role socialisation does not imply that children are passive sponges waiting to absorb information; children develop a sense of self and they, too, participate in the construction of meaning in their social environment. Even before children go to school they learn from toys and books the message that women are not central, active characters. Males are socialised into gender roles and that many aspects of both female and male roles overlap.
