SzuYu, Chen
First Year Seminar – Aging & Wisdom
Theodora Dimitrakopoulos
10/6/2015
Shaping People’s Identity
The question of what shapes people’s identity is thought by many people. Personal identity
makes a special individual dependent from others in the society. And there are plenty of
influences forming identity of people, such as name, gender, social class, culture and so on.
Personal identity is not perpetual. It can be changed by how people look, how people think,
and also how others think of people. The three most important factors which affect people to
shape identity are the media influence, the growth environment and experience people live
with and choice people make.
People are easily influenced by media, especially from internet, and television programs. In
the period of teen, it is the easiest period for people to believe what media talks and the news
they heard, especially they spend a great amount of time on media. To illustrate, in the
documentary, it was found out that there is almost a billion people who is surfing on the
internet per day. And teens spend average 10 hours and 45 minutes on media each day.
Children cannot live without that. YouTube is the famous video website. The click rate of
music video can reach to over a hundred million. Thus, teens get a lot of information from the
media and they start to judge themselves.
In the documentary, Miss Representation (2011) measures “Girls get the message from very
early on. That what’s most important is how they look, that their value, their worth, depends
on that. And boys get the message that this is what’s important about girls. We get it from
advertising. We get it from films. We get it from television show, video games. Everywhere
we look. So no matter what else a woman does, no matter what else her achievements, their
value still depends on how they look.” in the media, people always can see women who have
skinny body with a beautiful body line. It creates a thought that boys are looking for girlfriend
who is beautiful with perfect body. Also, there is a thought hiding deeply that girls cannot
have a perfect ending if they aren’t good looking and perfect body. Although, people know
that they have different gene so their bodies’ shapes and looks are definitely different, many
girls will still believe the beauty is what media shows which is unrealistic because the
technology, such as Photoshop, can modify the photo changing the appearance. And the
female in the movie are almost having a same size and same type – skinny body with ‘s’ line.
The media creates a thought that women should look like that. It brainwashes people’s mind
and make them believe that is what they should think about. It affects people how they judge
themselves and decide what they should look like.
Moreover, Miss Representation (2011) points out “If you think about the media and
technology, they are delivering the content that is shaping our society. They’re shaping our
politics. They’re shaping our national discourse. And most of all, they’re shaping our
children’s brains and lives and emotions.” the media becomes a tool that transmits the
thoughts and information. For example, in the documentary, news, magazines, movies,
television program, the imagines of women in those are all delivering a message about the
body which should be judging and their bodies should be skinny. And those who don’t have
“perfect body” should be criticized. A high school interviewer whose name is Ariella noted
that boys are more care about the body not the brain or something else. And the documentary
(2011) shows the example that most of news are talking and judging women’s body. As a
result, girls start to lose weight to make their body look like skinny. Therefore, the media can
affect and change people’s identity.
Next, the second point is that the growth of environment and experience people have has
the similar power as media affecting how people decide their identities. In the article, Identity
is what we’re born with, views “They carefully observe who’s a boy, who’s a girl, how they
dress, what they do, and how they are treated. In fact, children’s understanding and
expectations about gender are largely influenced by what they see and experience. (p7)” For
instance, there is a though about what the color of infants should be depending on what their
gender are. Usually, infant whose gender is boy will get the blue clothes and girl will get the
pink clothes. When they grow up, their parents will usually buy pink things for girls and blue
things for boys. So they will be influenced and start to have a thought that pink is the symbol
color for girl and blue is the color for boys. For this reason, when they have children in the
future, they will make a same choice for their children, which their parents used to make for
them.
When children are growing up, parents will teach their children based on their culture.
Identity is shaped by culture points that “Culture connects us by providing a shared set of
customs, values, ideas, and beliefs… you will examine how the cultural markers of identity
that we choose – such as the types of cars we drive, the clothes we wear… These makers
allow us to label ourselves and others as belonging to a particular social group or as having
certain shared interests or values. (p9)” people live in different cultural environment and
makes people be different from others. It builds the identity based on how people will look
differently in the same thing. For example, Islamist cannot eat pork because they are taught
that pig is filthy. However, others might eat pork because they are not pumped that they
cannot eat pork.
Furthermore, in the article, Mask written by Lucy Grealy shows the author’s experience. “I
felt wonderful. It was only as the night wore on and the moon came out and the older kids, the
big kids, went on their rounds that I began to realize why I felt so good. No one could see me
clearly. No one could see my face.” Author gets the tease from the boys in school so she was
happy because she can hide her face with wearing the same wired as other in Halloween.
When people grow up and start to attach society, they start to be judged and criticized. What
the information they get becoming their experiences will become an effect for them changing
their identities. The feedback people get might be in positive side but more it will be the
negative side. For instance, it might change the behavior. In china, usually, all students are
required to use their right hand to write. If a student whose dominant hand is left hand, they
are forced to change their dominant hand to right hand. Also, the interviewer whose name is
Angelina change her diet behavior to change how others think of her. Since she was a small
person, she was doubted that she had anorexic and people criticized her; while people actually
not knew about her. So she was trying to eat a lot to show that she didn’t have any problem.
Hence, the growth environment and experience can control one’s identity.
Last but not least, personal choice is the most basic and important factor which people form
their identity. No matter how people are influenced by media or the growth environment,
people are making own choice by themselves. Of course they will make a decision because of
other factors. But the choice is still made by own decision. The article, Identity is shaped by
personal choice, measures that “…choices about our social relationships and anything else we
care about. Rather than seeing all matters of identity as determined by larger cultural forces
that are beyond our control… (p11)” for instance, although people watch the same program
and have the same background, they still can make a different choice between their own
thought. For example, Kathy Wilson (p21) makes her differ from others. No matter what, the
mainstream cultural attitudes definitely influence her but she still presents her own beauty and
creates personal characteristic – boyish hairstyle. Personal choice builds personal identity,
such as changing their appearances, behaviors, gender, and social class and so on. Those can
be changed by how people choose to show to others. Therefore, personal choice should be the
most crucial parts of people constructing their characteristic.
As a result, personal choice, media influence, and the growth environment people live with
are the most crucial factors for people shaping their identities. And even if personal decision
influenced by many factors, it still should be the most necessary part of the construction of
identity. People should consider the reason why people see the same but still make diverse
decisions. Personal choice makes by the mix of the personal experience, media information
and other factors. It is definitely not the merely one factor that can influence personal decision.
Then it should be the growth environment which contains media influence. In the society,
people will receive the feedback and it can be two sides. Last one is media because it appears
everywhere and people need to get the information from media almost every moment, no
matter how people are not willing to. Accordingly, personal choice, media influence and the
growth environment people live with should be the most significant factors in constructing
personal identity.
Bibliography:
Identity is shaped by culture, Aging & Wisdom, MA: Umass Boston, 2015
Identity is shaped by personal choice, Aging & Wisdom, MA: Umass Boston, 2015
Identity is what we’re born with, Aging & Wisdom, MA: Umass Boston, 2015
Lucy Grealy, Masks, Aging & Wisdom, MA: Umass Boston, 2015
Miss Representation, Dir. Jennifer Siebel Newsom, 2011
Wilson Kathy, Dude Looks Like a Lady, Aging & Wisdom, MA: Umass Boston, 2015