“Our
selves, our identities, are always in process of becoming. Who we are is never
fixed or static but always in motion.” (Warren, Fassett, 2011, p. 74). I think
that this statement is very important, because it encourages the reader to not
forcefully change who they are. The change will come over time, but nobody
stays exactly the same for their whole life. First I thought this statement was
strange: I thought that one’s identity is a pretty stable thing that doesn’t
really change at all. I was very interested to find more information about the
continuity of one’s identity.
Even though this
sentence from our textbook surprised me a little bit, I totally agree with it.
Personally, I have noticed that my identity and self-concept have changed over
time, especially these past two years that I have been a student at Boise State
University. I think that my self-concept depends a lot on the context, location
and the people I spend time with. Identity is closely connected to one’s
ethnicity and culture. My identity defines how I communicate verbally and
nonverbally. Warren and Fassett discuss how power and culture affect on the
formation of one’s identity. I identify as white, but as I’m not an United
States citizen, and therefore don’t fall into the stereotypical perceptions of
my race. By power, Warren and Fassett mean white male power that controls our
culture. Textbook mentions a term ”two axes of power”, which means race and
gender (p. 72).
An external link that
I want to share with everyone is the Personal Identity episode of Crash Course
series on Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trqDnLNRuSc). I enjoy
watching this and other videos from this channel, because they make learning
easier. In this video, I like a statement ”The thing that makes you you is the non-physical stuff – your
consciousness”. However, we don’t maintain the same consciousness everyday in
our lives. The video doesn’t dive into the cultural aspect of identity, but it
has a good main point that identity is formed by several different factors and
created in one’s head – and is going to change constantly.
No comments:
Post a Comment