Blog Post 2

            In the text Communication: A Critical/Cultural Introduction, identity is defined as a “compilation of one’s experiences, as influenced by the social, political, and cultural factors that frame and mark those experiences. Simply put, the text says identity is the “Who am I?” of the self. Your perception of yourself is constantly morphing. Depending on who you’re with, how you were raised, and even how you’re feeling can change how you see yourself and your self-esteem. Through “impression management”, we can present ourselves in the way that we want to different groups based on these things. Sometimes when we act out the person we want to be seen as, we end up being stereotyped, or grouped into a category that others think we fit into based on what they think they know about us.

            Identity of one’s self is extremely important. While it may forever be in a morphing state, our identity helps us in different aspects of life as well. A person’s identity can affect things like our ethics, how we treat others, and how we take challenges on.

            Thursday in class we discussed Gender and the recent issues surrounding this subject. To me, gender is an identity, rather than a classification, such as male or female. This is a heated topic for a lot of people because they feel that gender is more of a classification than an identity.

I identify as a female. This is my personal choice, and a part of my identity. I work at a venue downtown that works quite often with the LBGTQ community, and there are so many incredible people that I have met that are uniquely different from me, with different world views and identities. If we all learned to treat each other as people, rather than stereotype one another, and cause rifts between different groups, I think the world would be a much happier place.