Blog Post #2

Identity is a word that I always find myself struggling to define for others and even myself. In the reading Man Up by Gomez, he starts his article with the notion “Men are not allowed to be afraid.” When reading this, I caught myself discrediting the reason for why he chose to place this sentence as a starter to the discussion of identity until I was relating identity to stereotypes. I always thought identity was something we all as individuals got to define for ourselves, and how we choose to identify. Though, this is far from reality. 

            A concept we discussed in class was social construction, and how our social reality emerges through our actions. Along with impression management. Both emphasize the reasons for why we  choose to reveal certain characteristics of ourselves, how construct the world, and those around us. I found this to be very interesting because in every interaction we are developing a perception of that thing, or of that person. Stereotypes are found in the development of our everyday actions, characteristics, gender, and sexuality. 

            Color, was brought up in class discussion. Pink and Blue. Both are classified to a specific gender, usually when revealing gender. As a class we discussed why some toys are manufactured with a strict intention of who the consumer will be. When listening to reasoning’s as why there shouldn’t be sectionalized toys sections or why there should, I found that we were already losing grounds for argument. Toys and colors aren’t the reason why people find it hard to understand why some boys like Barbie’s, and why some girls like trucks, but because of the defining traditional history, boys and girls have regarding stereotypes. Social construction is misconstrued for those who don’t relate or can even identify with the understanding of shared assumptions about reality. Because as noted before impression management translates how our PERSOANL characteristics construct OUR world, and those around us. 

            When people say “come on, it’s 2017” I find radical intuitions for new rituals, and change in social reality. Relating this to the reading Crooked Room, in which I thought was very interesting and very enlightening, lead me to the distinction of standpoint theory. People are very aware of major changes in the United States, whether that be individual rites, laws, or ideologies. Marginalized, and oppressed individuals have made a huge impact in changing cultural norms, and stereotypes. Identification has become less than official papers, or what letter is capitalized at the bottom of your license, but rather recognition of self-actualization.