September Blog Post--Levi Butler

The past month we seem to have been discussing many different concepts of identity, and how we communicate our identity. One of the most interesting concepts I found that was discussed was myths, and how they change our perspective within our particular culture, or subculture. Of course, myths are the ideas that society creates around a particular subject, and while they can be true or false, it seems to just have to do with the stigmas that the specific society has with the respective idea. For example, in the reading that we discussed and had a quiz on in class, Toys are mentioned. This passage was interesting and stuck out to me because while this work was written quite a long time ago and in a different culture, the myth about toys still exists. Here is a sample from it.

“The fact that French toys literally prefigure the world of adult functions obviously cannot but prepare the child to accept them all, by constituting for him, even before he can think about it, the alibi of a Nature which has at all times created soldiers, postmen and Vespas. Toys here reveal the list of all the things the adult does not find unusual: war, bureaucracy, ugliness, Martians, etc.”

(Class reading, Barthes Mythologies, “Toys.” Pg 53)

Essentially, children are literally conditioned to enjoy and ponder certain things at a young age, and not given an actual chance to become their own person, if you would like to exaggerate a bit. We find this even today, as genders are made within our children not through their genitals, but by the toys we give them. Boys of course will receive the masculine, work oriented toys such as firetrucks, play tools, etc., and girls will be given homemaker items, such as a toy oven. It seems that Bart may have known that this myth was not going to be a temporary happening, as we can relate to his words more than ever.

In pondering stigmas, I came upon one that interests me particularly. I am LDS, or more commonly known as a Mormon, and I believe in the things that the LDS church teaches. However, as the teachings of the church get taught from the top of the pyramid, it seems that the bottom of the pyramid gets the filtered teachings that can sometimes have skewed perspectives based off of the people who taught it. The one concept I would bring to light is sex. Mormons are taught that sex is sacred between a man and a woman. Here is a quote from the church website.

“Physical intimacy between husband and wife is a beautiful and sacred part of God’s plan for His children. It is an expression of love within marriage and allows husband and wife to participate in the creation of life. God has commanded that this sacred power be expressed only between a man and a woman who are legally married. The law of chastity applies to both men and women. It includes strict abstinence from sexual relations before marriage and complete fidelity and loyalty to one’s spouse after marriage.”

(“What Is the Law of Chastity?” Doctrine and Covenants 8, www.lds.org/manual/chastity/what-is-the-law-of-chastity?lang=eng.)

It seems that with this rule though, sex has become more of a taboo, and is not directly or intelligently discussed among many families. My good friend, for example, asked her mother what sex was when she was younger, and her mother simply said that it was kind of like how her dog did it, who was breeding at the time. That (now hilarious) comparison was the only sort of sex talk she got from her parents, and came directly from the sex taboo myth that is prevalent among Mormon culture.

Myths are extremely fascinating, and I’ve learned much about how they directly influence a person’s identity. Whether it be from the people directly around you or the norms that are in society, they play a big part in how humans become who they are, or at least who they and others around them view them to be.