Society's Personal Mascot Revision

Society's Personal Mascot

Name, sex, race, occupation, friends…these are all part of who we are; these all represent different aspects of our identity. Our identity is strongly shaped and molded in many ways by our culture. Now think about the society that we work in day after day, what was done yesterday, who was talked to; everything around us plays a vital role in shaping who we are, the choices that we make, even the people that we associate with on a daily basis. It can be argued that who we are is a reflection of our personality, however personality only describes specific qualities, such as being outgoing or shy, internal characteristics, whereas identity asks specifically who we are, and requires some element of choice.

The question often arises among people at one point or another; who am I? This question refers to our identity, which in this sense consists roughly of what makes us unique as an individual and different from others around us. In her essay regarding gender's importance Kathy Wilson writes, "Let me tell you what it's like walking around as a black woman, with barely there hair and 40 Cs" (21). Clearly she shows that she believes her race, hair and breast size are what makes her unique from everyone else. She shows that it is clear to herself that she finds herself beautiful despite what others say. Identity is the way that we see or define ourselves, or the network of values and convictions that structure our lives. Wilson also shares, "I mostly keep my hair buzzed short…I've got a pretty, round, brown face and dark eyes…And I'm cute this way". She defines her identity as how she sees herself, cute. The way that one sees themselves is the most important part of our identity. We cannot be fully aware of the little aspects of who we are until we accept the person that we know we are.

Identity can be shaped through acculturation. Acculturation is the process by which we absorb the practices, attitudes, and beliefs of particular social groups (10). The people that we choose to associate with on a day by day basis reflect how other people may view our character. In some situations it is important to mark ourselves as having the same identity as one group of people and a different one from others. As children we are taught that we are all equal and we should be accepted for who we are. However, we all have different groups of friends for which we wear different "masks" or identities when around. Between having to be a student and an employee and for some of us parents all at the same time we all have different identities which could be said to serve different purposes. Whether we have one or four of these different identities, we are aware of which "face" to wear and when it's needed. If sitting in class there really is no use for the "mother mask"; same goes for the employee that's dealing with a customer, there is no need for the student study skills to come into the picture.

Think about a situation where we meet someone for the first time, and in trying to find out who they are, ask questions about where they come from and what they do. In such situations we are trying to find out what makes up this person and also what makes them the same as us – that is, what we have in common – and what makes them different. If we see somebody wearing the badge of an organization to which we also belong, it marks that person out as being the same as us, as sharing an identity. And so we grow to be further aware of the fact that people can possibly share elements of our identity.

As we grow up in this American culture we can't help but be exposed to some of the poor values in our written and visual media. But it is a choice to take what is read or viewed and perform it in daily life. While watching television or movies we can get a false sense that it's okay to poke fun and laugh at another's expense. Firoozeh Dumas talks about her experience coming to America as a child, "All of us immigrants knew that moving to America would be fraught with challenges, but none of us thought that our names would be such an obstacle…all the kids incessantly called me 'Ferocious'…"(61). The choices that we make, good or bad, give us a glance of who we are as a person, and just shows how dramatic the effect of a failing American culture has on people and their sense of who they are, better known as, their identity. In other words, our individual identities are directly correlated with how we act and the choices that we make on a daily basis.

In conclusion, the effect that our culture has on our individual identities has positive as well as negative aspects. We present ourselves to others through everyday interactions, through the way we speak and dress, marking ourselves as individuals in the way we act and respond. Our identity holds many properties that can be described in many words, by many people. The only person that truly knows our identity and has control over how it is influenced by modern culture is ourselves.