Identity

Brandy McMullen
Professors Smith and Wells-Edwards
English 101D OL1
1/20/11


Identity


Our environment shapes our identity. There are many types of environments that we live in at any given time and each one has good and bad parts to them. Life always gives us good and bad events but it’s what our environments teach us that make it so we know how to choose to deal with each one. Our environments are what help teach us to think positively or negatively. What kind of environment we grew up and live in shows how we take an event, whether good or bad, and the kind of choices we make from them.

The actions that are chosen in social environments can have major impacts on ways other environments work out. Our familial, work, and social environments overlap and what happens in one can have consequences in the other(s). Starting a fight at school to impress a clique that you want to join may not be the best way to get someone at home to notice us. If you were raised that picking fights were okay and you spent your life living that way when it comes to a working environment you will only know to get attention by behaving in a negative manner.

“A group of over grown Girl Scouts called the “Natural Helpers” are neither popular nor outcast;…”, “…they all are amazed that these natural helpers suddenly stand in front of them.” These excerpts show that you can choose to be in good standing of social environments when you are given the choice of choosing a “tribe” as White calls the cliques at her school. The excerpts from White’s essay show that we don’t have to be socially unattractive because of our choices.

Whether negatively or positively one is noticed for how they act in social environments. Typically if you keep positive people around you socially then you will be remember in a good way and have a better chance at getting further than if you surrounded yourself with negative people and did nothing but fight with others or slack off. These actions will follow you no matter what you do for the rest of your life.

Media is its own environment. People will make choices based on what the media says. “Gangsta rap was ruling at the time, and with it came all this misogynistic bull-bitch this, ho that. And crazy as it sounds; I saw female rappers buy into it.” This excerpt from Queen Latifah’s “Who You Callin’ a Bitch?” proves that women will allow men to call them these things and that it is okay and acceptable. It also proves that women will turn into these things because the media says that is what we are supposed to be. Music and magazines is a great contributor to how people view themselves or what people decide is okay to accept or reject. Music videos and magazines always are showing women who are bordering sickly thin and magazines and shows are always about losing as much weight as you can because that is what people want to see and that is what is attractive. All that is seen out in public are girls who are barely ten that are dressed very scantily and it is okay because that is what the media shows is okay.

There are plenty of good choices that we can make because of what the media says. Queen Latifah proved that when she said, “I had something to say to everybody in my music. But I decided to address the ladies first.” “We have the power to set the men straight. If you don’t feel like a bitch, no one can call you that and make it stick.” These excerpts from her “Who You Callin’ a Bitch?” show that we don’t have to think negative of the opposite sex just because the media says that’s how we should think.

Our health environments can change how we see our identity. Lucy Grealy’s Masks shows this point well. “She looked me straight in the eye: “If you wear something that comes up around your neck, it makes the scar less visible.” This excerpt shows that though Grealy isn’t all that ashamed of her cancer scar her mother is. This upsets her but she does what her mother asks. Doing this shows a negative choice on both their parts. Her mother should be there to support her and she should be proud of who she is, scars and all. This negativity her mother shows ties into the media environment. Due to the fact that media considers scars unattractive the scars need to be covered up. How those around you act in regards to your health can affect how you see yourself. Since Grealy’s mother is negative in regards to what has happened to her she would be less likely to be confident and not worry what others think about her scars.

Andrew Sullivan’s The “He” Hormone proves the appositive side in medical environment. “But that’s not what testosterone does for me. It makes me think me clearly. It makes me think more positively.”, “I feel stronger-and not just in a physical sense.” These two excerpts from Andrew Sullivan’s essay proves that just because something medically is going wrong, you don’t have to be all depressed and full of self pity. He shows us that you can find the positive and more garrulous because of what the event has shown you about your life.

Queen Latifah showed in “Who You Callin’ a Bitch”, how positive the environment she grew up in was. “My mother believed in me before I even believed in myself.”, “My mother always told me how smart, beautiful, and talented I was. She never limited me.” How much more love, honesty, and confidence could you ask for growing up than what was given to Queen Latifah when she was? These are the best examples that could be shown from this text.

The choices that were shown and the environments that were shown really do have an impact on our identity. It doesn’t always have to be a big choice like getting pregnant and keeping the child. It could be as small as helping a friend out with homework. That’s why getting to know more about people’s environments help us to understand their identity so much better.

Cites
Remix: Reading + Composing Culture, Second Edition, written by Catherine G. Latterell published by Bedford/St. Martin’s copyright 2010