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Social identity theory
Social identity theory
Gender differences and stereotyping
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Female or Male: Please Pick One Identity; the meaning of which can represent a number, a name, or an origin. It can be concrete and documented on a social security card or birth certificate. Quite the opposite is the quality of fluidity it offers. Simply from how one presents themselves, their identity can be interpreted and assumed from a passerby’s glance. Femininity characterized by long hair and makeup. A smile projecting happiness, while a scrunched brow displays distress. “Self-Portrait” by Robert Mapplethorpe sets out to illustrate how varying traits, even while on the same subject matter, can change how one perceives another’s gender. However, without the obvious attributes that are stereotypical for one gender, the harsh line dividing masculinity and femininity dissolves. Nancy Burson does an excellent job of demonstrating such in her project “Portrait” by causing the observer to be unsure as to what the gender of each model is. At first glance, a clear difference in composition between the two projects is seen. The six …show more content…
Mapplethorpe’s project exhibited that gender stereotypes are strongly rooted in the public’s mind and distinguish how the world perceives a person just based on a handful of characteristics. Yet, he also showed how these genders are flexible in the sense that by applying a few of those stereotypes to someone of either gender, it can result in them being viewed in a new light. He for example manages to depict himself in a feminine nature even though biologically he is male. On the other end of the spectrum are Burson’s images. Lacking clear gender confinements and displaying androgynous qualities represents how such gender stereotypes are unnecessary. The overwhelming similarities that are found between the models unifies society by establishing that everyone starts off from the same blank slate of
The essay How You See Yourself by Nicholas Mirzoeff discusses the evolution of art. The author discusses the use of art to represent changing identities over the years including cultural practices and societal expectations. The selfie, according to Nicholas Mirzoeff’s essay, is the equivalent of a self-portrait in the previous centuries preceding the technological development required for the present day selfie. The essay explores the different periods and the significance of art, particularly self-portraits, the selfies of the time, and their development over time. The author focuses on different themes including heroism, gender definition, and the focus of an image. Mirzoeff effectively provides examples illustrating and reinforcing the themes he highlights in his essay.
This article, Life as a Maid’s Daughter by Mary Romero, takes the reader through the life a girl named Teresa. She lived a unique life, because she was able to see the differences ways in which different races and social classes of people live in America. Teresa and her mother Carmen are lower class Mexican-Americans, and the people that Carmen is a maid for are upper-middle class white Americans. Throughout her life Teresa learns about different aspects of herself (i.e. race, social class, gender, and family) through interactions with her biological family and the families of the employers.
Mosse, L George. The Image of Man: The Creation of Modern Masculinity. New York: Macmillan publishers, 1996.
No other artist has ever made as extended or complex career of presenting herself to the camera as has Cindy Sherman. Yet, while all of her photographs are taken of Cindy Sherman, it is impossible to class call her works self-portraits. She has transformed and staged herself into as unnamed actresses in undefined B movies, make-believe television characters, pretend porn stars, undifferentiated young women in ambivalent emotional states, fashion mannequins, monsters form fairly tales and those which she has created, bodies with deformities, and numbers of grotesqueries. Her work as been praised and embraced by both feminist political groups and apolitical mainstream art. Essentially, Sherman’s photography is part of the culture and investigation of sexual and racial identity within the visual arts since the 1970’s. It has been said that, “The bulk of her work…has been constructed as a theater of femininity as it is formed and informed by mass culture…(her) pictures insist on the aporia of feminine identity tout court, represented in her pictures as a potentially limitless range of masquerades, roles, projections” (Sobieszek 229).
While they rarely admit as much, the main stream media often takes for granted the power they possess to shape our society. The advent of the internet has granted the media unfettered access to our children and young people. The images of women are more and more often extremely sexual in nature. This has created an environment where women have no value beyond appearance. In the documentary “Miss Representation” Dr. Kilbourne informs us, ‘Girls get the message from very early on that what's most important is how they look, that their value, their worth, depends on that. Boys get the message that this is what's important about girls.’ This is the frightening reality of how our young people are being taught to view the world. Considering, how much information is at our disposal, a controversial issue has been continually overlooked, the devaluation of women.
In discussing the subject of male identity, especially as compared to female identity, Farrell is very careful to remain very objective throughout his rhetoric. Part of his balanced approach to proving his argument, is the use of an objective point of view. Farrell’s deliberate objectivity can be seen in aspects of his piece such as his word choice, free of denotative language, his lack of any first hand anecdotes, a removal of any indication of his gender (except his name), and a strict third person style throughout his piece. All of these characteristics combine to make his argument effective to a large demographic of people, unlike many pieces on gender identity, whose audience is usually limited to at most a spe...
These cultural strictures come in a number of forms. First, the artist attacks intellectual conformity, choosing art over all other means of self-expression even though it is not widespread in his or her society. Though it is not explicitly stated - and is perhaps even subconscious - the artist chooses art over either academe or high society. The artist questions society's customs, making this choice explicit in their daily actions. The artist rejects ostentatious displays of wealth and the cultural emphasis on money, replacing it with a frugal simplicity more conducive to authentic experience. Finally, the artist calls into question the cultural construct most important to any understanding of human interaction - the binary conception of gender.
Sigismund Schlomo Freud, an Austrian neurologist and the father of psychoanalysis, once stated “When you meet a human being, the first distinction you make is ‘male or female?’ and you are accustomed to make the distinction with unhesitating certainty.” Had Sigismund Freud lived through the 21th century instead of the 19th, he might have had a good reason for hesitation. Now we live in an era when gender norms- and many other standards- must perhaps be questioned and dismantled. Over the last several years, the broader cultural shift in how people perceive gender has picked up speed in almost all spheres of society- politics, education, art, literature, and of course in the fashion industry. Clothing has become one of
The Quantified Self A. Summary: The Quantified Self: Data Gone Wild is a video from the PBS website. The video is from 28th September 2013. In the video, the host tells about 40-year-old Bob Troia and about his quantified life. Quantifying the body with the help of devices is called quantified self. Bob Troia says in the video that he is quantifying himself because he wants to stay healthy and live a long life.
Common expectations seem to indicate gender roles on every individual. The males will play their part in being masculine while the females act an as object. There are several ways one can see how gender roles are played. A way is through hip-hop and rap music in the black community. Joan Morgan, an African American feminist and hip-hop and rap music fan, shows us how gender roles are being played in her community through music. Since Morgan is a feminist, she voices her opinion on the way black men treat black women in her article, “From Fly-Girls to Bitches and Hos.” Morgan states her argument that black men write lyrics ranting about black women to give a self-reflection. The males feel oppressed and express it through music. There are many reasons a male can feel oppressed, whereas one reason is becoming masculine. Michael Kimmel, a sociologist professor at Stony Brook University and the author of “‘Bros Before Hos’: The Guy Code” states that guys tries their best to show that they are manly. To clarify on how the men portray their oppression is to sing of misogyny and self-hatred in disguised hatred toward women. Men expressing their oppression through music tie the guy code of acting masculine and Morgan’s view of men feeling oppressed. Morgan describes black men express their oppression by objectifying black women sexually in music. Jean Kilbourne, the author of “‘Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt’: Advertising and Violence” and an activist on advertisement based on public health problems and violence against women agrees with Morgan on women being sexually identified. Kilbourne and Morgan connect to Kimmel by showing how males are seen to be masculine and females are soft and emotional. Morgan’s claims, in “From Fly-Girls to Bi...
“Did it happen before to see someone and wonder if he/she a male or female?” To understand the appraisement of identity, people should ask themselves “Is there a difference between sex and gender?” The society recognizes that sex is the biological state that recognizes one 's actual personality once he/she is conceived, yet sexual orientation is the perspective that the individual has and grows up with. Elinor Burkett’s article, “What Makes a Women?” the author provides theories to prove that women should not be stereotyped or identified by males. Burkett is an American journalist, film producer, and documentary director who has been known for her great work. She was born in 1949, in New York. “The Body Lies”, by Amy Bloom is an excerpt from
John F. Crosby in his work, The Selfhood of the Human Person, attempts to provide an advancement in the understanding of the human person. Persons are conscious beings who think and know they are thinking. He claims persons are not merely replaceable objects, but characters who cannot be substituted or owned. Crosby describes personhood as standing in yourself, being an end to yourself, and being anchored in yourself. A feature of personhood is that persons can be conscious of everything in the universe while the universe acts on them. Additionally, personhood means persons exist for their own sake and not for the sake of others. However, persons who are centered in themselves often give of themselves. Persons are incommunicable unlike any other piece of creation. A quality of the incommunicability of persons is action. Aquinas explains person are not acted on but act through themselves.
They seem pleasant and innocent. However, these drawings reveal and conceal girls’ desires to see themselves not how they are but how they wish they might be or think they should be—a complicated matter operating on multiple levels of pleasure, desire, and sociality oppressed (McClure-Vollrath, 2006, p. 68).” Socially the world expects girls to be interested in princesses and the color pink, that’s the social norm and looked to as socially acceptable. The study performed by McClure Volrath allows a way to see beyond the social norms and understand that through a child’s art, we are able to see a difference in a child’s gender identity. The media often has an influence on a child’s gender identity.
Since the beginning of time there has been stereotypes of what the purpose of a woman really is. Women in history and today are characterized, sexualized and are told what is and what is not acceptable for them to do. The female body was intended to be a sacred and beautiful thing until it was turned into a way to define the woman as a whole. The way women are visually portrayed makes a statement that women’s bodies are the “window to the soul “and men can define a woman’s character by the way she is visually presented in art, in film and in the real world.
Self-identification does not have a category, its meant to express feelings and simplify us. Feminist break through in contemporary art has given female artists the chance to redeem power of their bodies with the use of self-portraiture. Questioning identity: Gender, Class, Ethnicity gives us an understanding as to how gender identity works and the ways in which we are influenced through social conventionalization. Identity gives reason to question yourself, what type of person you are and how you might appear to others. In society we have different groupings based on certain identity traits.