I Am Free to Choose My Own Identity, Discuss
“I am free to choose my own identity! Discuss”
Who am I? How does this differ from how others view me? Identity is something that is so personal to each of us that no two individuals are the same. That is not to say however that we do not share common elements of our identity with others “the notion of identity hinges on an apparently paradoxical combination of sameness and difference. The root of the word identity is the Latin idem (same) from which we also get ‘identical’ “(Lawler, S. 2008:2). This highlights the idea that the basis of identity is that of sameness and difference which was also expressed by Zygmunt Bauman. This idea of sameness and differences allows that the differences can be labelled and subsequently categorised and similarly those who share a characteristic are also grouped to a particular social group, (e.g. men and woman grouped separately on the basis of gender).
Newman, D. (2006: 134) states that “Identity is our most essential and personal characteristic. It consists of our membership in various social groups (race, ethnicity, religion, gender and so on) the traits we show and the traits others ascribe to us.” This exhibits how there are essential factors some of which are predetermined and others which we can control and change and decided upon for ourselves, it is therefore apparent that identity is a dynamic element of our social life this can happen for some people in a rapid and dramatic fashion, for most of us however our personalities develop and change much more slowly and less noticeably so. However that is not to say that just because you have changed how you dress or talk that you have significantly altered your identity this is because to make a change to your identity it is not necessarily a conscious decision because as stated by Layder, D. (2004:5) “Real changes in personal identity emerge out of the creative interplay between social
Who am I? How does this differ from how others view me? Identity is something that is so personal to each of us that no two individuals are the same. That is not to say however that we do not share common elements of our identity with others “the notion of identity hinges on an apparently paradoxical combination of sameness and difference. The root of the word identity is the Latin idem (same) from which we also get ‘identical’ “(Lawler, S. 2008:2). This highlights the idea that the basis of identity is that of sameness and difference which was also expressed by Zygmunt Bauman. This idea of sameness and differences allows that the differences can be labelled and subsequently categorised and similarly those who share a characteristic are also grouped to a particular social group, (e.g. men and woman grouped separately on the basis of gender).
Newman, D. (2006: 134) states that “Identity is our most essential and personal characteristic. It consists of our membership in various social groups (race, ethnicity, religion, gender and so on) the traits we show and the traits others ascribe to us.” This exhibits how there are essential factors some of which are predetermined and others which we can control and change and decided upon for ourselves, it is therefore apparent that identity is a dynamic element of our social life this can happen for some people in a rapid and dramatic fashion, for most of us however our personalities develop and change much more slowly and less noticeably so. However that is not to say that just because you have changed how you dress or talk that you have significantly altered your identity this is because to make a change to your identity it is not necessarily a conscious decision because as stated by Layder, D. (2004:5) “Real changes in personal identity emerge out of the creative interplay between social