My Identity And Identity

Currently, I am in the process of not only becoming comfortable in my identity, a black queer woman, but, also attempting to find solace in my identity as well. Something that all women, especially black queer women, should achieve in their lifetime. It is that dream that inspires me to travel to experience other cultures and to unite with women from various cultures across the black diaspora. Throughout many cultures, women’s identities are defined by their male counterparts and the labor they provide to them. Therefore, a major goal of mine is to create a space where women are able to exist outside the scope of their relationships with men and live uninhibitedly to become their best selves. That is why I find it pertinent to travel not only

Every year I look back on the previous and I see how much I have changed. I see the friends I have gained and lost. The heartbreak and the happiness. Despite how rough times have gotten, it has truly made me stronger. Everything has shaped who I am today, it has shaped my identity. Identity is a complex topic because it consists of changeable and unchangeable traits and outside internal influences; my own identity has been shaped by going from private to public school, young life camp, and my current friends.

In this course we learned about many different types of oppression, from the time America was first “discovered” and the discoverers began oppressing the Indians, to slavery, to the oppression of the mentally handicapped, all the way to more “modern” times in schools were students are being oppressed.

Oppression is intersectional, and my various identities all contribute to my experience with diverse forms of oppression. I took this course to help broaden my understanding of my privilege and the affect it has on how I interact with different forms of oppression. I wanted to become aware of my privileges that were invisible to me, and change the discriminatory behavior that I may be engaging in unknowingly. This Gender, Power, and Privilege class brought to my attention the harmful ideas I’ve been socialized to believe regarding classism and weightism, and given me the tools to continually acknowledge and challenge these beliefs.

Everyone wore the same uniforms and had the same beliefs. In my mind, the children and their families were practically the same as me and my family, therefore, everyone else in society was just like us. I did not have to deal with the idea of dominance and privilege, because there was nothing to compare my life to - there was no one who was different or out of the ordinary. “The ease of not being aware of privilege is an aspect of privilege itself, what some call ‘the luxury of obliviousness’” (Johnson, 2006, p. 22). Since the families I grew up with were all “cookie-cutter” families, I did not know that privilege, such as being White, Christian, or financially secure, even existed. The idea of a typical, normal family, however, changed drastically once I embarked upon the next journey of my life, my first experience in a public school - high school. I realized how sheltered I had been once high school began. I transitioned from a school of children just like me, to a richly diverse school where it was anything but consistent, everyone was different - no two people were the same. During this drastic change, I learned how to handle and approach different social challenges by navigating my way through many different cultures and beliefs.

This is essential because it is through unpacking these individual acts and experiences that we can begin to realize the larger institutionalized systems of power that are at play, a major advantage of the word privilege and its meaning. For instance, McIntosh observes, “I can, if I wish, arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.” This specific realization then implies that there are people who cannot make such arrangements, who do not have this specific “unearned asset”. In turn, we can begin to see the inherent relationship between privilege and oppression, another advantage of the term privilege and its meaning. Indeed, Launius and Hassel define privilege as “benefits, advantages, and power that accrue to members of a dominant group as a result of the oppression of the marginalized group.” If WGS scholars were to define privilege without acknowledging oppression, they would be

My social identity plays a huge part in shaping and defining my role as a leader. The way I view myself combined with the way that others view me frames the narrative of my opportunities to be a leader in many ways. Of my various social identity characteristics, the two that play the largest part in my life are my gender and appearance as a woman and my economic standing as lower middle class.

Personal identity is essential in the human experience. Identity is complex and can be broken down into two main groups: introspective identity, and bodily identity. Introspective identity is based off of the groups, mentalities, or beliefs that you align yourself with, and bodily identity is based off of the physical side of yourself. Whether physical or introspective, your identity impacts every action you take. Whether choices ranging from what colors you prefer to which college you want to attend are primarily based off of your introspective identity, which is a combination of both memory and consciousness, physical identity impacts how others perceive you. Consciousness is mainly the awareness of bodily identity as well as continuous introspective identify, while memory is awareness of introspective identity. These two different facets of identity are imperative in the distinction between bodily identity and introspective identity. In means of personal identity introspective identity (which is evident in memory), is essential, while bodily identity (based partially in consciousness) has less credit.

A person’s identity is shaped by many different aspects. Family, culture, friends, personal interests and surrounding environments are all factors that tend to help shape a person’s identity. Some factors may have more of an influence than others and some may not have any influence at all. As a person grows up in a family, they are influenced by many aspects of their life. Family and culture may influence a person’s sense of responsibilities, ethics and morals, tastes in music, humor and sports, and many other aspects of life. Friends and surrounding environments may influence a person’s taste in clothing, music, speech, and social activities. Personal interests are what truly set individuals apart. An individual is not a puppet

I am truly proud of my background and how it has formed my identity. My background consists of me being Portuguese. I could not be any more thankful for how greatly my background has impacted my life into what it is now. It has helped me gain many friends that I am still very close to and gain interests that have started since I was a child. Simply experiencing my family’s numerous customs and traditions is why I love to express that I am Portuguese. It has given me the opportunity to visit Portugal every year during each summer where I fall in love with the country each time. Being Portuguese has taught me many lessons throughout life that I will continue to pass on for future generations of my family.

¨Pereme-what? That is the weirdest and longest last name i've ever heard of! Where do people get last names like that?¨ My answer? Well, my grandfather is from Siberia, but my family just consider ourselves Russian. Actually not long ago my dad had told me about a city in Russia called Peremyshl, my great great grandparents, as I was told, are from there, Peremyshl is in the Kaluga Oblast near Moscow. And because of my ethnic background, I go to my church's youth, our youth really likes to go and hang out at the park or go someplace else and play volleyball.

A sense of self is a general conscious awareness of your own identity. I have come to understand the term as it is what defines me and makes me one of a kind. It could be a certain look, attitude or personality trait. It could also be the way I view a certain person, thing or subject. My sense of self could even be my purpose in life, perhaps? If it is, then I would say that my sense of self is something that has changed over time and will continue to develop as I get older and my life is influenced by events, places and people. Developing my sense of self is key to living a satisfying and healthy life.

My purpose is to show my individuality and to express myself. This is for others including myself, to see and to remind us that our identity is very complex.

Everybody has an identity, it makes them individual and unique, and it defines who you are as a person. This project about my identity showed me what makes me unique. I would have never known how much my friends mean to me or how my identities connect with each other. I have three identities that make me who I am, cultural, personal, and social. A specific quality that covers my cultural identity is being Czechoslovakian. Both sides of my family have at least a part of Czech in them. My great-grandparents are from Czech Republic and my grandpa was the first generation in America, he was born in Ohio. This is very important because I have always identified as Czech and it is a big part of me, as I am so interested in ancestry. For my personal identity, the biggest part is my personality, being loud and outgoing, has always been important to me. The reason being, it is how people view me. A lot of people know me as the loud person or the person who talks a lot. That is meaningful to me considering I like people to view me in a certain way The last identity, social, is one of the most important to me because it involves my friends, and through this project, I learned how vital they really are to my social identity. I realized that I have a good amount of friends in this project. It is nice to have people as a support system and to relate with. These qualities show that I value being loud and outgoing. It also says that I value my family and they are a big part of life. The last one, social, ties in with the first one because it shows I am outgoing and friendly.

Many people question themselves, what is it exactly that makes them unique? What is it that defines them as a unique person that no one in the world possesses? In philosophy, these questions do not have just one answer, and all answers are correct depending on which theory appeals most and makes sense to you. In general, there are two ways people approach this question, some say that a person’s identity is the “self” that carries all of their experiences, thoughts, memories, and consciousness (ego theorists), and some say that a person’s identity is just a bundle of experiences and events that a person has been through in their life, these people deny that the “self” exists (bundle theorists). In this paper, I will be arguing that a person’s identity is just a bundle of experiences, denying the self and the memory criterion.