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The Importance Of Identity In Society

Decent Essays

Not everyone has equal opportunities, some exert more choice and some face constraints when it comes to making and remaking their lives. Stephanie Taylor (2014. P.5) highlights that there are different identities and belonging to one can give your more or less of an advantage. Gender identity defines male, females, transsexuals etc. but there are certain job roles in society that are either male or female dominant. For example, you expect an air hostess to be female, and so if applying as a male, the decision to do this is constrained by society’s perception or that person and he may be subject to prejudices, or their own beliefs may act as a deterrent. A female applying would meet the social norms. This is also a good example where agency (capacity of the individual to act independently, exert free will) is constrained by structure (Patterned social arrangements that affect agency). Further to this, depending on your race and ethnicity, your identity can have negative values. To illustrate this, white identity in the UK is considered unmarked and therefore taken for granted and considered the dominant identity. Marked refers to a collection of people or minority group who might share the same racial or ethnical characteristics; recent migrants to the UK would be an example of this, therefore hypothetically considered inferior (Stephanie Taylor 2014. P.10). categorizing in this way gives the impression of a ‘us’ and ‘them’ approach and the imbalance is that their marked

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