Essentialism- certain approach to thinking about identity, tendency to essentialise
Physiognomy- outlook that because people were born a certain way you lack certain things, different characteristics, essentialist thoughts. Most theory is broadly anti essentialist, society shapes us. We still draw on essentialist ways of thinking.
Identity and 'the other' in visual representation
- Creation of identities
- Concepts of 'otherness'
- Analysis of visual examples
Identity- who we are and how others perceive who we are.
Identity creation- what makes you you
- Parents
- Friends
- Family
- Visual Culture (tv, games, movies)
- Society
- Social networks
- Physical attributes
- Clothes
- Other peoples perceptions (essentialist)
- Sense of humour
- Skills and ability
- Religion and beliefs
- Backgrounds-different opportunities
- Gender
- Sexuality
- Nature vs nurture
How do you express your identity
- Clothes
- Music
- Profession
- Sub culture
- Behaviour/attitude
- Body modifications
- Hobbies
- Lifestyle choices
- Conspicuous consumption
- Emotional availability
- Reality vs projected identity
- Social networking
Stuart Hall
- Culture is the framework within which our identities are formed, expressed and regulated
- Five sub categories which all equally affect our identities (representation, identity, production, consumption, regulation)
- Production - What you do in society for a job
- Regulation - Laws, societal limits
- Identity - Expected roles, stereotypes
It is all of these things in a complex multi-determined, shifting cycle.
Identity formation
It's the process from psychoanalysis, by Jaques Lacan. Came up with 2 stages; the 'hommelette' and the 'mirror stage'
When you are born you have no concept of self, 'hommelette'. You're scrambled up bits of information. The 'mirror stage' is a metaphor for when the baby suddenly sees it self in a mirror for the first time and realises it's a thing that's whole and solid, this is around 6-18 months old.
You're not the being that you think you are, conflict in conscious of what we see and what we want to be. We're always chasing our own self of self. All of our actions are manifestations of our desire to secure a solid identity.
Sense of self (subjectivity) built on-
- An illusion of wholeness
- Receiving views from others
- Result- own subjectivity is fragile
What we also do to secure own subjectivity is called otherness
Constructing the 'other'
- Problems-It relies on the assumption of opposition and radical otherness
- In order to make our identity seem more solid we measure ourselves against what we are not
- In the same way that we create our own identities - in opposition to what we are not - so does a society
When looking at our examples from earlier we tried to make links to othering:
- Brands - If you buy a really expensive brand you know that you are not one of the council estate underclass individuals.
- Accents - If you start talking very properly with renounced pronunciation you are saying you are part of an educated class. By doing this you are making a valued judgement and stereotyping other to make your identity seem more secure and stable.
- The Lynx advert example - Othering is present because if you don't wear Lynx then you won't be sexy. You wouldn't be seen as dominant. There are lots of women in the advert and so this could suggest that you could be seen as one of the women if you don't buy it.
Identification
- Attempt to reaffirm identity to show importance.
- Shows up unstable identities through the illusion of unity
- Shared fashions, belief systems, values - subterranean values (Matza, 1962)
We are democratic and educated and civilised because we are not savages like them. This is where you get racism from, sexist from and all forms of prejudice.