{"id":231,"date":"2019-06-21T06:26:58","date_gmt":"2019-06-21T06:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/engp16.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/?post_type=chapter&p=231"},"modified":"2019-06-21T06:51:20","modified_gmt":"2019-06-21T06:51:20","slug":"identity-i-theory","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp16\/chapter\/identity-i-theory\/","title":{"rendered":"Identity I (Theory)"},"content":{"raw":"
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Introduction: Identity in Cultural Studies<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Identity refers to how we understand and express ourselves as individuals and how this sense of our \u201cselves\u201d governs our participation in everyday social interactions, our membership in various social groups. In other words, identity defines us or locates us in a particular socio- cultural milieu, providing us with a distinctive understanding of who we are. Identity is thus a central issue in cultural studies, concerned as it is with the several ways in which individuals and groups construct, defend and negotiate what they understand to be their \u2018selves\u2019. Identity in cultural studies is generally understood as a critique of the notion of an autonomous, essential self. That is, identity cannot be understood as the inherent quality a person possesses and moreover, cannot be seen as fixed and unchanging. This mode of thinking about identity in cultural studies has its roots in several schools of critical theory, namely, poststructuralist, postcolonial, feminist, queer, Marxist and critical race studies. Each of these schools has rethought identity and defined it against the notion of a coherent, unitary and autonomous mode of understanding the self, which was a dominant mode of thinking in European philosophy.<\/p>\r\n

Poststructuralist scholars, for instance, posit that identity is a product of discourse. Discourse can be understood as particular kinds of writing, speech and language through which knowledge is created, controlled, shared and used. Discourse is also about power because it involves an authority who exercises the right to define, classify and control the knowledge thus produced. Identity within poststructuralism thus involves questions of power, difference and acts of representation and knowledge production. A person\u2019s identity as \u2018healthy\u2019 for instance, is produced by the discourse of health as the \u2018normal\u2019 state of being. The idea that achieving \u2018health\u2019 through a set of rituals and practices is \u2018normal\u2019 is codified by experts (doctors\/dieticians), validated by systems of knowledge (scientific articles\/studies in the popular domain that link certain kinds of food and lifestyle practices to states of \u2018health\u2019 and \u2018illness\u2019) and disseminated via lifestyle products and mass media (products that are expressly labeled as \u2018organic\u2019 or \u2018herbal\u2019 and the suggestion through the wide proliferation of thin, muscular bodies in contemporary cinema\/television that obesity is \u2018deviant\u2019, \u2018unhealthy\u2019 and \u2018undesirable\u2019). Several other schools of criticism from the mid 20th century onwards have rethought identity in several related ways. Postcolonial theorists, for instance, have examined the construction, control and dissemination of knowledge or discourse about several races that were once dominated and ruled by European countries. The \u2018identities\u2019 of these dominated races or the means through which the people inhabiting nations in Africa and Asia understood their \u2018self\u2019 was determined by the knowledge constructed about them by their European rulers. The \u2018white\u2019 rulers of these countries understood their own identities as being not only different from but \u2018superior\u2019 to those of their \u2018non-white\u2019 subjects. Postcolonial theorists thus examine the \u2018identities\u2019 resulting from situations of unequal power relations that involve not only questions of difference but also a continuous process of resisting and decoding identities that are deemed to be \u2018stable\u2019 or \u2018natural\u2019. Marxist scholars similarly attempt to study the processes through which identity appears to \u2018natural\u2019 or \u2018normal\u2019. Marxist theory posits that people are \u2018situated\u2019 or placed in a certain social and cultural milieu from their birth into a particular class, family, belief system. Our identities are thus the result of being \u2018conditioned\u2019 or \u2018taught\u2019 by the authority figures in our respective socio-economic structures \u2013 the education system, the family, religious institutions \u2013 to believe that who and what we are is \u2018natural\u2019 rather than a result of years of \u2018cultivation\u2019 and learning. Feminist theory rethinks the woman\u2019s identity as one that is limited to specific roles like \u2018mother\u2019, \u2018wife\u2019 and associated with negative ideas like \u2018weakness\u2019, \u2018irrationality\u2019 and \u2018hysteria\u2019. These roles and ideas for and about women are constructed and shared continuously via cultural symbols and texts (cinema, television, advertisements) that are responsible for determining the real conditions in which women inhabit society and influence the way they construct their sense of \u2018self\u2019. Identity is thus also an important means of determining one\u2019s relationships with others in society \u2013 how we are seen and treated by others at school, at the workplace, in the eyes of the law, religion and medical science is dependent on our own and others\u2019 understanding of who we are. Thus, identities that are understood as \u2018deviant\u2019 or \u2018harmful\u2019 are not visualized or represented within everyday social life. Queer theorists and critical race studies for instance, look at how certain kinds of sexual and racial identities (lesbian\/gay and black for instance) are denied opportunities and recognition. They argue that homosexual and non-white identities are constructed as inferior to or as the \u2018deviant\u2019 counterpart of dominant identities like \u2018white\u2019 and \u2018heterosexual\u2019. We can now move on to a discussion of the various processes through which a person\u2019s identity is constructed, understood and formed.<\/p>\r\n

\u00a0Processes of Identity Formation<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

In this chapter, we will examine four major processes of identity formation.<\/p>\r\n

a) Difference:<\/strong> You will remember from the previous section that an important aspect of our understanding of our \u2018selves\u2019 or who we are is based on an understanding of who we are not or a \u2018non-self\u2019 or \u2018other\u2019. We have already discussed how our identity is the result of a system of knowledge that is controlled, created and shared by a certain authority. One of the crucial processes through which we make sense of our identity is through a certain grammar of \u2018signs\u2019 or the \u2018cultural imaginary\u2019. The cultural imaginary can be understood as the several ways in which our knowledge of ourselves and others is organized. The cultural imaginary is a set of ideas, images, stories and beliefs that works to inform us about our sense of \u2018self\u2019. We are able to understand or express an opinion about ourselves and others because we have a common language in which to do so. This common language is the cultural imaginary, which provides a reference for our identities and those of others, thereby making them seem familiar and natural. Let us consider the case of the following Fair and Lovely advertisements (AV 1a, b and c).<\/p>\r\n

Several \u2018familiar\u2019 images are used here to communicate the usefulness of a fairness cream in these advertisements \u2013 an audition, a job interview, the significance of one\u2019s appearance in attracting a partner and in determining \u2018uniqueness\u2019. Viewers are already familiar with such situations, given their prominence in several popular texts. We know the importance of appearing \u2018unique\u2019 and \u2018confident\u2019 in order to be successful in competitive situations because of the many stories\/representations of such situations in movies, magazines, advertisements and our own experiences. The Fair and Lovely advertisements equate a lighter complexion with success, confidence and a space in everyday life. In the first of these advertisements, AV 1a, a young girl is denied the lead position in a dance performance on account of a darker complexion. Similarly, in AV 1b, a young woman is seen as being denied the opportunity to work at a \u2018modern beauty company\u2019 on account of being dark-skinned and dressing in a \u2018traditional\u2019 style. In AV1c, a young woman at a village fair is seen comparing her own dark complexion to that of her companion (who is fairer) and is dejected at being \u2018ignored\u2019 by a young, attractive man attending the fair. In each of these instances, the fairness cream is offered as a way of re-entering social life on the terms that are interpreted as \u2018normal\u2019 by the advertisement. Professional success, poise and confidence are the qualities suggested by the advertisements as \u2018inherent\u2019 or \u2018natural\u2019 for a woman\u2019s identity in contemporary times. The advertisement achieves this by suggesting a difference between the levels of desire attributed to different kinds of identities. Identity in these advertisements is suggested as being the combination of dress, physical appearance and attitude and others\u2019 affirmation or recognition of these. Dressing in a traditional manner, being resistant to change, appearing unconfident or being dejected is seen as characteristic of an identity that is not \u2018recognized\u2019 and is thus seen as being excluded from normal, everyday life. Such an identity has no space within what viewers recognize as \u2018normal\u2019 activities \u2013 participating in a cultural program, securing a job, being attractive to others and feeling contentment. These advertisements communicate to viewers that certain bodies are visible and desirable while others are not. Beauty or a fair complexion is equated in these advertisements with confidence\/ success and contrasted with a poor\/dark complexion suggesting a difference in social standing\/professional success. Our notion of self, communicated using familiar ideas from our cultural imaginary about requiring success, contentment and requiring validation from others is based in the difference between desirable and undesirable identities.<\/p>\r\n

b) Interpellation<\/strong> \u2013 Interpellation is an important process of identity formation where each of us accept and perform particular social roles that appear to be a free choice but are in fact determined for us by outside forces. The ways in which we are convinced that these roles are \u2018appropriate\u2019 are invisible to us and appear to be a natural progress of events in our lives. One of the invisible processes through which we embrace our identity as \u2018students\u2019 and \u2018professionals\u2019 is the \u2018acculturation\u2019 process. This means that we are taught by our families and the education system that respect, self-esteem and satisfaction can only come from competing with others around us to succeed. While it may appear natural to us that we enter places of learning and work and feel motivated to \u2018work hard\u2019 or feel let down when we cannot, it is our process of \u2018acculturation\u2019 that provides us with beliefs about \u2018hard work\u2019, \u2018determination\u2019 or even ideas of \u2018laziness\u2019 and \u2018unproductivity\u2019. We are \u2018taught\u2019 by our family and the education system to enter social life by building specific identities. These identities are understood as roles played by us in our interactions with others in daily life. We are taught to desire or pursue identities that are already visible and marked as \u2018desirable\u2019. Most college advertisements for instance carry visuals of young men and women clad in the uniforms of various professions \u2013 doctors, lawyers and businessmen. We are thus constantly reminded that professional success is a visible and desirable identity that guarantees a place in social life while being uneducated and unemployed ensures invisibility. The identity of a \u2018student\u2019 or \u2018professional\u2019 thus appears normal and natural and \u2018choosing\u2019 one\u2019s career path appears to be a free and obvious choice. However, all of us are not equally positioned with respect to social and economic resources. Education and a professional life is often not a matter of choice, but is determined by the amount of social and economic resources a person has access to. Interpellation thus renders the process of identity formation invisible by drawing attention away from unequal social relations.<\/p>\r\n

Let us consider the case of this particular Kellogg\u2019s commercial (AV 2). Here, a woman is visualized within her home, at the kitchen, preparing breakfast for her husband, who is in a hurry to leave for work. This advertisement works with familiar images in the viewer\u2019s imagination of the space of the home and the kitchen and by recreating the familiar \u2018pressures\u2019 of morning activities. While the advertisement expressly seeks to sell breakfast cereal, something that helps consumers avoid the labor of \u2018cooking\u2019 an important meal, it also provides images of specific identities for men and women. The woman\/wife in the advertisement is seen as \u2018naturally\u2019 assuming the role of \u2018preparing\u2019 the cereal and the man, her husband, is seen never entering the kitchen space at all. It is the woman who addresses the audience with instructions for a special recipe using Kellogg\u2019s cereal in a cheery manner, all the while ensuring that her labors towards preparing breakfast are also time-bound since we are informed at the start of the advertisement that the man is in a hurry to reach a meeting at work. Here, we are offered a \u2018naturalized\u2019 way of thinking about the man and woman\u2019s social roles and their representation of a family unit. Therefore, a woman\u2019s identity is interpreted by the advertisement as one who labors at home for the family and whose day begins \u2018the right way\u2019 (Kellogg\u2019s tagline) not only because she uses Kellogg\u2019s cereal but because she has ensured that her husband could leave for work on time. The image of a woman in the kitchen, as being fulfilled entirely by the act of caring for another is already familiar for the viewer, whose cultural imaginary is already informed by other such representations. Such images create specific identities that reduce social roles (even those that are oppressive like the unequal sharing of labor in the home by men and women) to a person\u2019s sex. In other words, such images attempt to stabilize and create a sense of \u2018naturalness\u2019 or normalcy around an identity whose formation and circulation is determined socially or culturally. A woman\u2019s identity as homemaker is not an inherent or natural characteristic that she possesses, but rather, is created, managed and shared through the institutions of the family, the education system and mass media.<\/p>\r\n

c) Identity as Performative \u2013<\/strong> We have explored how our identity is not a \u2018natural\u2019 or \u2018inherent\u2019 property of our \u2018self\u2019 but is in fact governed by the various social roles and rituals we reproduce everyday. These roles and rituals are not freely determined by us but are in fact created, controlled and shared by various authority figures. One of the important aspects of our identity is that it is performative. A performative identity implies that we have to act a certain way in our everyday life to make sense of who we are. The Kellogg\u2019s commercial (AV 2) shows us what it means to be a man and woman through a representation of their \u2018performance\u2019 of identity. Viewers\u2019 recognition of the woman in the commercial as wife is contingent upon the \u2018performance\u2019 of an interest in cooking (she shares a recipe with the viewer), home management ability (she works with the sole interest of ensuring her husband\u2019s timely departure to work) and a selfless interest in the family\u2019s well-being (we don\u2019t see the woman eating although she is concerned about the \u2018health\u2019 of her husband). The man similarly performs a preoccupation with work (his anxiety about leaving home on time), absentmindedness within the space of the home (he forgets his mobile phone and is reminded of it by his wife) suggesting his inappropriateness here as opposed to his \u2018natural\u2019 place in the office\/the world outside the home. The everyday rituals performed by this couple are therefore responsible for identifying them as \u2018man\u2019 and \u2018woman\u2019. These identities only have meaning within this particular family unit, coded by the advertisement as \u2018normal\u2019. Our gender identity as male and female is thus constructed through repeated acts and rituals in our daily life that are constructed and circulated through dominant modes of representation. Similarly, our understanding of our \u2018self\u2019 as belonging to a particular class, religion, nation, age or race also draws from a performance of each of these \u2018selves\u2019. Since our identity derives meaning only upon being \u2018recognized\u2019 by others with whom we interact, a repeated performance of a particular \u2018self\u2019 is what will gain visibility or be \u2018recognized\u2019. To be recognized as being \u2018old\u2019 or a \u2018senior citizen\u2019 therefore, I have to perform my identity by retiring from professional life, availing government benefits like particular seating arrangements in public transportation and provide proof of my advanced age. Similarly, racial, national, religious and sexual identities are also constructed and understood through the repetition of various social and cultural rituals with respect to food, clothing, lifestyles and other aspects of everyday life.<\/p>\r\n

The performative or repetitive aspect of identity can also be utilized as a mode of resistance and as a means of exercising power. Dominant representations of particular identities are often limiting or contradictory to a person\u2019s sense of their \u2018self\u2019. For instance, a person can \u2018resist\u2019 the identity of an \u2018old\u2019 or \u2018aged\u2019 person by performing rituals or acts that conflict with such an identity. Such resistance can include a refusal to \u2018retire\u2019 from active professional life, a refusal to \u2018appear\u2019 old \u2013 dyeing one\u2019s hair, using cosmetic aids to remove physical markers of age like wrinkles or even dressing in youthful styles and colors. An identity is resisted on the basis of the degree to which we \u2018identify\u2019 with particular discourses about our \u2018self\u2019 and \u2018nature\u2019. In other words, several communities, cultures and bodies that are marked by dominant discourses as \u2018undesirable\u2019, \u2018invisible\u2019 or \u2018deviant\u2019 may \u2018identify\u2019 with or find varying degrees of \u2018meaning\u2019 in such representations. For instance, writers of African origin may emphasize issues that are central to African identity like the history of slavery and the oppressive conditions of being ruled by white races and being denied equal opportunities, resources and rights. However, these writers also often \u2018resist\u2019 their dominant representation of being \u2018identified\u2019 through the color of their skin, belonging to a particular race, geographical location and system of beliefs and instead focus on the \u2018mixed\u2019 or \u2018shared\u2019 nature of their identities. Popular instances include the writer Audrey Lorde (who focused in her works on issues of femininity and sexuality in addition to race and later in her life, issues of health and disease), Octavia Butler (who is famous for creating fictional, futuristic societies in her works that are composed of \u2018mixed\u2019 or \u2018hybrid\u2019 races, often combining human and non-human subjects) and Zadie Smith (known for her representations of multicultural families with a mixed heritage, a growing feature of modern day Britain). These writers refuse a \u2018unitary\u2019 identity of black, woman or immigrant and instead create, through their writings, \u2018multiple\u2019 ways of belonging in the world where one can simultaneously identify in varying degrees with one\u2019s social, racial, economic and cultural location.<\/p>\r\n

d) Identity as a Project<\/strong> \u2013 We have already examined how identity is not static, unitary and pre- determined, rather, it is determined and constructed by discourse and has to be performed as a set of repetitive acts in order to be recognized as such by others. Moreover, identity is also a matter of resistance and challenge and is formed as the result of varying degrees of \u2018identification\u2019 or meaning attached to dominant discourses about who we are. We can now move on to the conceptualizing of identity as a \u2018project\u2019. The idea of identity as a \u2018project\u2019 is linked to certain characteristic features of our contemporary era \u2013 the advancement of medical and scientific technologies that allow us to modify our very bodies, the proliferation of globalization and its production of \u2018hybrid\u2019 spaces of consumption, the rise in travel and emigration resulting in \u2018mixed\u2019 heritage and multicultural societies and the advent of social networking and microblogging platforms along with a culture of publishing personal stories and \u2018autobiographies\u2019 that have resulted in a \u2018multiple\u2019, \u2018fragmentary\u2019 and \u2018fluid\u2019 ways of thinking about our \u2018selves\u2019. Individuals today can \u2018compose\u2019 their identities through an array of technological aids that also simultaneously allow a constant \u2018editing\u2019 or \u2018modifying\u2019 of identity. Plastic surgery, prosthesis, tattooing and piercing allow us to \u2018modify\u2019 and \u2018edit\u2019 our very physiology and enables us to constantly \u2018work\u2019 on our bodies as though they were as yet incomplete. Similarly, medical technologies now ensure a longer life for people suffering from chronic diseases with the help of modified lifestyles, consistent use of medication, surgical intervention and personalized body monitoring devices like blood pressure monitors and heart rate monitors. Such technologies thus encourage us to think of our \u2018self\u2019 as requiring constant monitoring, improvement and work. Our identity as \u2018healthy\u2019 is thus a \u2018project\u2019 that has to be undertaken over the duration of our lives and can be modified at any time with accidental occurrences like disease and injury. We \u2018work\u2019 to ensure that our bodies can be \u2018repaired\u2019 after the advent of disease, injury or often self-harm (in the case of disease and injury resulting from careless or reckless behavior). Supermarkets offering gourmet food products from all over the world and malls showcasing international brands encourage us to think of our \u2018identities\u2019 as \u2018changeable\u2019. We can choose to partake in cuisines from different cultures everyday of the week while inhabiting one particular geographical space, culture and time and thus belong simultaneously in several cultures. Social networking platforms similarly offer their users a sense of \u2018fluid\u2019 identities that allows us to modify\/alter at any time, our relationship status, physical appearance and interests. Users\u2019 identities on Facebook for instance, are typified by their \u2018status\u2019 message, something that can be altered with regularity on a daily basis. Facebook\u2019s timeline feature allows users to construct\/narrativize a life story by organizing the images, stories, events, profile edits they share into \u2018phases\u2019 that can be viewed as a daily chronology of changes. Consider the \u2018testimonial\u2019 feature on the social networking platform Orkut that allows friends and relatives of the user to share their versions of the user\u2019s \u2018self\u2019 on his\/her profile. Identity here is understood as having multiple versions\/origins where several others\u2019 views\/stories\/information about us is what we use to construct a sense of who we are. However, it is important to remember that identity as \u2018project\u2019 is also determined by discourse, performance, repetition and recognition. Changing\/altering one\u2019s identity on social networking platforms also requires an adherence to system of signs and meanings \u2013 for instance, being \u2018recognizable\u2019 on Facebook to other users involves an active engagement with the tools of communication and interaction that the platform provides. Therefore, users have to frequently change their \u2018status\u2019, keep a photographic log of their \u2018real\u2019 life activities and experiences, \u2018like\u2019 others\u2019 opinions\/views\/stories about \u2018real\u2019 events, \u2018send\u2019 and \u2018accept\u2019 requests for friendship. A repeated performance of such activities is required to achieve the \u2018fluidity\u2019 of identity that Facebook promises.<\/p>\r\n

Crisis in Identity<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Our identity derives meaning or \u2018validation\u2019 from a certain context of signs, rituals, beliefs and ideas, which are governed by different kinds of authority figures. Dominant representations of identity are what enables our \u2018selves\u2019 and those of others to be recognized and understood in particular ways. However, as we have seen in the case of identity as \u2018resistance\u2019 and identity as a \u2018project\u2019, dominant representations often fail to reflect the \u2018lived reality\u2019 or \u2018particular experiences\u2019 of people. A crisis in identity can be said to arise from an inability to align one\u2019s personal experiences, preferences and ideas with those associated with a dominant identity. Dominant representations of Muslim communities as being \u2018militant\u2019 and \u2018violent\u2019 for instance, conflicts with the everyday, lived reality of individual Muslims all over the world. Dominant representations of \u2018desirable\u2019 and \u2018undesirable\u2019 identities are often \u2018general\u2019 or \u2018universal\u2019 in the sense that they do not consider the particular, individual contexts of people who have varying degrees of power\/advantage over scarce social, economic and cultural resources. My identity of being \u2018overweight\u2019 and thus \u2018undesirable\u2019 draws from an endless repetition of signs in our cultural imaginary that equate a \u2018flat\u2019 stomach and a narrow waist with \u2018beauty\u2019, \u2018health\u2019 and \u2018desire\u2019. Consider the advertisements for weight loss clinics that proclaim their success rates through \u2018before\u2019 and \u2018after\u2019 pictures of the same person, who is seen to achieve confidence, opportunities and a \u2018re-entry\u2019 into social life after weight loss. An \u2018overweight\u2019 body or a person\u2019s identity as \u2018fat\u2019 is constructed through discourses that are validated by science (through codes like the body mass index and an \u2018ideal\u2019 weight for a person\u2019s height and by marking \u2018healthy\u2019 and \u2018unhealthy\u2019 eating practices) and thus construct a \u2018thin\u2019 identity as both \u2018desirable\u2019 and \u2018healthy\u2019. The dominant representation of \u2018desirable\u2019 bodies is thus at odds with our individual, lived experience of our own \u2018body\u2019. Each of our bodies is determined by multiple individual contexts like heredity, illness, access to socio-economic resources that is at odds with the dominant representation of an \u2018ideal\u2019, \u2018healthy\u2019 body. The \u2018crisis\u2019 in one\u2019s identity thus generally arises from a lack of \u2018identification\u2019 with or \u2018recognition\u2019 of dominant, universal representations of this identity. Children of immigrant parents for instance, may not \u2018fit\u2019 dominant representations of their family\u2019s identity or even that of children inhabiting the country of their birth. For instance, children of Pakistani parents living in America may not \u2018identify\u2019 with their parents\u2019 origin stories about a homeland they left behind. Their only knowledge of Pakistani culture comes to them via stories\/experiences\/information related to them by their parents. However, these children may not \u2018fit\u2019 easily into an American identity either, for although America is the country of their birth, their everyday experience of \u2018culture\u2019 is a dual one \u2013 at home, their families still the keep traditions, rituals of food and lifestyle of their home country alive, in stark opposition to the dominant white American culture they are exposed to in the education\/employment system. Moreover, such immigrant children are more likely to be identified through their \u2018cultural\u2019 identity of being Muslim rather than through a national identity of \u2018American\u2019 or \u2018Pakistani\u2019 on account of dominant portrayals that linked a \u2018terrorist\u2019 or \u2018enemy of the nation\u2019 with particular ethnic communities in America after the 9\/11 attacks. Such a dominant representation of the \u2018terrorist\u2019, controlled and circulated by the media draws upon the idea of a hierarchy of loyalty to identities. \u2018Terrorists\u2019 are considered a \u2018threat\u2019 or a \u2018dangerous\u2019 identity to assume because here a person performs loyalty to an ethnic or religious identity as opposed to a national one. Therefore, one may act against the interests of those inhabiting one\u2019s immediate geographical territory (the nation) to serve the interests of another community (an ethnic or religious community bound together by common cultural practices rather than proximity) where a greater sense of belonging and familiarity can be experienced. It is thus significant to remember that the performance of identity is bound by a politics of affiliation (varying degrees of familiarity, recognition and affinity with the multiple social and cultural locations one inhabits) that is not governed solely by birth, geographical location, dominant representations or even personal freedom\/choice. Our identity is formed in relation to the immediate\/distant social groups we inhabit and is thus not merely restricted to the individual. In the case of the Pakistani immigrant child, the identity of being \u2018Pakistani\u2019 at home cannot be privileged over being \u2018American\u2019 in school or at the workplace because this child\u2019s \u2018individual\u2019 rights to cultural practices are seen as a \u2018threat\u2019 to the \u2018social\u2019 and \u2018national\u2019 group of Americans he inhabits. Similarly, the identity of being \u2018fat\u2019 or \u2018overweight\u2019 is constructed via discourses of health and medicine as undesirable and harmful not only for the individual but also for the social group he\/she inhabits. Thus, the individual identity of appearing \u2018healthy\u2019 by performing an active lifestyle or by sporting a \u2018thin\u2019 body is essentially a commitment to a \u2018social\u2019 identity of not harming others in one\u2019s immediate social group. Since an \u2018obese\u2019 or \u2018fat\u2019 body is also constructed as being a vehicle for disease, performing the \u2018treating\u2019 of such a body to return to a state of health involves privileging the social \u2018ideal\u2019 of \u2018health\u2019 or an \u2018absence of disease\u2019 over personal rights to one\u2019s appearance, choice of diet and an individual notion of states of \u2018health\u2019 or \u2018illness\u2019.<\/p>\r\n

Audio-Visual Quadrant<\/strong><\/p>\r\n \r\n

This AMITY advertisement is an instance of constructing \u2018visible\u2019 professional identities that are marked as \u2018desirable\u2019. Students are reminded here that professional success is a visible and desirable identity that guarantees a place in social life while being uneducated and unemployed ensures invisibility.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n\"\"\r\n\r\n \r\n

This print advertisement for Lifebuoy handwash that asks readers \u201cHave you washed your hands with Lifebuoy?\u201d also demonstrates the performative nature of a \u2018healthy\u2019 identity. One has to repeat the ritual of maintaining clean hands, use a specialized product for this ritual everyday in order to be \u2018recognized\u2019 as \u2018healthy\u2019.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n\"\"\r\n

A \u2018thin\u2019 body is constructed as desirable here by representing the man\u2019s \u2018recognition\u2019 of such a body. In addition, the advertisement situates the man and woman in specific roles and naturalizes them \u2013 the woman is seen standing, her image placed closer to the the product logo indicating the necessity for woman to work on their \u2018appearance\u2019 and to perform the role of being an \u2018object of desire\u2019. The man is seen reclining in the background, his role distanced from the \u2018feminine\u2019 realm of building a shapely body.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n\"\"\r\n

The \u2018obese\u2019 body is presented in this VLCC advertisement only partially to demonstrate its undesirability. The \u2018fat tummy\u2019 represents the identity of being obese as well as it\u2019s disruption to everyday life \u2013 here the overweight body is seen as being unable to \u2018fit\u2019 in the everyday, familiar structure of public transportation.<\/p>\r\n\"\"\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
you can view video on Identity I (Theory)<\/strong><\/td>\r\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n

References:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n