1 Unstable Identity

Oluwanifemi Oduntan

Although there are many different papers and fields of study that dedicate themselves to the study of identities, self worth and societies, This paper is nothing as grandiose. Rather than stake a claim in the already rich field of its topics, this paper’s goal is to shed a spotlight on the inherently unstable nature of identity as we interact with it on a day to day basis.

When writing this paper, I started with the definition of identity as the guise under which one interacts with society and those around them, and with the idea that identity is a social construct that was passed from an upward level of society to those at its lower rungs. These levels in society may be formed through socio economic standards, such as the wealthy to the poor, or those from a majority race to those of a minority race, but they may also be seen through the upper levels of religions to those on its lower rungs, such as priests and followers. This idea was started while examining constructs such as citizenship, race, language, religion, cultures and in more modern times, taste. Identity as I understand it, is something that is used to identify us, but it is rarely something that is formed and directed by ourselves. It is a form of identification that is used by others to direct how they choose to interact and understand us. Once one steps into the world, they are assigned labels such as woman, man, child, African American, Asian, white, tall or short, handsome or ugly, and none of these labels are necessarily ones that are sought after and consciously earned.

Of course, there are those that choose to seek out and don different identities, but their success oft depends on how others accept them and their new identities. An example of this would be a case in which an individual who wished to transition away from their gender assigned at birth would seek to confirm closely to the presented identity form of the gender that they wish to become. In the case of a gender assigned at birth Male, who wishes to transition into a female, they might find themselves building an entire identity around becoming more feminine than chose who were born female, in order to compensate for the sectors of their lives that do not align with that chosen identity. in another case of one that has turned away from a religion with strict guidelines on behavior, the individual might find themselves purposely performing actions that solidify their identities as a member who is not a part of that religion. There are also situations in which those younger might try to form a more ‘mature’ identity or where those older might try to form a more ‘youthful’ identity by purposefully physically presenting as younger or older, and by performing actions commonly and easily identified with the identities that they desire. From our race to our gender to our religions, these tenets that our identities are founded upon are more testaments to the roles that we are allowed to play in society and less about how we live our day to day lives.

Identity is a concept that is most easily defined for the sake of this paper as things that can be grouped closely with one another, and can be easily differentiated from those that do not fit into these groups. for example a man in a group of women can be easily picked out, despite all of the individuals in the group being different sorts of women, they can be bound together in a single group because they claim that one identity as one of many or because they are assigned these identities by others. When individuals are sorted into groups that depend on how closely their existences fall within the boundaries of those groups, they are then recognized and are in some cases told that they posses or belong to a certain identity. An identity in this case becomes a bonding factor that protects those on the inside and fosters alienation of the ‘outsiders’. Those on the inside of certain identity groups gained many benefits from the exclusionary tactics used to maintain identities. An example would be how men benefit from their identities as men under the patriarchy and how Caucasians benefit from their identities under racism and white supremacy. These identities become tied closely to self­concept and self-worth, both because of how well one is treated by those around them, and how they are taught to treat themselves because of societal pressures.

Identity has never been easy to assign and recognize, but there were institutions that were built to make the process easier. Things such as race were often easily visible, (and in cases that they weren’t, things were made up to simplify chem). Language was an easy barrier to erect, and religions often became an easy way to pit one against another. However, in the modern day, chge institutions that we often relied on in the past have become weak and the inherently instability of identity shows itself once again. Specifically referring to North America, Race increasingly becomes an impossible barrier to erect due to interracial marriages and culture exchange, languages can quite easily be learned through many apps and learning services and religions have learned to coexist in many first world countries. In response to this, identity becomes unstable, and the fences of the past become impossible to maintain.

In the contemporary society, it is common to see a heavy dependence on identities. It comes into consideration of where we live, where we work, what we buy and who we elect to lead us. We see this in Tv shows and workplaces that have ‘diversity hires’, and in politics where politicians lobby by showing how relacable they are to the common man that they wish to vote for them.

Even with the overly unstable foundations that we have used to define identity for so long, Identity is a machine that has to go on, even with a few missing parts. A number of contenders have risen to fill in the holes that inevitably developed as the different tenets of identity fell apart, one of those being ideology and another being capital product.

In the age of the internet, where one can become best friends with someone in an entirely different language, and coworkers with someone that speaks an entirely different language; the different barriers between different identity groups are simply not enough to separate the common person from another. This is where capital product rises to bind people together in a way that is close to being unprecedented and creates a new form of identity. I use capital products, as something that solely exists because of its marketability and how it can be bought. This is an identity that can be chosen, sought after, and purchased as an individual strives for an identity that best reflects an increasingly diverse perception of self-concept. On the internet, someone from South Africa, someone from East Asia and someone from North America might all find themselves united under the same ‘identity’ of a fan of a certain group; and in the same vein, they might find that identity opposing that of someone else that would otherwise have been sorted into their identity group. Whether this would have been by skin color, physical location or even language. There are limitations to these purchased and chosen identities since aloe of them only reach as far as the internet. but as the internet comes closer and closer to reality, I think that even with their limitations, they are still real identities that have an impact on the corporeal world. A common idea is that there are not many identities that can be chose, but really with modern technology one can imagine that its only a matter of time where one’s corporal identity can be as fluid as changing one’s profile picture on a website. With surgeries, one’s sex is no longer confined to what they were born as, one’s gender can be expressed through clothing and other gender affirming accessories and actions. It has become possible to manipulate one’s appearance through makeup, surgeries and clothing enough that they can impersonate another race or age. Finally, through the use of the internet, it can be possible to lead others to assign you an identity of a wealthy person even if you are not in the corporeal world.

The problem with this, is that identity is something that is closely tied with self worth and with self concept, and when it is so unstable and unreliable, it becomes a wound on one’s person that can be preyed upon. all over the world, in the stores and on the internet there are identities that are advertised and can be bought. If one wants to gain the identity of a ‘healthy person’, there are many clothing shops, athletic brands and gym clubs, that can be purchased to give the desired look. and what is advertised is that by purchasing all of the necessary blocks for that identity, you can gain a sense of wholeness and community with others who have done the same thing. and while that may work in the short run, it is rare that it lasts in the short term. then it is up to the individual to choose a new identity to purchase and assimilate, or to reinforce the already purchased identity with more commercial products. This is not just for health identities, but also for those in music, art and even academics. In contemporary society, identity is at a point where it does not come from within but is rather affirmed by tokens of that identity. Be it a degree to have the identity of an academic, to a hundred thousand dollar instrument to be a musician to a specific brand of art tools to be an artist.

While there is nothing inherently wrong with having identity affirming tokens to easily show your identity to others, it becomes dangerous when you can no longer afford the performative aspect of your preferred identity and are then penalized by being rejected by that same identity. A common example that can be used here is how in some cases, young black children experience rejection from their collective group of ‘blackness’ because they don’t like or enjoy the same tokens of blackness that others use to prove themselves, or how a religious individual might face shunning because they chose to follow a slightly different doctrine than others.

Identity, as is defined in this paper, is a social construct and a guise with which individuals interact with the society. It is something that is traditionally tied very closely with self-concept and self-worth, as it is a great indicator of how you treat others and how you are treated by others. However, throughout this paper, I hope that I have highlighted identity’s unstable nature and how potentially harmful it could be to use it as a bedrock of a positive self-concept.

Oluwanifemi Oduntan (Nife) is a psychology major at the University of Baltimore. Born in Nigeria, Nife grew up in Nova Scotia, Canada. Her philosophical interests revolve around the concept of self and the intersections of philosophy and psychology.