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Identity In Mary Gray's The Letting Go

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What is identity but the culmination of personal knowledge? This includes knowledge of self, valued others, the world at large, and given the depth of media dissemination in the 21st century, media consumption plays a significant role in understanding one’s identity. However, a dearth of knowledge concerning a particular identity can lead to challenges in identity formation. As Mary Gray (2009) writes, this is problematic for LGBTQ members who are still developing a sense of self in a multitude of ways. While the text focuses on rural youth, it clearly recognizes the challenges faced by the community in multiple regions. Fortunately, digital media have brought not only a new plethora of media, but a new series of platforms through which identifiable …show more content…

This can be seen through the fictional narrative of the Pfefferman family in Transparent (Gray, 2009, p. 1170). The show begins with the protagonist, Mort Pfefferman (Jeffrey Tambor), coming out to his adult children as a woman, as Maura (“The Letting Go,” 2014). Each child has a different response to this revelation, not all of which are positive. While Maura’s eldest daughter, Sarah (Amy Landekcer) embraces her identity, the son, Josh (Jay Duplass), lashes out in confusion and disappointment (“Wedge,” 2014). The Pfefferman family conflict illustrates the delicate process of “coming out” to valued …show more content…

Gray (2009)’s self-described “in situ” approach to identity formation considers contexts, time and place, and access (Gray, 2009, p. 1168). This emphasizes the real life implications of a show such as Transparent, which lives exclusively on a digital platform—a modern situation in and of itself—and the concept of “queer realness” as the capacity for media to impact the formation of real-world identity (Gray, 2009, p. 1172). The show is not restricted to traditional TV network standards, therefore allowing its creators to promote “LGBTQ visibility” to viewers as they see fit through the characters’ behaviors in a relatable, contemporary setting (Gray, 2009, p.

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What is afraid of change is society, which is bitter and conservative. Strong parental figures give children exploring their gender identity much needed hope and support. They also assist with the fight against society’s expectations by giving children the choice to be whoever or whatever they please. Many celebrities are coming out now as LGBTQIA+ because they now have support. This assistance has provided said celebrities with confidence and happiness in their treacherous journey of discovery.

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In most cultures today, it is often deduced that people who identify out of regular norms, such as gay or transgender are very untraditional. However, in the documentary Two Spirits: Sexuality, Gender, and the Murder of Fred Martinez, filmmaker Lydia Nibley, shows us how far from true that is. According to the documentary, the term “two spirits” was only recognized in 1990 at an international gathering, as it was a more acceptable term for other cultures, rather than saying gay or lesbian (Nibley, 2009). The documentary focuses on Native American culture, specifically the Navajo culture, where we learn about their beliefs and how their history ties into an inviting culture towards the LGBTQ community.

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Society tries to create a “perfect” image on people; leading us to believe that if we are not the specific way that we created, we do not fit in. In reality everybody is supposed to create themself, regardless of what society believes. Does what we label others matter? Who are we to judge how others chose to create themselves? In David Crabb’s memoir Bad Kid, Crabb takes the readers through what it was like discovering that he is gay, and how that changed how kids treated him during school.

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Kenji Yoshino's Covering explores what it means to hide elements of your identity in order to succeed in modern American Society. Yoshino analyses the act of covering through many lenses, highlighting it most clearly as an act of assimilation to a dominant norm, in this case the heterosexual norm. Yoshino argues that covering for one's sexual orientation is not meant to disguise one's "gayness" completely, but rather mask it to an extent by which the individual cannot be charged with 'excessive' overtness of their homosexuality. In the author's life he has covered in terms of both his racial identity and his sexual orientation, creating a unique intersectional lens from which he distinguishes types of covering. Yoshino dedicates a majority

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Society thinks of someone’s identity as a stagnant object that is un-swayed by the environment around them. However, there are many factors that go into what someone’s identity is. The novel “The Return of Martin Guerre” by Natalie Zemon Davis, discusses how gender roles and identity can affect a person. Both topics, gender roles and personal identity, have individual issues as well as compound issues in today’s society. They exist on their own but additionally, they influence each other.

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This can be done through a steady set of norms and values, which ultimately influence your identity formation (Klimstra, 2012). Furthermore, Sigelman and Rider (2015), suggest that to achieve a sense of identity, the adolescent needs to incorporate multiple perceptions

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Just like the movie’s title, Pride, the entire movie tells the story of homosexual people coming out of their shells to embrace and be proud of their real identities and their achievements. The article written by Mary Bernstein argues that “identity” has been causally interpreted that its meaning has been obsured. Bernstein discusses identity from three different aspects: identity for empowerment, identity as a goal, and identity as strategy. The movie supports the use of identity as a goal and empowerment as described in Bernstein’s analysis as an effective movement tactic since ultimately the gay pride movement achieved success.

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Introduction: Who Am I? Every person in the world has come to be where they are in a different way. Each possesses different traits and characteristics that influence how their lives will carry out. These different characteristics make up an individual’s social location.

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In being seen as different and as challenging a societal norm, they are often ostracized and discriminated against. Therefore, in an investigation into the higher rate of suicide among LGBTQ youth, people should not look to them for the cause, but to themselves and their stigmatization of the LGBTQ youths because people perceive them as “different from

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Introduction The concept of identity has been a notion of significant interest not just to sociologists and psychologists, but also to individuals found in a social context of perpetually trying to define themselves. Often times, identities are given to individuals based on their social status within a certain community, after the assessment of predominant characteristics that said individual has. However, within the context of an ethnicity, the concept identity is most probably applied to all members of the ethnical group, and not just one individual. When there is one identity designated for the entire group, often times the factor of “individuality” loses its significance, especially when referring to the relationship between the ethnic

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We share the same cultural identity as we consume those cultural artifacts of narratives, memories, stories and fantasies to incorporate their cultural representations in similar or different ways into our everyday rituals and practices of daily life. Besides, the social and cultural construction of identity is highly influenced by media communication in the modern age. Technologies have empowered the media to communicate their meaning to a variety of people; (Hall, 1997) Social and cultural identity are linked to issues of power, value systems, and ideology. The media uses representations, such as images, words, and characters or personae, to convey specific ideas and values related to culture and identity in a society.

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It is for this reason that Pinney, suggested that, identity build up is the most fundamental objective of a person 's adolescence, and "those who fail to achieve a secure identity are faced with identity confusion, a lack of clarity about who they are and what their role is in life” (Pinney, 1993). This brings out the fact that identity builds up and understanding is an inevitable and unexplainable. An understanding of identity an important aspect of crosses cultural communication, because it will help provide a guideline for communication interaction with others who have different cultural identity (Samorava , Porter, & McDaniel, 2009, p.

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