Who Am I

I am my family who support me in everything I do
I am my friend who loves cats more than she loves people
I am the things that make me happy
and the things that don't
I am the teacher who told me I have my head in the clouds
I am the spontaneous days that become my favourite memories
I am the music I listen to every day
I am my favourite films and books
I am the secrets I keep from people closest to me
and the stories I share with the world

I am who I am because of everyone.

Identity And The Self

"I am who I am because of the time and the place I was born and the culture I was raised in. My family gave me a set of values and so have my town, my religion, my community and my country. Add all these up and that’s who I am – me."

"I have got an identity – at least my friends seem to think so, but I am not really sure who I am. I know that I’m more like some people than others, but this changes as I try out new identities. I don’t really want to take on an identity if it means that I can’t be different when I want to be."

I believe the second paragraph to be the most accurate for me as although our families and communities may have influenced parts of our identity as we were growing up, ultimately it’s up to us to choose what our personality is and what our beliefs are which are all part of our identity. As we grow up we are exposed to a wider range of opinions and beliefs which will change our personalities therefore also changing our identities, and we go through lots of different phases in our lives which all add up to who we are. As a child we may have gotten our identity from our parents/religions/communities etc because that’s what we were raised with but as we get older we will decide for ourselves what we want our identities to be and that will constantly change. Most people can’t give a specific definition of what their identity is so I believe the second paragraph is the most accurate.

 Who am I

I am a daughter

I am a sister

I am a student

I am friendly

I am content

I am a grandchild

I am a niece

I am lazy

I am confident around my friends

I am good with advice

I am a friend

Holiday Inn Advert – Real/Ideal Self

In this advert the man is fairly chubby but his ideal self is slim and toned with a defined face, portraying how he would ideally like to look. In the clip of him in the cafe he is drinking alone whereas in his ideal self he is surrounded by friends, showing his lack of popularity in real life and his wish to become popular. In the next section of the video he’s reading a magazine and his ideal self is reading War and Peace, suggesting he would ideally like to become more intelligent. He shows his lack of sports skills and clumsiness in the clip but his ideal self is playing tennis well, this gives the impression that he would like to become fitter and be more impressive when playing sports. In the final clip he is dancing badly alone and his ideal self is impressing his friends with his dance moves. This is another example of the idea that he wants to improve his social life.

Ideal Male/Female according to the media?
 I think the ideal male/female in the media is mainly about being attractive rather than being a good role model. The ideal female usually has the media’s idea of a ‘perfect’ figure – being really slim – and the ideal male is portrayed as a man who is lean and muscly. They would have clear skin and healthy hair as well as having good posture and presenting themselves well. The ideal male/female would also have good style. In terms of other aspects, looking wealthy and confident plays a big part in being an ideal person in the media.

 Ideal Self 
I think having an ideal self is healthy as it gives you something to aim for in terms of your ideal figure or personality, but can be unhealthy if you think too much about it. Personally I have my own idea of my ideal self as there are lots of things I would change about my looks and personality, but I try not to dwell on changing those things and aim more on being happy with the way I am now. People will have most of the aspects they don’t like about themselves for their whole lives so it’s better to focus on accepting them, but when it comes to things such as losing weight it can be good to have an ideal self as the image of who you want to be can help motivate you to change and will make you happier when you reach that ideal weight.

 Who do you think is a positive or negative role model? What makes a positive or negative role model? Who are the role models in your life? To what extent do they represent your ideal self?

 In my opinion a good role model is someone who is positive, does good things for people and is confident in everything they’re doing. People who promote positive attitudes and good deeds set good standards for people who look up to them whereas people who are negative and do bad things won’t set a good example and will encourage people to follow in their footsteps. I don’t have a specific role model, I am influenced by different aspects of people I know and celebrities but there isn't one person who inspires me to be the way I am in all parts of my identity. There are people I look up to but they’re not the same as my role models. For example I look up to my mum but I don’t see her as a specific role model for me in terms of my personality. When looking through the search results for ‘good role models’, people such as Jessie J and Miley Cyrus came up. Both share the same level of confidence in what they’re doing, but I consider Jessie J a role model and not Miley. Jessie J is confident to share her stories of bullying, as well as being confident by her actions such as shaving her hair off for charity which makes her a positive role model for people. Miley on the other hand, despite there being rumours that she also donated her hair to a cancer charity, has turned herself into a negative role model recently by using her confidence to act provocatively on TV and dress in minimal clothing to get attention.

What Culture Is To Me

To me, culture is everything that is around me and can be found in all aspects of life. It's about everything from your choice of entertainment to your taste in music and it has different meanings to everyone. It doesn't have a specific definition, each person has their own ideas of what culture means to them and how it affects them as a person.
In my opinion, culture has a big impact on my life because the different things I'm interested in and the choices I make are a part of culture and they help me grow as a person. For example if I was brought up in a high class family my opinion of culture would be completely different to my opinion of it now because I would most likely be interested in 'high culture'. I wasn't brought up to be interested in things which are classed as high culture (Shakespeare, visiting art exhibitions etc) and enjoy aspects of popular culture such as social networks and modern films a lot more, but I would still consider myself cultured because everything which makes me who I am is part of culture. Although there are certain people who believe high culture is the most important thing and you aren't cultured if you haven't taken the time to appreciate different writers/artists/musicians which have stood the test of time, everything that influences a persons life is to do with culture and all people are cultural purely for the fact they have different interests and are passionate about things which have impacted the way they live.

High Culture and Popular Culture

In our lessons recently we have been looking at the differences between high culture and popular culture and whether liking one over the other makes you any better of a person. We looked at the different types of activities associated with each culture (e.g. art exhibitions are high culture and going to the cinema is popular culture) and discussed why high culture is considered better than popular culture by certain groups of people.

High culture is all to do with separating the 'elite' people from the people who are more interested in popular culture, and enjoying writers/artists/musicians who have stood the test of time. This culture is considered better as it is harder to gain access to and more exclusive which is intended to make people want to be a part of it more. Matthew Arnold believed high culture would prevent anarchy and it is essential that people become more cultured.

Popular culture is the complete opposite of high culture and is related to anything which is enjoyed by lots of people in the current day, such as social networks and reality TV shows. This culture is considered less valued than high culture, it is easily accessible and available to everyone which stops it having the exclusivity that high culture possesses. This culture is more accepting of everyone as you don't have to be of a certain class or have a certain amount of knowledge to be involved in it, but it is considered 'mainstream' and everyone follows eachother so there is no sense of originality.