In What Specific Ways Might We Understand Identities to Be Formed - Essay Example

As individuals seek a sense of belonging, they identify with a group and engage actively in their activities and therefore recognize the similarities that exist within the group and how different his/her group is different from others hence a sense of unity with the group. Things are given meaning by how they are represented, the words used to describe them, images produced about them as well as how they are classified and values placed on them (Hall b, 3). In order to expand representational ability, individuals join a variety of groups and hence form an identity within a range of groups.

Identities are constituted within representation and not outside. They are also produced within specific discursive formations and practices (Hall a, 3). The history of an individual’s family, community, or culture thus plays a great role in the formation of identity. Even though individuals have cognitive recognition of themselves, their history determines what they become (Newman, B & Newman, P, 391). This can be attributed to a negative identity associated with racism or values contrary to society such as being a gangster. The individual’s identity is constructed by the representation of his community or family who is regarded as gangsters or black or white. The representation also entails differentiation or what is lacking on the other. For example, a white person is identified by a lack of blackness. According to Hall (3), identification thus requires what is left outside in order to consolidate the process.

Identities are also constructed through power and exclusion. Individuals may resist taking up some positions which they deem unfit because they are obliged to take them up while always knowing they are representations (Hall a, 6). The resistance is thus suppressed to constitute social identity. Identity is always threatened by what is left out since it involves difference and hence keeps changing. Foucauldian argues that identities as regulated by law. Every society has laws that govern, discipline and regulate behaviour. The individual thus conforms to these laws and as such his/her identity is shaped as he/she can’t act contrary to the beliefs and values. However, for Butler identities are constituted outside the field of representations and according to her, sexual differences regulate identity formation.

Q2: What is meant by the term orientalism and in what particular ways is orientalism racialized, sexualized and gendered?
Orientalism is the study of people from different civilizations. Said Edward gave several definitions of orientalism. First, orientalism is a way of coming to terms with the orient based on the Orient's special place in the European Western experience (1). Secondly, it is a style of thought based upon distinctions between orient and occident (2). Lastly, orientalism is a western style of dominating, restructuring and having authority over the orient. The orient in this case refers to the uncivilized people from the east while occident refers to the civilized people of the west or Europeans. The Europeans regarded themselves as superior and hence exercised control over the orients and formed their identity by representing or being what the orients were not. They thus colonized the easterners so as to civilize them.

The Europeans were generalizing the characteristics of orients and hence behaviour of an individual founded their view of all the orients. The culture of the orients was linked to the western culture and hence the emergence of racism since Orientals were different from occidentals. The European culture gained strength and identity by setting itself off against the Orient (Said, 2). Their relation was that of power, domination and varying degrees of hegemony (5). The European identity was thus superior to other non-Europeans hence orientalism was racialized. Distortions of information by generalizing observations through studying the Orientals created the difference between the orients and occident. The difference between the two also emerged as whites and blacks. The orients were black and hence the Europeans regarded themselves as the other which is lack of black or white. The whites in this sense are superior and more civilized race than the blacks.

Orientalism is also sexualized and gendered. During the colonization, women did not play an active role. They were used as exchange value tokens of men’s power and wealth (Lewis, 21). They have thus been constructed as inferior to the men hence gendering orientalism. The Indian women were also mistreated by their men and hence the European women saw themselves as superior and needed to liberate the orient women. The historical experiences of men and women during colonization were sexualized in the sense that men were compared to women or male to female. Men were more powerful than women and hence women were oppressed. The discourse of feminity, therefore, constrained women’s access to positions of power and participation in colonialism and culture (15). The differences between the east and west were also gendered in that the superior characteristics of men were associated with the west hence the west was regarded as male and the east as female with weaknesses or inferior.
There are continuous interpretations of the differences between the orient and occident and hence their identities keep changing.