Female Identity as a Cultural Process - Research Paper Example

Female Identity as a Cultural Process The concept of identity has been a of intense debate and speculation perhaps since the dawn of civilization. From as far back as Plato, the world had some understanding that the way a person thought about themselves was partly an internal process and partly an external process, both shaping and forming the other in a simultaneous and mutually dependent never-ending cycle. Modern philosophers and scientists have begun to unravel the complicated ways in which this process occurs, but in spite of this knowledge, it remains difficult for women to break out of the expectations they have for themselves and that society has formed for them. It has been suggested that a significant contributing factor to women’s sense of identity is formed by the media as Hollywood and other film corporations continue to focus on a socialized ideal image of the young, thin, blonde and largely subservient femme fatale of yesteryear. However, sociological theory suggests that the process is reciprocal – while films portray an idealized image of what women are supposed to be, women in the ‘real’ world help to define what they really are and begin changing the image reflected of them in film. By examining films that focus on an examination of changing female identity, it can be determined that issues of female identity are much more complicated than the simple duplication of what is seen on the big screen. The present research will examine the American-made film Joy Luck Club with the purpose of discovering the various ways women think differently regarding issues such as tradition and self-fulfillment as they transition between two societies. In considering this question, an important concept regarding identity formation is the idea of sociological imagination. Sociological imagination is the process by which we internally stratify ourselves within our society and thus determines how we will behave (Mills, 2000). This pattern of stratification and behavior (whether we act in accordance with expectations or against them) plays a large role in how we create our own identity. By internally linking personal experience with the cultural understanding of what that experience represents, we tend to classify ourselves as well as others within specific social groups. Three observable aspects of being that the sociological imagination builds upon are class, race and gender (Mills, 2000). The concept of class is based upon a person’s profession, income level, education level and a number of other elements that are considered desirable within a given culture group (Mills, 2000). For example, those individuals who are known to have a high level of education and tend to dress well are automatically considered to be of a higher social class than individuals who don’t dress well or who are not able to articulate their thoughts as well. This is because these people are also the individuals who hold higher professional positions, a condition typically equated with power, and tend to make more money. In this example, because it is not always the case that the person who speaks and dresses well has more power or more money than the person who does not, class can be seen as a relatively flexible and imprecise measuring stick for the sociological imagination. This concept of class can be observed in this film on a micro level as the individuals of the ‘extended family’ of each character stratify themselves among each other. In Joy Luck Club, each of the older women have established a certain hierarchy among themselves, with the fiercest competition occurring between the two ‘leading’ ladies, Lindo and Suyuan. Although it was Suyuan who founded the Joy Luck Club and should thus be its leader, Lindo is the one who had the child-prodigy chess player daughter and is now the only one of the two still living. The daughters have also formed a hierarchy among themselves with Waverly taking the lead, giving her mother her advantage over Suyuan, but this hierarchy is not as strong as that of their mothers’ because of the looseness of the bond between this younger group. Instead of being based on internal characteristics and behaviors, as is the set of the older women, the younger group is stratified based on external social positions and degree of success in marriage. While class may be flexible and imprecise, race and gender remain relatively constant and difficult to change across all cultures. The concept of race is largely understood to be determined based primarily upon physical characteristics (Mills, 2000). These can be imprecise as well as African Americans have a distinctly different culture from Africans still living in Nairobi for example. However, secondary judgments can also be made based upon a person’s observable ethnic characteristics as a means of more appropriately identifying the true cultural background of the individual (Mills, 2000). For example, a woman with epicanthic eyes, olive skin and dark hair may be perceived as being Chinese, but her business-like clothing, her use of the English language and her way of living might cause the same observer to label her American. Broadly defined, ethnicity can thus be considered to be anything that refers to the individual’s place of origin, their native language, practiced religion, choice in diet or shared historical background. While race is an aspect of the self that is inherited through the genes and appears in physical characteristics such as skin color or shape of eye, ethnicity is an ongoing process of socialization that is passed down and evolves from one generation to the next. Within the film under study, the primary characters are all of Asian origin, thus share many of the distinctive features grouped under the common understanding of race. However, ethnicity can be seen to be quite different between them, changing the way in which the women identify themselves and others. The Chinese older women of Joy Luck Club have been raised under very strict traditional standards as is related in their stories of their own youth. Traditions of arranged marriage between children, abandonment, family honor and unquestioned obedience were common and adhered to rather than bring shame upon the family. Although tremendous injustice was witnessed, it was considered unimportant in the face of doing what was expected and what had been agreed upon. Upon coming to America, these women dropped several of these standards, but continued to speak among themselves in their native language, honored many of their same old beliefs and religious observations and continued to engage in traditional activities and dietary habits. However, recognizing the degree to which devotion to tradition brought suffering and pain upon themselves and their own mothers, the older women of the film each made independent decisions to raise their daughters on more American, and thus more liberated, standards. The daughters of the film represent a lost culture, neither Chinese nor fully American, they are often lost in trying to determine which set of cultural instructions to follow. Until they are able to tap into their mother’s strength of history and background, these daughters remain unsure of just how to progress in life, thus illustrating their continued need for tradition, even if it has evolved to meet new standards. The final external aspect upon which sociological imagination is based concerns ideas of gender, which ultimately comes down to the simple question of whether the individual is male or female. However, this too can be confused by sociological identification. Gender is defined as a learned identification with a particular biological sex – male or female (Mills, 2000). This depends to a great degree upon the culture’s understanding of the accepted or expected roles and obligations of the individual sex. A commonly shared belief system holds that men are to be the providers and protectors while the women are to perform all the work that does not fall within these boundaries such as maintaining the home and caring for the children. Women are expected to care about frivolous things such as clothing and cooking for the family while men are expected to be concerned with weighty matters such as the protection of the colony or the provision of food and shelter for the family. While gender lines are typically drawn across these distinctions, it is not unexpected or surprising to find those physically considered men to fall on the female side of the gender line or those physically considered women to fall on the male side. This is sometimes referred to as sexual identity (Mills, 2000) as a means of distinguishing between the two. Examining the film for indications of gender differences, it seems that the two cultures provide similar examples. The older women of Joy Luck Club have gained strength and independence from their difficult lives and their deep understanding of the suffering of their own mothers, identifying deeply with this concept of strength in the female gender. In choosing to remove the shackles of China in favor of a hoped-for greater independence in America, though, they experience difficulty attempting to measure up their own success in life by different standards than those they were raised with. In America, their progressive lifestyles as compared to their mothers are considered to be backward and weak compared to the more independent standards of the American culture in which their own daughters are raised. While the older generation was able to find strength in their gender working from within the established and well-understood traditions, these messages were not communicated to the younger generation, who found only submission and doubt. In essence, the women of the older generation are speaking a different language from that of the younger generation and messages of strength are lost in the different cultural traditions of America. However, each of these daughters are able to discover these same messages of strength as they begin to recognize new examples of strength in their gender, such as when Lena learns from her neighbors how angry fighting can sometimes lead to a deeper and more equal loving relationship. Using the sociological imagination, it can be seen that before identity can be fully determined, one must have an understanding of where they stand in the world, which typically depends upon an understanding of some element of society as the lowest or inferior (Anderson, 1994). Throughout recent history, white males have held most of the power in society, first because the more technologically advanced countries were predominantly peopled by white people and controlled by white men and later, because of their subjugation of other nations thanks to their advanced tools and weapons. By withholding education and opportunity from people with color and from women, white men were able to retain their power and establish a system in which women and people of color were seen to be socially inferior. By setting those with color socially below white people, even the lower class was able to feel superior to someone. Through the same channels, men managed to dominate over women. Women were socially constrained within homes, legally oppressed and deprived of an education throughout a great deal of history, thus keeping them at low levels of the social scale. These social stratifications help the individual to place themselves within the greater world just as the various behaviors the individual participates in help to define that identity to the external world. The women in these films are seen to be still struggling against these social expectations they have for themselves, making progress only when they realize their constraints are of their own making. Works Cited Anderson, B. “Imagined Communities.” Nationalism. J. Hutchinson & D. Smith (Eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994: 89-96. The Joy Luck Club. Dir. Wayne Wang, Perf. Ming-Na, Rosalind Chao, Lauren Tom, France Nuyen, Tamlyn Tomita, Kieu Chinh, Lisa Lu & Tsai Chin. Hollywood Pictures, 1993. Mills, C. Wright. The Sociological Imagination. Oxford University Press, 2000. Read More