Identity Mask and Essay
Our masks and essays were our first exhibition. Each student chose an identity category and decided whether they were an agent or a target. My identity category was female as a target. My mask represents how the media affects a persons self image.
Essay
What if it were different? What if I was born a boy? I would be considered dominant. I would have different perspectives, be interested in different things, I’d be in a different social group. I’d be an entirely different person.
Privileges, privileges, privileges, more or less, less or more. How drastically does your gender affect who you are and who you grow to be. How much of a different person would you be if you were born of the opposite gender? I have two younger brothers, growing up I played with them. We were Power Rangers, played Rescue Heroes, and we engaged in intense light-saber battles. Then I went to school, and made new friends. They didn’t have younger brothers and didn’t know what a light-saber was. I had light-sabers, Barbie’s, Nerf-guns, and baby dolls. I played with the girls and I played with the boys.
Even the kindergarten class had opinions about who I was. Even in kindergarten people are judged. How much does the way people see you affect who you are? If people spread rumors about you, that seem believable, would even you start to believe them? Have you ever wondered what people think the first time they see you? Every single time we see someone, we judge them, intentionally or not. Good things, bad things, and all things in-between.
My mask isn’t a very straight-forward topic. The meanings of certain symbols will only make sense to me because I have had completely different experiences than everyone else. I hold grudges, back talk and can be a diva. The way I see myself, if it be self-image or social-status, is sometimes the thing I see as most important. It depends on the day, completely self-confident or completely insecure. So, what makes up one’s self-image? School? Or is it the media? Magazines, movies, TV, and everywhere else we look. You don’t see regular size people on the front of a movie poster. You see Ms. Super Skinny. She’s more than likely been photoshopped into perfection. Makes you wonder if you barely ate if you’d be that skinny, but you won’t. Maybe you’ll subconsciously absorb her image. You’ll look in the mirror, see your fat, your chub, or your ugliness. It’s not there, but you see it.
On my mask, a thought bubble is coming off. The thought bubble is filled with pictures from the media. The pictures are seeping into the mind, changing the self-image, ruining the self-confidence. We see the way we think we should be and we try to be that way, but we can’t, its fake. Photo-shopped, cropped, blemish free, and thinned down. The images on the mask are cut outs of magazines and the media, to illustrate this concept. The “clean” side, one without this deception is filled with pink, flowers, and youthfulness. This other half is the happy side. Media is different from real life. Acne, bad hair days, bigger sizes, and cheap shoes. When has Justin Bieber ever had a photo-shoot with a huge zit on his forehead? What will matter in ten years if you wore Wal-Mart shoes instead of the hottest Nikes? In the middle of 3rd grade I moved and went to a new school, and was immediately rejected. These people and known each other since preschool, and all 30 of them were extremely close knit, and they would tease me, poison Ivie, rich city girl, and then I was teased because I didn’t understand how they lived. I didn’t understand the rodeo, ranch life. It took a while but they finally accepted me. Your family’s money will always be a factor in whether you succeed or fail, but what does popularity do for you in the end? Probably nothing, maybe the choir geek will be the CEO of the company you work at, where you’re a desk rat. Who knows how it will play out, but it’s the urge to fit in that causes us to be against the ones who don’t.
Privileges, privileges, privileges, more or less, less or more. How drastically does your gender affect who you are and who you grow to be. How much of a different person would you be if you were born of the opposite gender? I have two younger brothers, growing up I played with them. We were Power Rangers, played Rescue Heroes, and we engaged in intense light-saber battles. Then I went to school, and made new friends. They didn’t have younger brothers and didn’t know what a light-saber was. I had light-sabers, Barbie’s, Nerf-guns, and baby dolls. I played with the girls and I played with the boys.
Even the kindergarten class had opinions about who I was. Even in kindergarten people are judged. How much does the way people see you affect who you are? If people spread rumors about you, that seem believable, would even you start to believe them? Have you ever wondered what people think the first time they see you? Every single time we see someone, we judge them, intentionally or not. Good things, bad things, and all things in-between.
My mask isn’t a very straight-forward topic. The meanings of certain symbols will only make sense to me because I have had completely different experiences than everyone else. I hold grudges, back talk and can be a diva. The way I see myself, if it be self-image or social-status, is sometimes the thing I see as most important. It depends on the day, completely self-confident or completely insecure. So, what makes up one’s self-image? School? Or is it the media? Magazines, movies, TV, and everywhere else we look. You don’t see regular size people on the front of a movie poster. You see Ms. Super Skinny. She’s more than likely been photoshopped into perfection. Makes you wonder if you barely ate if you’d be that skinny, but you won’t. Maybe you’ll subconsciously absorb her image. You’ll look in the mirror, see your fat, your chub, or your ugliness. It’s not there, but you see it.
On my mask, a thought bubble is coming off. The thought bubble is filled with pictures from the media. The pictures are seeping into the mind, changing the self-image, ruining the self-confidence. We see the way we think we should be and we try to be that way, but we can’t, its fake. Photo-shopped, cropped, blemish free, and thinned down. The images on the mask are cut outs of magazines and the media, to illustrate this concept. The “clean” side, one without this deception is filled with pink, flowers, and youthfulness. This other half is the happy side. Media is different from real life. Acne, bad hair days, bigger sizes, and cheap shoes. When has Justin Bieber ever had a photo-shoot with a huge zit on his forehead? What will matter in ten years if you wore Wal-Mart shoes instead of the hottest Nikes? In the middle of 3rd grade I moved and went to a new school, and was immediately rejected. These people and known each other since preschool, and all 30 of them were extremely close knit, and they would tease me, poison Ivie, rich city girl, and then I was teased because I didn’t understand how they lived. I didn’t understand the rodeo, ranch life. It took a while but they finally accepted me. Your family’s money will always be a factor in whether you succeed or fail, but what does popularity do for you in the end? Probably nothing, maybe the choir geek will be the CEO of the company you work at, where you’re a desk rat. Who knows how it will play out, but it’s the urge to fit in that causes us to be against the ones who don’t.