Identity Crisis!

In many nations around the world, modern society has been placing a lot of interest on the issue of personal identity. We question who we are, who others are, and who the both of us should be. It’s a conversation that doesn’t seem to have a right answer, but one that is nevertheless discussed and debated till the point of ad nauseam; perhaps the largest topic of all –and the topic of this blog post- being the issue of gender roles and their societal implications. But before we can begin to question the rights and/or wrongs of such a matter, we must first question something else:

What does all of this even mean?

            First off, what exactly is identity? Ask a random person this question and you will undoubtedly be met with various responses. People may tell you their job or their ethnicity or their marital status, or maybe just tilt their head out of confusion on the topic. No matter the response though, they are pretty much correct, as Identity is really just explaining who you are as a person; I am white, I am male, I am Batman (but don’t tell anyone), etcetera, etcetera. Identity encompasses a lot of subjects, and within those subjects you will find both sex and gender. Now, these two terms seem to cause a lot of confusion in society, as often they are used interchangeably. However, the two have rather different meanings that must be discussed before further analysis. On the topic of sex, the term is rooted in human biology and anatomy, your ‘equipment’ defines whether you are a male, or you are a female. Gender, on the other hand, is more related to ideas of masculinity and femininity, and is what is known as a societal construct.

Now, by construct, this refers to ideas of what is masculine as opposed to what is feminine in society (think of boys with Hot Wheels and the colour blue as opposed to girls with My Little Pony and the colour pink).The traditional viewpoint holds that men should be masculine and like cars and things that go boom, and women should be feminine and like activities such as baking or knitting. But as of late, there is a trend going on that greatly disagrees with such statements, and says that men and women do not necessarily have to like such things; that masculinity and femininity should not be defined by ones’ interests. Accordingly, I can be a female who likes cars, or I could be a male who likes My Little Pony, and society shouldn’t have any problems with either. But alas, society does have its problems with it, and the wheels of discussion and debate keep on turning.

So in a topic where there isn’t necessarily a right or wrong, what’s the takeaway here? Well, the takeaway is really up to your belief system and whether or not you feel that ‘men should be men’ and ‘women should be women’. It’s really all relative here. But even so, there’s one thing that should stay the same regardless: Respect. Someone may not look like you, think like you, or have the same interests as you, but what matters the most is that we maintain our respect for one another, regardless of what it is that we all believe.