Identity Mapping

 

Introduction: 

When I glance at my identity map, it is clear that I am privileged.  Upon closer inspection, I realize how much of that privilege I use to live my life everyday and how it shapes me as a person.  The majority of my identity is very fixed, which tells me that I have the privilege of stability.  The ways in which my identity has changed has been the result of my privilege and society catering to certain qualities I possess.  Prior to this map, when asked about my identity, I would have described myself as a middle-class, white woman.  When my identity is mapped in more detail, it shows how that basic description is possible.  For instance, I am middle-class because I had access to a quality education up to and including college due to the fact that I was a white citizen in the western world.  

What surprised me about this mapping was that many of the ways that I am personally oppressed are not extreme because I fall into another privileged category.  For example, I am a woman but I am also white and a citizen who is curvy (and could be considered attractive) and heterosexual.  While I do suffer from some injustice, it can be considered very small and insignificant when we live in a world where people are not being heard and even killed due to their lack of privilege.

In thinking about how I see myself, I will say that I do not necessarily gravitate towards the ‘major’ categories that reflect self.  I believe that is because I am privileged.  Outside the context of this conversation, if I were to describe myself I would say that I am a young liberal who teaches yoga and art - half of which is not captured in my identity mapping.  If someone less privileged were to describe me, they might start with white, educated woman.  This is because those who are less privileged are faced with their identity on a daily basis and are forced to confront the injustices that make up their lives.  Weir lays out what is happening here when she write, “In our work on collective identities, we have tended to reduce the complexity

of identity questions to questions of category, and thus we have paid too little

attention to other important questions: these questions I want to gather under

the umbrella of identification-with: identification with others, identification with

values and ideals, identification with ourselves, as individuals and as collectives” (p.111).

To further add to Weir’s point, cyberspace most definitely sees me as I wish to be portrayed.  If someone googled me, they would find my ‘teacher page’ in the local public school district - where I have selected an attractive picture of myself that I feel conveys my fun and creative personality.  They would also find multiple Instagram accounts in which I have carefully constructed to portray my desired identity depending on purpose.  For instance, I have a yoga teacher account where I post advertisements for my yoga classes and spiritual practices.  I also have an art account where I post student artwork and creative ideas I bring to life in my classroom.  Finally, I have my personal instagram that I have worked to create a personal aesthetic.  I also have a Facebook that is akin to my personal instagram but also includes some political statements and ideals.  Almost none of these, with the exception of a few posts and comments on Facebook, include anything to do with some of the major aspects that make up my identity,  It is because of my true identity mapped out in this context that I am able to construct and obtain the identity I have in cyberspace.  

I am a white woman who has come from a Serbian family that immigrated to America during one of the great waves of white immigration during the twentieth century.  With this, I get the privilege of being white but also ‘get to’ value the part of me that answers “Serbian” when asked about my heritage.  My family is religious, but not to the extent that we get classified by it.  

Overall, the process of identity mapping has highlighted how my privilege has contributed to my identity.  I have been aware of this privilege, but my awareness of the why and the connectedness of my privilege and the parts I acknowledge on a daily basis has deeply intensified.