‘Identity is complicated, everybody’s got one’ – Gauntlet

‘Identity is complicated, everybody’s got one’ – Gauntlet. Identities complexion occurs between the relationship with social groups and collective identity and the ways it changes when young people grow up.  For example collective identity gives a sense of ‘one-ness’, it is a membership in a social group that is collective and has a sense of togetherness. Therefore, different social groups have different subcultures or countercultures, in a social group people identify with one another and share similar interests.

Henri Tafjel’s social identity theory assumes that individuals strive to improve their self image by trying to enhance their self-esteem based on either their personal identity or various social identities. He argued that there is a distinct ‘in-group’ and an ‘out-group’. Therefore, Tafjel believed that identity comes from a person’s self image and their self esteem would be maintained by being in the ‘in group’ of a social group and a person’s self esteem would be low if they were part of the ‘out group’. For example, in Rebel Without A Cause James Dean’s character was part of the ‘out group’ as he was new to the area and constantly was in trouble with other kids.  Therefore, people’s identities change as they are constantly improving their self image, whilst improving their self image people can change social groups and thus, the subculture may change within the new social group.

Identities of young people have been stereotyped in a major way by the media, for example, the London Riots, the News showed clips of young looters constantly to show how young youths are acting in our modern society. This has therefore, stereotyped young people to be reckless, loud and criminal to people around the UK, it has given young people a bad representation. Also film such as Kidulthood gives a negative interpretation of youths; it portrays the different stereotypical social groups that youths have, showing that they are lower class citizens out on the street, taking drugs, being promiscuous, violent, and aggressive and having foul language.
In the media it also shows that youths constantly use technology to identify with one another for example, mobile phones, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter etc... Henry Jenkins stated that teens are constantly updating and customizing their profiles online, adding photos, songs and posting on each other’s virtual walls. These activities can also be a means for teens to construct and experiment with their identities and thus exploring their gender identification. This explains that young people use technology and social networks to explore their identity and find a collective identity within social group.
Reality TV shows have represented young people in a negative way and conforms to the stereotyped identities of young people. For example, the reality shows Geordie Shore the young adults are portrayed to be reckless, loud and carefree. All they do is go out get drunk and have sex. Within media this gives a negative representation of young people, therefore, allowing the media to stereotype the identities of young people and their social groups. In a column for metro, Christopher Hooton described the show as ‘a gaudy kaleidoscope of six packs, shots, fights, stimulated fellatio and exposed breasts’. Geordie Shore gives a negative identity to young people and therefore, it allows the media to portray them as a disrespectful and reckless group.
To form an identity people would need to interact and find out their interest. This is the way Richard Jenkins believed identity is formed; he believed that interaction with other people or with the media forms our identities. He believed partaking in an event in reality or virtually with people with whom we feel comfortable with, thus it helps us to form collective identity identification and aspiration. Therefore, through interaction with new people, our identities would change as we got older, thus changing out subcultures and social groups.

Through Experience our identities change also changing our subculture/counterculture as we get older. Merleau Ponty believed that we build our identities through our experience as we get older, thus stating that we all have an identity, but it changes as we get older because our interests/hobbies change, thus changing out identity and our personality.

As a society we have constructed the idea that people identities are the person we are on the inside. We believe this is defined by factors such as gender, age, class, sexuality. Michel Foucault believed that we are born with a basic identity but develop our collective identity, therefore, stating that our collective identity is later created through our identity which develops as we get older. Foucault believed that our personality mediates due to the people we meet as we get older, thus, stating we change our social group and subculture as we grow older.

On the other hand, Marxism theory which was started by Karl Marx is a communist theory which determines that all members of society will be governed by work and in a class less system. All members of society must follow a governed viewpoint; they must follow rules, drive the same car, live the same life and must hold a common perception of each other. This still occurs in our modern society in China where there are certain rules to follow. Therefore, the Marxism theory states that people have the same identity or have no identity as they are all alike, therefore, identity can be complicated. There is no division of class or social group, as everyone is so similar they all have one identity; therefore, they don’t have individual identities which other people around the world may have.

Thus, to conclude I believe the statement ‘Identity is complicated, everybody’s got one’ – Gauntlet is true, as everybody has got an identity as they are born with one, but their identity changes as they grow older, thus their social group and subculture also alters, therefore, making identity complicated. Everyone is born with an identity, even though they live in a communist country, they still are born with an identity, but lose is as they get older because they have to follow the rules and be similar to everyone else.