Identity and Society's Restrictions.

 

Yesterday I was in bed when I remembered something I had been asked a few weeks back. In my English class we had been given a sheet with the question ‘who are you?’ in the middle of of it. To my surprise it was pretty difficult, some of the things that I thought made up me I didn’t want on the sheet. Why? Not because I was ashamed but because I was embarrassed. Identity is important, like gender it is the first thing people notice when they look at you. Whether you are part of a club, like a certain band or are from a specific culture, all these things add up to what forms your identity. People are often judged by other based on their identity. A boy may feel pressured to play football well because society tells him that’s what people in his gender are good at, on the other hand a girl with a natural footballing ability may feel the need to hide her passion because society is telling her to be more interested in makeup and fashion.

However I believe that no matter your gender, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, you should have the right to dress and do what you feel comfortable with. It is your life and you should be the only one deciding how you live it and it shouldn’t involve anybody else’s opinion. People shouldn’t hide the real them in fear of what others may say about them and neither should they conform to what society and others expect of them. Why does it matter if a girl wants to play football? Or if a boy wants to be interested in fashion. Our identity makes up just a little part of who we really are. It doesn’t define us and it definitely shouldn’t confine us. We as humans each have something unique that makes us different from any other person in the world so we should embrace this and use these little quirks to really let go and enjoy life more.

Being a teenage girl is not easy, it never has been and never will be and each generation of teenage girls have their own obsessions and passions to help them navigate the journey through this precarious fragment of their lives. Now our generation have decided to make our passions the internet, fashion and amongst other things reality TV and that’s all good, but when this starts to affect how we behave and view ourselves is when it starts to become an issue. I firmly believe the media is an all-round amazing place for us, where we interact with people, keep up to date with what’s going on in the world and what’s around us but media can sometimes turn sour. We as human beings have a control of our lives and how we choose to live it but when seeing gorgeous models with beautiful hair, perfect teeth and willowy features pushed at us regularly (even if it may just be behind a television or a computer screen) it is inevitable we feel pressured to dress and look a certain way to fit the description of how we believe we are expected to look. We conform to society’s rules for us because we see there to be no other way.

On non-uniform days at school you see girls flooding out and you may just wonder  “who told them all to dress up like that” nearly every single one of us are dressed almost identically. Skinny jeans, crop top, leather jacket and poker straight hair all because we are scared to be different. A girl who is slightly different will walk past and we will all turn round to look, as if an alien or something unseen of has been spotted. Why! Everybody should be able to dress the way they feel they are comfortable in and if that means they are not in the holy skinny jeans and crop top crew then so be it, we are all individuals and if our own clothes are not able to represent that and we are consequently hiding our true personalities then how are we as teenagers expected to grow up to be citizens that will be wise and fair in society.

What the media does not realise is that it has a massive effect on us, through the way they sell products and promote celebrities we are influenced greatly by it, even if we may not realise it. How many of us have felt a little fat after one too many custard creams and thought well Nicole Sherzinger wouldn’t have done that or prayed that by the power of Beyoncé we would put down that chocolate éclair. See it’s not only me! Without all these restrictions imagine what we could do, I would for one would shove down that éclair and then I would go to a school non-uniform day wearing my comfy Harry Potter Jumper and Gryffindor scarf, (I am a fanatical Potterhead), because who cares if I am labelled a geek as long as I am enjoying myself. Why have labels for people anyway, we should all live like we want to live because guess what you do not need to change for anybody and definitely not for media. To quote Oscar Wilde – “Be yourself everybody else is already taken.” Whoever you are, wherever you come from. I hope you will enjoy my blog because it is a place that we are all accepted. I’m new here and all your comment and views are much appreciated. Now you know a little about me stay tuned for the next post.

 

Lots of love Lule x