The identity of a person is one of the issues that social scientists across the globe have sought to explore in different research and studies. This is particularly the case considering the fact that from a general perspective, most people in society perceive identity as the physical, biological and behavioural features that define a person in society and as such, make him or her unique from others. As an individual, before joining this course, I perceived identity as the unique characteristics that helps differentiate a person from another. However, this perception has since significantly changed over time. With this in mind, I explore in this paper how this course has altered and changed my perspective on identity. I will first explore how I conceived identity before joining this course and how this has changed over time after going through different lectures and reading materials in this course.
一个人的身份是全球社会科学家在不同的研究中寻求探索的问题之一。考虑到这样一个事实，即从一般角度来看，社会中的大多数人都认为身份是界定社会中一个人的身体、生物和行为特征，从而使他或她与众不同。作为一个人，在参加本课程之前，我认为身份是有助于区分一个人和另一个人的独特特征。然而，随着时间的推移，这种看法发生了重大变化。有鉴于此，我在本文中探讨了这门课程如何改变和改变了我对身份的看法。我将首先探讨在参加本课程之前我是如何构思身份的，以及在经历了本课程的不同讲座和阅读材料之后，身份是如何随着时间的推移而改变的。
To begin with, one of the notions that I unconsciously held on concerning people’s identity was the fact that identity was something that was almost inborn and as such, a person had little control over how it formed or evolved over time. For example, when considering something like gender identity, I thought one was considered a woman since she was born with “feminine” features, which she has no control over. Similarly, I perceived that even if a person was taken into a new environment and allowed to embrace the culture of this environment, it would be difficult to change his or her identity. In this regard, my perception of identity was founded on the fact that the identity of a person is a natural aspect rather than a “manmade” aspect that develops over time. In this regard, my thoughts towards identity contradicted arguments such as those that have been put forwards by movements such as feminist movement, which refuses to acknowledge and accept that gender differences between men and women is as a result of natural aspects rather than manmade aspects (Haslanger 16). Importantly, the perception that identity is a natural element in a person’s life influenced my expectations towards other people in society, particularly in the way they were expected to behave. For instance, I expected women to be gentle, reserved and kind, and men to be tough, strong and without emotions. Therefore, when I encountered a man or woman whose behaviour violated my perceptions on what it means to be a man or a woman, I perceived such a person as being rebellious and as such, violating his or her own identity. In this case, I would always try to find means either to avoid such a person or to rebuke him or her for trying to run away from his identity.
首先，我无意识地持有的关于人的身份的一个概念是，身份几乎是与生俱来的，因此，一个人几乎无法控制它是如何随着时间的推移形成或演变的。例如，当考虑性别认同时，我认为一个人被认为是女性，因为她生来就具有“女性”特征，而她无法控制这一特征。同样，我认为，即使一个人被带到一个新的环境中，并被允许接受这个环境的文化，也很难改变他或她的身份。在这方面，我对身份的理解是基于这样一个事实，即一个人的身份是一个自然的方面，而不是一个随时间发展的“人造”方面。在这方面，我对身份的看法与女权运动等运动提出的观点相矛盾，这些运动拒绝承认和接受男女之间的性别差异是自然方面而非人为方面的结果（Haslanger 16）。重要的是，认同感是一个人生活中的一个自然因素，这一观念影响了我对社会上其他人的期望，尤其是他们的行为方式。例如，我期望女人温柔、内敛、善良，而男人强硬、坚强、没有感情。因此，当我遇到一个男人或女人，他的行为违反了我对作为一个男人或女人意味着什么的看法时，我认为这个人是叛逆的，因此，违反了他或她自己的身份。在这种情况下，我总是想办法避开这样的人，或者责备他或她试图逃离他的身份。
There are number of aspects that influenced my perception towards identity in society. To begin with, I think the culture in which I was born played an instrumental role in defining how I perceive my own as well as other people’s identity. Notably, even since I was born, I have always encountered different aspects of dos and don’ts, which as far as I can remember has a significant impact on both my personal as well as other people’s identity in the society in which I come from. As researchers and scholar point out, the social structures and the culture that a person lives in have a significant impact on the way the person views identity (Jackson 632). With this in mind, I can affirm that a significant portion of my perception towards identity before joining this course drew its strengths from the society in which I was born and grew in. Apart from society, I also think different elements of modernity and modernization have had a significant impact on my perception towards identity. In this regard, even before joining this course, I categorised and defined people depending on their level and ability to embrace modernity. For example, I could easily define the identity of a person and categorise him or her as rebellious depending on how he or she responded to aspects such as modern music, as well as how he or she related to different elements of traditional culture. Thus, culture and social structures were the main factors that supported not only the development but also the sustenance of my perception on identity.
有许多方面影响了我对社会身份的看法。首先，我认为我出生的文化在定义我如何看待自己以及他人的身份方面发挥了重要作用。值得注意的是，即使在我出生的时候，我也总是遇到不同方面的应做和不应做的事情，就我所记得的而言，这对我的个人以及我所在社会中其他人的身份都有重大影响。正如研究人员和学者指出的那样，一个人所生活的社会结构和文化对他看待身份的方式有重大影响（Jackson 632）。考虑到这一点，我可以肯定，在参加这门课程之前，我对身份的认识中有很大一部分来自我出生和成长的社会。除了社会，我还认为现代性和现代化的不同因素对我对身份的看法产生了重大影响。在这方面，甚至在参加本课程之前，我就根据人们接受现代性的水平和能力对他们进行了分类和定义。例如，我可以很容易地定义一个人的身份，并根据他或她对现代音乐等方面的反应，以及他或她与传统文化不同元素的关系，将他或她归类为叛逆。因此，文化和社会结构不仅是支持我的发展的主要因素，也是我对身份的看法得以维持的主要因素。