Importance Of Identity

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Identity is how an individual is perceived and shows his or her individuality or group association. It may be defined as the unique attribute which belongs to any individual, or is shared by people who belong to a specific social group or ethnic group. People form their identity through identifying with people who are important to you such as your parents or siblings. Also, individuals could form their identity based on their beliefs or values. Identity is influenced by various things and has changed a lot over time, space, and situation. In addition, race/ethnicity, gender, and disability, is of great importance to the formation of identity.
We all know that identity is constructed and rational. The construction of identity involves right or wrong, contaminated or uncontaminated, attractive or unattractive, and so on. This norms are prone to change although they are made to look fixed. The identities of people are constructed based on gender, race, caste, social class, sexuality, etc. for example, if a person walks on the road wearing a very exposing dress and too much make up, the person might be identified by other people as being trashy or a slut. Identity is prone to change over time. Consider a person who is of low social class and therefore is identified as poor. If the person later in the future makes it and becomes prominent, the individual’s identity changes from being poor to being rich. Also, if a person used to be gay for almost all his life and then finally after a long period of time decides to become straight, the person’s identity will change from being homosexual to being hetrosexual. The calabar tribe of Nigeria for a long period of time have always been identified as twin killers. But after many years of them k...

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...ty of a person because there are fixed identities of an individual with a disability. A person with a disability might identify with people who have the same disability as he has because he feels he shares something with them and feels similar. But a person with disability might not identify with people who do not have a disability because he might feel out of place. However, a person with a disability or disabilities, could be identified by the society as handicapped which is a form of discrimination because this makes the person feel disadvantaged not just because of his disability, but because of culturally, economically, and socially constructed obstacles.
In conclusion, identity is what makes a person unique and it creates who you are. Without it, an individual would have lost that thing that sets him out from every other person and what makes him who he is.

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