influenced by Ideologies . . . .

How do you link identity to ideology?

Race and gender are some identities that are the most visibly seen. Society has constructed a list of rules and ideologies for how one should act if you are that certain identity.

This week in class I thought that ideology was an important concept that needed to be more defined and covered, so I chose to focus on how identity influences the ideologies we belief . . .

 “Ideology” is basically an intellectual belief system imposed upon reality, while “Identity” today is not something given by nature or tradition but something chosen.

•       Identity is a socially and historically constructed concept. We learn about our own identity and the identity of others through interactions with family, peers, organizations, institutions, media and other connections we make in our everyday life. 

•       Keyfacets of identity—like gender, social class, age, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity—play significant roles in determining how we understand and experience the world, as well as shaping the types of opportunities and challenges we face.

•       Social and cultural identity is inextricably linked to issues of power, value systems, and ideology. 

•       The media uses representations—images, words, and characters or personae—to convey specific ideas and values related to culture and identity in society. 

According to Karl Marx and Engels, ideologies perpetuate the power of the elites. Ideologies are often used with politics but there are also gender and racial ideologies. If Western civilization continues to use these traditional ideologies, then this favors the heterosexual white male identity, thus keeping them in a power position.

“I say keeping men in a power position because in the great chain of being, the white man was the being next to god, then is woman and then animals. Transgender were not even considered.”

Gender role ideology

Gender role ideology is defined as the attitudes and beliefs about the proper roles of women and men in the family or society.

Does gender ideologies harm children?

In March of this year (2016) the American College of Pediatricians released a statement saying that, it is child abuse to allow children to belief that they are the opposite sex if they have normal XY and XX sex chromosomes.

Why would some say yes?

Some critics that say gender ideology is harmful to children would argue that No one is born with a gender. Everyone is born with a biological sex. Gender (an awareness and sense of oneself as male or female) is a sociological and psychological concept; not an objective biological one.

This is saying that if you don’t meet the standards of what constitutes “being a man” or “being a woman” then you are wrong for thinking the way you do. They also bring up how children that believe so, may have gender dysphonia, formerly listed as Gender Identity Disorder (GID). Summing it up to saying you have a mental disorder for thinking you are the opposite sex, because of your make up biologically. So making a child act a certain gender role leads to oppression.  This is saying that our sex is the only one valid identity we can associate our self with because that is how we were created.

Why would some say no

Some people criticize the credibility of the American College of Pediatricians; they say it is not a legit organization, but it is just a group of people spreading their biases to public. Another argument given proves that usage of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones are harmful. (It is possible for someone to be completely accepting of this gender ideology while also opposing the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.) According to the DSM-V, as many as 98% of gender confused boys and 88% of gender confused girls eventually accept their biological sex after naturally passing through puberty.

This document came from the American College of Pediatrics, which can  commonly be mistaken for the American Academy of Pediatrics. There are clearly differences between the two organizations of Pediatrics. Some say that the college is a hate group! Even in the document it states that a great percentage of individuals will often eventually identify their sex. To me this says that you can let the individual believe what ever they want to believe and they will still turn out the way they are supposed to be.

(Below is the American College of Pediatricians

 versus The American Academy of Pediatricians)

^^^

The argument some may have is that The American Academy of Pediatrics is more distinguished than The American College of Pediatrics.

Racial Ideology

Racial ideology is a set of fixed beliefs about one or more races. It's almost always utilized to promote racial superiority over others, rather than just discussing racial characteristics. This can also relate to how we (humans) divide the human species into races on grounds of physical characteristics and behaviors. Within some racial ideologies comes hegemony and colorism.

Using hegemony, an example of race superiority would be the Ku Klux Klan and how they believed that the white race was the superior race and all others could die. They even did the killing them selves using bible verses to justify there doing.

Colorism is very complex because these racial ideologies that one may have determines how they might treat some one based on race. An example of this could be the ongoing “war” between light skinned blacks versus the dark skin blacks. Proving which of the same race is more authentic by acts of masculinity, relationships with women and skin color.

  

^^^^

In this video above this woman goes on a "rant" about how there is colorism within the black race and further talks about what it means to not be black enough . . .

Dark meaning you are more masculine (tough) and authentic

Light meaning you are soft and not really black

This is another example of hegemony that happens within the same race with the darker skinned blacks believing they are more superior than the lighter skinned blacks.

Sometimes this leads to kids acting tougher than they really are to fit in and “hang”. Leading them to a path of trouble and mistakes made. 

What makes this so complex is that this could even apply to the white race, like if the environment you grew up in is made up of a mostly black population. The white kids only friends would be blacks and in order for him to 'hang" he has to talk a certain way and act a certain way.

Another example of colorism could be successful men of color (no matter the shade of skin). If you make it and you are surrounded by the opposite color (whites) that are also rich, then you “sold out” on your race and you are a “uncle tom” for conforming to white standards.

There is also race gender roles and each culture has different norms on the roles that man and woman play. Some things are masculine and feminine to other cultures. Western ideologies often mistake the exception for the norm(ideologies).

In a podcast we listened to in class the ladies mentioned that slave owners created these “ideologies” to turn slave against each other. Since mentioning the slave mentality the term “uncle tom” was also used during the slavery times often referred to blacks that turned against their own kind and conformed to the slave master. This brings me to my question

Does one’s identity influence the ideologies they believe in or should gender and race ideologies be enforced?

I think that this is becoming an interesting time in history when the traditional ideology of western civilization is slowly being changed, but not just with race but also with sex and gender. 

From a previous psychology class that I took I learned that no matter what you force on a child, the child would grow up to be what they are meant to identify with. The environment does have a factor in your human experiences, but also so does the role you look like you play; is often how one will be treated in this society. Therefore creating and living through their own personal ideologies.

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