Identity and Belonging Context
“Discovering our identity is a challenging journey.”
Humanity is born lost. It is only through embarking on a lifelong journey do we even begin to unfurl our identity. As Socrates once said, “the unexamined life is a life not worth living.” Without this journey towards self-discovery our time will leave us feeling hollow and unsatisfied. The human race faces many challenging experiences from absent parents, to the media’s perception of what we should or could be. Each challenge along with our role models, mental strength and motivation influence the path we take on our quest to uncover our true selves.
The concept of beauty is thought to define us. It is an important factor in the challenging journey towards finding the knowledge of oneself. It either distorts our perception of ourselves or helps us accept the person we really are. Beauty is superficially defined as being aesthetically pleasing but in actuality it is much more. Beauty is, according to Aristotle at least, truth. It is unchanging, invisible and cannot grow old. Many factors influence what we perceive holds beauty and this in turn influences how we see ourselves and our knowledge of self. The media in today’s society provides us with a bleak outlook on what is acceptable and ideal. It dictates the way we should act, look and even think. Role models used to be shapely and unique including the likes of Marilyn Monroe. In today’s day and age however, where ‘beautiful’ is all bones and sunken features, women like this would be considered ‘plus size’. We define ourselves and others with labels. ‘Fat’, ‘emo’, ‘anxious’ and ‘ordinary’ are used seemingly interchangeably with a person’s name. Social media also allows this to go a step further, providing a way to create a ‘second’ identity and present ourselves in a way that doesn’t represent truth in our ‘beauty’. This is the challenge however. Social media allowing us to do this destroys the truth in beauty, or at least one of its basic principles.
Humanity is born lost. It is only through embarking on a lifelong journey do we even begin to unfurl our identity. As Socrates once said, “the unexamined life is a life not worth living.” Without this journey towards self-discovery our time will leave us feeling hollow and unsatisfied. The human race faces many challenging experiences from absent parents, to the media’s perception of what we should or could be. Each challenge along with our role models, mental strength and motivation influence the path we take on our quest to uncover our true selves.
The concept of beauty is thought to define us. It is an important factor in the challenging journey towards finding the knowledge of oneself. It either distorts our perception of ourselves or helps us accept the person we really are. Beauty is superficially defined as being aesthetically pleasing but in actuality it is much more. Beauty is, according to Aristotle at least, truth. It is unchanging, invisible and cannot grow old. Many factors influence what we perceive holds beauty and this in turn influences how we see ourselves and our knowledge of self. The media in today’s society provides us with a bleak outlook on what is acceptable and ideal. It dictates the way we should act, look and even think. Role models used to be shapely and unique including the likes of Marilyn Monroe. In today’s day and age however, where ‘beautiful’ is all bones and sunken features, women like this would be considered ‘plus size’. We define ourselves and others with labels. ‘Fat’, ‘emo’, ‘anxious’ and ‘ordinary’ are used seemingly interchangeably with a person’s name. Social media also allows this to go a step further, providing a way to create a ‘second’ identity and present ourselves in a way that doesn’t represent truth in our ‘beauty’. This is the challenge however. Social media allowing us to do this destroys the truth in beauty, or at least one of its basic principles.