...a daughter, a sister, a friend, a significant other (I’m not sure if we’re calling it girlfriend these days…), a graduate student, an English teacher, a bibliophile, a traveler, a John Mayer fan (sorry Amy)…the list goes on. As I read through the readings for the week, especially thinking of them in regards to the topic of identity, I kept coming back to this question: Who am I? And closely related to that is another question that kept popping up: How do others perceive me in various realms? It’s amazing what new media has done and continues to do in illuminating the complexity of these questions.
Considering the fact that “New People in New Worlds” was written by the same guy, it’s not a surprise that, in my head at least, the article dovetailed a bit with our discussion regarding Gee’s “Reading as a Situated Language” and our brief discussion of it. As I read, I kept making connections back to the idea of discourse, especially when thinking of examining people as portfolios and the conclusions made regarding language in and out of school. I thought that it was extremely interesting how by examining Sandra and Emily, Gee is able to demonstrate how indicative language is of who is and who isn’t a “capitalist portfolio person in the making.” Their identities are so connected to their language, and their “lifeworlds” are made so evident through their very words, that to say that language isn’t contextualized is, in my humble and highly educated opinion, a bit stupid. I really do agree with him when he says that “All language is meaningful only in and through the contexts in which it is used” (63). When I read that “we always actively create ‘context,’” I thought about the fact that, in the creation of meaning, I firmly believe that perception is reality. And, before I even read Gee’s example of sexual harassment, I thought of one that I use with my students when we talk about perception, which can, in my opinion, be transferred to the issue of contextualizing and creating meaning from language.
What I say to students is this:
“Imagine you receive a huge bouquet of flowers (boys and girls alike). They are gorgeous, and whether or not you like flowers, you can truly appreciate that they are beautiful and that they were very expensive. Now imagine that you look at the card, and they are from this adorable boy/girl that you’ve been interested in for forever and who you’ve been out with a few times. How do you feel about receiving the flowers?” After receiving the typical positive responses, I have them think about the very same bouquet, only this time when they open the card, the flowers are from the creepy boy/girl who has been following them around school, waiting outside their house, calling in the middle of the night and hanging up, etc. Now how do they feel about the flowers? Creeped-out is right.
The meaning of the gesture is found within its context rather than within the gesture itself, in much the same way that the meaning of language is found within its context as much as it is within the actual combination of letters written/spoken. As I understand Gee, it seems he’s saying that much of the problem of much of today’s underprivileged youth is found in their inability to comprehend the context of language, which marginalizes them from the “portfolio person” who is more likely to be successful in life. I can appreciate this, and I can even agree with it. In fact, as I read a quote from a 16-yer-old-girl named Nadine in the article “Why Youth Love Social Network Sites,” it was obvious language affects the classification and identification of youth. She says, “As a kid, you used your birthday party guest list as leverage on the playground…Ten, as you grew up and got your own phone, it was all about someone being on your speed dial. Well today it’s the MySpace Top 8. It’s the new dangling carrot for gaining superficial acceptance. Taking someone off your Top 8 is your new passive aggressive power play when someone pisses you off.” Wow. Isn’t it interesting how simple it is to make assumptions about this girl, based on the construction of and our contextualization of that one statement? I think so. And I think that if we were to look at her actual MySpace page, we could very easily find a completely different person there.
So, I guess my question now is: If I can create a complete identity for this girl from simple statement, how are people identifying me, especially once they've looked at my Facebook profile?
1 comment:
You bring up some very interesting points that I had not considered previous to reading your post.
I would have to say that my thoughts on the girl who made the comment on MySpace is actually a girl with a great deal of intelligence regarding the social construction of her world. She knows the cause/effect relationship that is built around her and this tells me that she's extremely astute. Of course, having that identification in my mind means it would be interesting to see how she (while understanding the conventions and the power plays that go with her social actions) contorts and uses that knowledge in reality. Now, this could be her understanding and she does not do much with it to manipulate the system, or should could, in actuality, be the one that deftly uses her MySpace account to portray a particularly poignant persona, or she could just simply make fun of the conventions of it (much like Jeff's comment to my post about his friends political stance of "hotpants"). I'm curious what your perspective was.
I agree with your comments regarding Gee's interpretation of the girls' language usage (because I believe that language is a reflection of who you are inherently) and yet there are many that would argue that point - there are very intelligent individuals who have a great deal of success in the world all built around narrative dialogue and have the word usage of a sailor. What is not inherent in Gee's comments is the possibility that portfolios have many different possibilities depending upon what is necessary to the group that is looking for portfolios. In other words, what is necessary for a person to become a successful server at Hooters is very different than that of someone writing in Python or managing an SQL, but the potential for tips may make them equal in pay and perhaps usefulness to society. I think that maybe a portfolio's worth is in the eye of those seeking out portfolios...?
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