As human beings
The world is a stage and we all play different roles”. Hov¦ver how do we become social? Parents are the primary socialisers which later changes to teachers, friends and co- workers. Becoming social Is an experience where an Individual constructs their personal biography by collecting daily interactional rules and coming to terms with the wider patterns of their culture. To become social means to have grasped your social Identity where you understand who you are and an understanding of who other eople are.
Striving to find your place within society through your presentation of self where the individual has made an effort to create a specific impression in the minds of others. Self emerges from social experience and communication with others and makes us human. In cases where children have been abused and neglected their social identity was not formed. Leaving a child isolated from human interaction would leave them mentally and socially damaged, with no use of language or capability to adapt. Therefore showing that socialisation is an important aspect in society and to humans.
This would also challenge the child’s interaction order. Making them unaware of their role In the presence of others. Humans rely on social experience to learn the nuances of their culture in order to survive. Socialisation results in a personal biography. This is built through interaction with others throughout our lives. As our biography develops we participate In a culture while still remaining as distinct individuals. We are all performers In some shape or form. We all play a role. the setting changes, the audience continues to grow. Through life we will all adapt or change roles as we evelop into adults.
We start off as children, daughter or son then role evolves to adult where we are become responsible for our own actions and minds. We move on to play more roles as girlfriend/boyfriend, friend, sister, co-worker, student, wife/ husband, mother/father. As we evolve so does the world around us with the Introduction of technology which has played an immense role Into moulding us as a society and individuals. We are bombarded with new information everyday through television and internet. We are all victims of the hypodermic syringe theory. The edia injects us with all these ideologies and Information and as a helpless mass we digest it.
As we consume it all our minds become warped with what we think society wants from us. Therefore our personas/ fronts are created what we want to portray to society of our peers. 1 . Facebook is an essential thing to have in the todays society. Why? Because it’s what society and our peers tell us. It goes past being Just a means of communication. From an outsider just looking at your page they have already built an impression of the persona you have created. We all create a persona on Facebook how we want our eers to see us, we hide behind our cyberface.
Even choosing a profile picture your thought are What will people think? ‘Hope I get a few likes’. Immediately desperate for approval from society. It’s all a performance. We include photographs of social, well liked, popular and socially accepted. It’s a constant battle, with men their performance is battle of the fittest. Who can be the biggest, who can lift the most and wear the best clothes. All these images plastered on their Facebook aimed at their audience. They have been influenced by the impact of the media by celebrities such s Tom Hardy or The Rock.
Which links with the role of the man in society; to be strong and to be strong you must be big. As a child theyre told “you have to drink your milk and you want to grow big and strong”. Those words are instilled in the brain of that child and as they grow they aim to become Just that; big and strong. Girls also perform to their audience through Facebook but differently. Some girls upload photographs of themselves with barely any clothing, others rely on ‘selfies’. They use their bodies as sexual objects to portray their desirability to the opposite sex.
They are performing by being provocative Although also influenced by the media and celebrities. Marilyn Monroe is a huge icon that women still strive to be. The media has classed her as a timeless beauty. She was a performer, she left a legacy and it still lives on. Red lipsticks and red nails a classic, loved by many. The pout, the blonde hair, the red lips, the sex appeal all girls thrive to be a Marilyn Monroe and preseved as beautiful by their peers. She was known for being an infamous size 16 and gave a true meaning to the word ‘curves’. Then there are the girls who wouldn’t gree and see thin’ as beautiful.
Looking up to icons such as Victoria Beckham or Kate Moss who quoted ” Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”. Through the pressures of social media and technology comes anorexia. “People with anorexia tend to have a high level of cortisol, the brain hormone most related to stress and decreased levels of serotonin and norepinephine, which are associated with feelings of well- being”. (MelindaSmith, M. A. and Jeanne Segal, http:// www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov/pmc/articles/PMC2533817/,July 2013). Anorexics think to deserve their role in society they must be thin. Anorexics are often perfectionists and overachievers.
They are the ‘good’ daughters or sons who never disobey and excel in everything they do. This is their front. This is the role they play in their families and in society. They use props such as good grades, big smiles and manipulate their audience into believing their performance. They are taken in by their own performance convinced that their impression of reality is accepted as real reality. Behind their front they feel a bundle of emotions such as helplessness, inadequatecy and worthless. They seek perfection and if they do not each it they deem themselves as failures.
Through the help of technology anorexics have been able to master and structure their performances with online sites and chat rooms. An anorexic plays two roles: the perfect daughter. This role is performed to the parents, friends and family as the audience. They play a fascade and lull their audience into a sense of false security. When the performer does not believe in his own act, he/she is a ‘cynic’. A cynical individual may delude their audience for what they see as their own good or good of community. thin/skinny was applauded in society.
Models were always tall and skinny but times have changed and skinny is now deemed as unhealthy. It is a taboo subject which evokes many senses and images. An anorexic starts their role as being sincere as they learn to monopolise their audience and surroundings. They perform to their audience by putting up their front, they delude their parents that they are alright and are Just watching their figure. They are subjected to images from the media. Their appearance starts to change, their manner might start to become aggressive or defensive. The setting is their bedroom, where they feel safest and can witness and ecord their progress.
The performer feels a slight satisfaction, they are aiming towards perfection but hide away from society. The fear of Judgement and rejection. Gradually the sincerity turns to cynicism. Their audience does not allow them to be sincere, they must delude their audience into believing their reality. Parents as the primary socialisers can also contribute to anorexia through social pressures. By enrolling a child into a sport that demands slenderness like ballet or modelling or controlling parents that emphasis on looks, diets and themselves or riticize their children’s bodies and appearance they are warping their minds.
I chose anorexia because as a subculture it has many interesting aspects and can be looked at from many different angles. As performers they are secretive and manipulative and function with the mind of addicts. Their audience witness the appearance deteoriating and the anorexic becomes a cynic as they feel they lose their audience. They must convince audience into believing their reality. Unknown to us all we all are performers, the world is our stage and our audience continues to grow and change.