How many layers do we have? Are people really like onions?

“Intersectionality, the mutually constitutive relationship among social identities, is a central tenet of feminist thinking and has transformed how gender is conceptualized in research.”

Before describing how people are influenced by entertainment media, identity first needs to be described.  One key aspect to the study of identity is the intersectionality methodology studying “the relationships among multiple dimensions and modalities of social relationships and subject formations” (McCall, 2005).  Under this framework, the theory seeks to examine how socially and culturally constructed categories such as gender, race, class, disability, and other components of identity interact on multiple and often simultaneous levels which can contribute to systematic social inequality.   

I discovered that a website is dedicated to the further research on intersectionality which can be found at http://www.intersectionality.org/.  

If societies and cultures are able to construct various dimensions of identity then what power does entertainment media have on identity construction? People utilize entertainment media to help construct their identities.  For example, I was watching an episode of Chelsea Lately with guest star Wilmer Valderrama, who is of Columbian and Venezuelan descent.  Chelsea asked why he still had a thick accent even though he had lived in the United States since his adolescence.  Valderrama explained that when he moved back to the US he watched countless episodes of I Love Lucy and took his language cues from Desi Arnaz, thus never “losing” his accent.  Would Valderrama’s accent be less prominent if he had watched another show or did not speak his native language with family? 

In this example, television was able to help an individual learn English but inadvertently perpetuated gender and ethnic stereotypes.  Who knows what other latent learning was taking place if at all.         

             

Cited:   McCall, L. (2005). The complexity of intersectionality. Signs, 30,

1771–1800.

Shields, S. (2008). Gender: An intersectionality perspective.  Sex Roles. 59, 301-311.