Hybridity Of Identity Essay

What makes someone who they are? Is a person defined by their appearance, their characteristics, or maybe even their beliefs? These are questions that society has been asking for years, and—due to the complexity of the answer—various interpretations have been made. Many factors are involved with identity such as social and cultural notions of gender, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Although determining ones self-identity can be rather difficult, there are artists that focus on expressing identity that allow for a more simple understanding of it. Nancy Burson and Catherine Opie are two exceptional examples of artists that project a sense of identity through manners of fluidity, “otherness,” and hybridity. In the LGBT community, there are people who refer to themself as “gender fluid.” This means their concept of self-identity varies between the spectrum of male and female every day, since they “don't identify as any gender” (Gray). Fluidity of identity is very similar to this, in that nobody maintains a …show more content…
By combining people of disparate ethnicities through innovative technology, she is able to construct morphed images that mimic the integration of different cultures, ideas, and backgrounds throughout the world. One example of this is her piece Mankind (Oriental, Caucasian, and Black, weighed according to the current population statistics). This particular print has many associated meanings, but along with creating a sense of “Otherness,” it shows a combination of different groups and communities. The viewer is able to pick out distinct features they would be able to see in different types of people, yet the photo looks extremely plausible and natural. Overall, this represents how diverse the world is and how human we all are. Though we may come from different places, we share many of the same thoughts, and there is no “absolute difference between self and others” (Robertson, McDaniel