Reading an image

This is the British actress Tilda Swinton, she is in Russia supporting gay rights, many celebrities have done this recently, especially due to the upcoming Olympics.  This is because it seems to be very few countries still that discriminate against the gay community, whereas many countries have came to accept it, and have hate crime laws to stop any further discrimination that may arise. This act by Tilda was named "Gay propoganda" by the president of Russia. 


This text is a picture of a woman holding the gay flag in Russia with police following closely behind.
This is so significant as in Russia it is against the law to publicly display same sex relationships.
This is part of their culture, it is not widely accepted to be gay, and there are rules to when and if you can show your affection to the same sex. In this relationship the police and higher authority hold the power, but this woman is not only representing the gay community in Russia, she is supporting all gay rights across the globe.

Being gay is part of your identity, it makes you who you are, it can influence the way you express yourself among other things. By this woman holding the gay flag it communicates to us the pride she holds to be gay or the support that she wants to share with others. It is so significant as it shows a clear set of codes- you aren't supposed to show support especially in front of the palace and the police.

Task 1- question 2 exam paper

Self concept can be defined as the idea we have of ourselves as individuals. Explore one of the following statements about self-concept, using examples from your studies and experiences.

• Our self concept relies heavily on the feedback we receive from others.

Feedback can often affect someone's way of thinking about their-self, it can boost self esteem, or knock it. If someone speaks badly of you, you would assume it could have an affect on the way you think about yourself and your confidence- especially if you already thought bad of yourself and someone confirmed it. Rogers spoke about our ideal-self (the person we would like to be) and our self-image (how we see ourselves) if someone confirms our self image is far from our ideal self it may mean our gap between self image and ideal self is very big, making our self esteem very low. For example if you would like to think that you are smart, and you get a result back which in reality is not so good, it confirms the reality, therefore lowering that persons self esteem.

If my friends give me good feedback and confirm my self concept or give me complements, it boosts my self esteem, and allows me to higher my expectations and feel better about myself, but if they dismiss me or give me negative feedback my self esteem would lower, I would feel less confident in myself and overall not feel myself. Because of this I would usually keep quiet and let people not see my 'Hidden self' and try to downplay my 'Open self' (Johari Window) because generally I have a very loud, bubbly personality and it does not always work in my favour. This would also happen if someone was to say a face threatening act to me (Ervin Goffman). Ervin Goffman speaks about how we have 2 faces, a positive and negative face and when people are intentionally trying to offend they may say something more bluntly- 'I don't like you'. This will knock your self esteem and may then change your self concept.

Jewelry- My watch

My watch is a Michael Kors, silver and gold watch.

To me my watch represents me working hard, I had to work to get the money to pay for it, and it was the first expensive thing I brought myself out of my wages.


Representation: My watch represents money and work.



Piercings
I get a new piercing every year or so whenever i'm on holiday, it's almost like a tradition and my culture. Holiday's are when you are care free and I suppose a piercing to me shows fun and happiness. Also my mum doesn't like them, so it seems like I do it to spit her or rebel against her because of how much she hates me having them, and when she gives in and says I can have another one- I find it funny. It is part of my identity, because it modifies my body, it allows me to communicate messages about myself non verbally, and it sends messages about my personality.

My response

"Perhaps I'm getting too old to understand but it seems to me that most young people today go out of their way to look ridiculous. Perhaps they just don't like themselves. How else can you explain the tattoos and body piercings? Why else would they dress in the style of convicts, hardened criminals or extras from a horror film? As for music, the most popular types seem to celebrate negative or anti-social behaviour: violence, drug abuse, suicide, selfharm and anti-materialism. Is it all the fault of the older generation for bringing up youths who just reject society's values"


This person is clearly cannot except subcultures, and changes in society. I can assume the writer fully supports the society's ideology mainly held by the older generation.

Just because you are a youth and have tattoos does not mean that you will then display anti-social behaviour, and support violence and drugs. I have a few piercings but I don't take drugs, i'm not anti social, nor do I self harm, or condon suicide. Nor do I display violent behaviour.