Nowadays, the question of identity stirs tempestuous debates. The traditional paradigm with a white man in the center of the universe is slowly passing into oblivion. Still, many people defend this model sorting others in men and women, black and white. It is hard for them to think outside the box, but the truth is that all the boundaries rise from a brutal struggle for survival that our ancestors had to face. Fortunately, technical and social progress allows humanity to get rid of outdated rules of living.
Admittedly, it may be impolite to ask a person about their race or nationality. However, there are many people display rudeness towards those who differ from them. For instance, Thomas McIlwraith writes that he has problems with people identifying him differently: “I have either a “pasty white” or “somewhat olive” complexion” (Brown, McIlwraith, González, et al., 2020a). This is an example of how people try to pin a label on each and every person they meet.
Concerning labels, the fact is that people are taught to segregate they peers since birth. Girls and boys are given presents in different colours to mould the concept of having a certain gender role. Therefore, they “struggle with the idea that the division of humans into two and only two categories, “male” and “female is outdated” (Brown, McIlwraith, González, et al., 2020b). People seem to become the prisoners of the poisonous gender theory.
Admittedly, human beings have used race and gender patterns from time immemorial. The recent research claims that there is the so-called cultural performance connected with the concept of identity and stereotypes connected with it. Indeed, “a cultural performance is a performance whereas performing culture refers to how our everyday words and actions are reflections of our enculturation” (Brown, McIlwraith, González, et al., 2020c). The idea is that in the past people had to perform certain rituals to survive. In the modern world nobody needs these traditions.
To sum it up, humanity has created specific patterns of behaviour and segregation to make life easy back in times. However, there is no sense in sorting out friends and foes in the modern world, because people belonging to a different race are not enemies anymore. The same concerns genders because the planet is overpopulated. Therefore, there is no need to make people start a traditional family with mother and father to breed as many children as possible.
References
Brown, N., McIlwraith, T., & González, L. T. (2020). Perspectives: An open introduction to cultural anthropology. The American Anthropological Association.
