Communication Term Paper

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CN 101 W3 D1

Communication, Identity, and Perception II Intro (2 minutes) Last Time

• Communication, Identity, and Perception • Alice in Wonderland Activity à Identities are shaped through different moods,

situations, relationships, evaluations, and cultures. • Also learned that we perform identities, the we don’t really have a core self, and that

the identities we give to other people are largely based in perception.

Things Due § For Friday

o Discussion post is due Today

§ Communication, Identity, and Perception o How we Transact Identities!

Dinosaur Movie! (8 minutes)

§ Our book about our adventures escaping the dinosaurs just got picked up by a big motion picture company!

§ So, in your small groups, take three minutes and share what actor you would hand- select to play you in that movie.

Lesson Setting the Stage (5 minutes)

§ In our reading for today, we learned about identities being transacted. What does that mean?

§ Remember that we talked about communication as a transaction, as a two-way street? Can anyone remind me why we describe communication as being a transaction?

o We have simultaneous communication happening at once through nonverbals and gestures, through our words, through little fillers we add in response to what others are saying. We don’t take turns really.

§ We also consider identities to be transacted, just like communication. And when we say transacted, we mean that something is being created, maintained, reinforced, or transformed through communication with other people.

§ Here’s why we say that identities are also transacted. § Our identities are shaped by how we communicate – We shape other’s perceptions of

who we are based on how we interact with them. But our identities are also shaped by other’s communication. When people praise us for certain communicative behaviors

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growing up, we continue to perform those behaviors when we’re older. When we’re maybe challenged for behaving that way, like being told that eye contact is actually rude in the new culture you’re living in, you’ll adapt your communication accordingly. So, our communication and the communication of others shapes who we are. A lot of times, that communication is all occurring at once. Thus, we say that identities are also transacted. Identities are created, maintained, reinforced, or transformed through communication with other people.

§ And that transaction occurs through our performances, through our self-disclosure of personal information, storytelling, and through the ways that others treat you.

(10 minutes) § Now, we saw a great example of other people transacting an identity in the video

“Leading Lady Parts,” which you watched before coming to class. But instead of small group discussion, let’s go over these questions as a class.

o How are the casting directors defining the leading lady? § Smiley, sexy-crying, lots of make-up, thin and curvy, sexy and innocent,

feminine, delicate, “thin-sexy-hooker-virgin-with-boobs-and-hips-but- not-big-ones,” young, White (racist af)

§ Apparently, that’s Tom Hiddleston o What do they say to the women auditioning for the part?

§ Very critical of their performance of the character. § Racist, sexist § This is a good example of satire, humor that packs a really biting punch to

make a serious point. o What underlying message might those messages send to the women auditioning

for the part? (In other words, how might those messages affect them?) § We know that how we’re treated by others impacts how we view

ourselves. § So, these aren’t just words. They are contributing to how these actors

view themselves. And if they continue on for a long time, they can become ingrained in the actors’ identities. One actress might start thinking she needs to wear a lot of makeup to get leading lady parts. Another may think she needs plastic surgery. Another may think she’ll never get the part because she’s Black or Asian.

o What is one example of altercasting that you see in this video? (See page 34 of your textbook for more info on altercasting.)

§ The entire conversation between the casting agents and the actors is an example of altercasting.

§ But a specific example would be the agents not allowing Wunmi Mosaku to read for the part because she’s Black, implying that leading ladies can only be White. She’s presenting herself as a strong candidate for the role, while the casting agents are rejecting her presented identity, which is both altercasting and racist. Over time, that treatment could make

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Mosaku start to believe that she can’t be a leading lady, even though she has won awards for her acting.

Eugene Lee Yang’s “I’m Gay” Video (25 minutes)

§ Just as “Leading Lady Parts” gave us a great example of others transacting our identities, the “I’m Gay” reflects others’ contributions to our identities. It also illustrates how we individually craft our identities.

§ So, let’s break this video down with the questions we answered on D2L. § How is Eugene self-describing himself early on in this video through this visual

narrative? Midway through the video? At the end of the video? o So, we communicate and behave in ways culturally associated with those

roles. We can see early that Eugene is attempting to behave the way that his family expects him to behave. He is smiling, having a drink, mimicking what his father is doing, sitting in church, and starting a relationship with a woman.

§ How does Eugene start self-disclosing his identity? o We see early that while he has moments of mimicking the cisgender,

heterosexual men in his life, he also has moments where we see him beginning to explore his identity as a gay man. That experience differs for every person, but for Eugene, that includes dancing with his mother and sisters, being interested in their makeup, and dancing in the church. We really see him start to explicitly express his identity when he started dancing with the masculine dancer and then went to what was representative of the Pulse nightclub as a drag queen. At that point, he is openly disclosing his sexuality.

o At that point is when we start seeing others engaging in altercasting, either by embracing him or rejecting and attacking him through their nonverbal communication (both in terms of gestures and physical violence).

§ What boundaries does Eugene establish? Where did you see moments of turbulence?

o According to Petronio’s Communication Privacy Management theory, we maintain privacy by negotiating boundaries of privacy with others.

o Boundaries are there to protect personal information and control who has access to that knowledge and who doesn’t.

o These boundaries can experience turbulence, which refers to the reshaping and revision of boundaries.

§ That can occur when boundaries come under attack, like when someone asks you a personal question and you make it clear that you aren’t sharing that info.

§ It can also occur when a person wants to have privacy about a specific topic. For instance, Eugene is totally comfortable expressing himself around his friends in the LGBTQ+ community,

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but he might not disclose his identity when interacting with strangers or with family members.

o Eugene established boundaries through much of the early parts of the video, which is evident in how he eventually abided by the expectations (sit in church quietly).

o We see moments of turbulence throughout. When he’s holding the lipstick, dancing in the church, sitting in the pew looking uncomfortable, and most strongly when he’s at the other end of a loaded gun.

o At the end of the video, we see him drastically reshaping his boundaries when he stands in a gown in the midst of a protesting crowd, staring at the camera. Then, he comes and sits in a living room. In that moment, he’s taking down that boundary to the public and allowing everyone to know his identity. That’s a huge moment of turbulence.

§ Where do you see people reacting to Eugene's self-disclosure in those three different ways that our textbook discusses? (See page 30.)

o We see Eugene’s girlfriend and friends at the night club being honored that he shared that information with him.

o We see half of Eugene’s family being accepting of his identity by trying to help him. It’s hard to tell if it has really changed the relationship between Eugene and these family members though.

o We see half of Eugene’s family not appreciating being informed of his identity, as well as random strangers attacking him and yelling at him.

§ In short, Eugene’s coming out video illustrates how other’s communication affects him and his identity, but also how his own communication shapes it. Even though everyone is yelling at the end of the video and we can tell it’s affecting Eugene emotionally, we can also see a strong resilience and determination to stand tall and proud and not apologize. So, we see the individual aspect of identity building and boundary turbulence in this video.

So, to recap: Identities are transacted (i.e., they are created, reinforced, and changed) when others communicate about and to us, and when we communication to them. One way we maintain our identities is through the creation of boundaries, which help us control who knows what about us. And if one of our boundaries is challenged, we experience turbulence and can either resist opening that boundary or we can open the boundary and adjust it so that more people can access that information.