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In What Ways Do Images Construct Identities? Discuss Using Specific Examples.

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NAME: SEBASTIAN T

ESSAY QUESTION 3

In what ways do images construct identities? Discuss using specific examples.

In what ways do images construct identities? Discuss using specific examples.
Stuart Hall defines identity as an ‘already accomplished fact, which the new cultural practices then represent’. We should think instead of ‘identity as a ‘production’ which is never complete, always in process, and always constituted within, not outside, representation’ (Hall 1994 p.392). An individual’s sense of belonging to a particular group, thinking, feelings and behaviour can also be referred to as identity. One’s cultural image can construct identity; such features as hair, skin tone and height. History shapes our identity. …show more content…

Some people find their identity by reading a book, using myself as an example I did not know much about my country of birth until my father told me stories about Ghana and through my own reading and research I found out my identity and l had a better understanding about the culture.

According to Kellner, 1990 Identity can be forged out of products of media culture . While individuals or groups can be identified by certain clear cut features, they can also be given their identity by certain symbols. The use of racial stereotypes can help to identify an image or give the underlying message that an object conveys, in Barthes terms, what is its ‘’myth’’. (Hall 1997 p.228)

Figure 1: Matthew Mcconaughey perfume commercial for Dolce & Gabbana, one gentleman
The commercial shown in figure 1 is for a perfume called ‘the one gentleman’ which Matthew Mcconaughey a well-known actor did for Dolce & Gabbana, a trade mark for designer products. The commercial tells us that this is a body spray to use when one wants to be seen as a gentleman. In reality a gentleman is not a man who just uses this body spray, but a man is seen as a gentleman by certain attributes society sees as being acceptable. Commercials like these can really have an impact because the viewer wants to look like the person with the body spray, and themselves be perceived as a gentleman. The unspoken

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