Not Who, but what am i?

When you look in the mirror every morning while you brush your teeth, or possibly shave for the 5 guys in this WMS201 course, you possibly ask yourself "WHO is this person I see?". Have you ever realized that this is the only face that you ask 'who' to instead of 'what'? Walking down the sidewalk to class, or sitting in your office cubicle, even entering class, people don't look at you and wonder who you are. They look at you to see what you are. Are you male, female, tall, fat, or skinny? Are you cute, ugly, black, white, or grey? These are the questions that flood peoples brains.

The readings that were assigned covered the realization of these "gawks", and they covered all their expectations and observations of what people seemed like as they stared. Some worried about their stereotypes, while others embraced them. In reality, we are not just one person, we are many. Lauren Martin nailed this idea when she said "Not "just" Lauren, but many Laurens, different versions of who I am, not competing with one another, but all of them calmly residing inside" (Martin, 5). The tie that linked all these writers together was their coping with these stereotypes. They did not fight it in the end, they embraced it. They realized that people will judge you for what you are, instead of who you are. They slowly came to realize after being judged many times, that they can simply embrace their own self-knowing and not fight others views.

Eli Clare's essay was very powerful in the fact that he stated that others "Think I'm(Eli) that pane of glass" (Clare, 225). Eli Clare looks for those he can relate to. He looks up to the circus acts and the drag queens for a search of his own identity. But not just a single name to relate to, like 'fag' or 'freak'.

We all would like to be identified uniquely, not just by our gender, skin color, height, weight, and everything that our eyes depict. We want to be identified by who we are and not what we are. Maybe one day all skin types will look the same. Maybe one day everyone will have a little white, black, hispanic, asian, jewish, catholic, muslim, etc., in all of us and physical stereotypes will diminish. Then maybe one day we will be viewed as WHO we are instead of WHAT.

I, myself, know that I judge based upon looks. I also know that many people judge me based on my looks. However, looks can be perceived in different ways through different eyes. This point was made very clear in Alsutany's piece, when she explained that to some she is Iraqi, while to others she is American.

We view others based off of how we view ourselves. To us, each of us are the control group to an experiment based entirely off of appearant observations. To people at Miami, I am a "red-neck" a "meat-head", or even a "frat-guy". But when I go home, I am a "prep", I am a "role-model", and I am an "athlete". No one has it right when they view me though. No one, expect me.

Below is a link to Brian Burke (father of Brendan Burke), speaking out against homopohobia. His son, who was killed in a car crash this past semester announced he was a homosexual not long ago and his father, who was the General Manager for the US hockey team and his players, back Brendan up with his decision. Brendan was also a member of my fraternity (Sigma Phi Epsilon) at Miami.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/keeping-his-sons-voice-alive-brian-burke-joins-fight-against-homophobia/article1572404/