The Beginners Guide to Identity.

Upon doing a oddly interesting lecture and seminar on adolescent identity, I decided that Identity would be a great blog idea.

So this is what I came up with:
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Identity, like so many other concepts (Intelligence, Personality) is rather vague. What makes up a persons identity?
There's the official definition, and my definition. I'll tell you mine, its far more interesting.

Identity is anything that you think about yourself: Whether you're a student, mother, Hindu, albino, goth, posh person, yearly income less than £5000. You name it, that's what its about.

But the main things are Politics, Religion, Social Status, Orientation, Gender, Occupation and Nationality. Anything in which you can group yourself in.

To give a bit more of a clue, I'll tell you I'm British, Young Adult, Organ Donor, Criminologist, Loves Books, Clothes and Marzipan, Agnostic, Female, Tattooed, Student, Light Drinker, Dislikes Cats and Cities. Lives in a City.
... But to tell you the truth that just sounds like something you'd find on a dating site.

So yes. Identity is pretty important. It makes you, well, you.
And during adolescence is when you branch out and try out what identity suits you best.

I tried goth, bright coloured, christian, atheist, geologist, teacher and experimented in what I thought about marriage, drinking, the meaning of life, stem cell research. Everything.

It's always good to have a clear idea of what kinds of things you have to offer, what you want to do with your life and what your own thoughts are on hot topics. It's just human nature I guess.

So yes. This was your short guide to identity. Hope you enjoyed reading about what you already basically knew. :)

The Evolution of Men.

Upon watching football at a pub swamped in testosterone (not my idea, my boyfriends, but I did have a lovely pudding there) I decided that men are a very interesting subject.

Especially those watching football.
It's really odd.
I would compare it to watching a woman who loves shopping go into a shoe shop. When there's an amazing pair of shoes, her whole face glows. And this, I swear, is exactly what happens with men who enjoy football.

There is one difference however, when women find a shoe that they completely adore, and buy it, they don't yell out and raise their fists in the air in triumph.
I'd like to think it's far more sophisticated. We do that kind of thing later when nobody is watching.
(In fact a friend did comment these exact words : 'you don't see a woman cheering at a shoe'. He's a guy who likes football.)
Also, If women don't get what they want, just like men, they complain about it to their other halves. That or are sulky. (You know who you are.)
The weird thing is, another person pointed out, that both clothes and football include seasons.
And colours. And on occasion balls too.

So yes.
I also noticed that when doing something a man (or a woman, sometimes) enjoys, we begin to revert back to the stone age. Leaping around gibbering nonsense and such.

So if that's what I thought going to the pub to watch football, I can't imagine the chaos at an actual game.

Stereotypes are always right?

Women are usually seen as notorious for moaning about things. And so who am I to stray from this stereotype? And talking of stereotypes, that is one of the things that can annoy the heck out of me.

I'm a female, 19 year old student studying Criminology, so of course I am a perfect example to start with.

Firstly, being a female comes with a whole batch of stereotypes. I am, in fact, despite common belief, a woman. I have all the usual bodily parts to prove this. (You know, the ones that are normally involved in womanhood.)
But I don't always talk about clothes, shoes, handbags, etcetera. (Although I must admit, it definately occupies some brain space, along with the breaking-a-nail reflex action). Nor do I watch shows such as Desperate Housewives and Sex and the City, because frankly, they're pretty soul destroying.

But I will freely admit that I do drool over hot male celebrities. Only in the form of the cute and gawky Justin Long and the also rather gawky (yet exceedingly handsome( James Marsden, rather than the supposedly 'gorgeous' Robert Pattinson. (Seriously? His face is flat, his American accent isn't that great and I'd much rather he kept his shirt on.)
- To redeem him though, he does have a lovely original English accent. (Yes, he is English.)

Secondly I'm a teenager. (I know, on the cusp of turning the dreaded two-oh, but still a teenager nonetheless). And teens don't half get bad press.
Because not all of us are knife-weilding, heroin-taking juvenile delinquents. And I am most certainly not. In fact, I'd rather be sat at home reading a good book than out torhing houses and generally being an idiot.
Some of us do like to help our communities and or/just generally do absolutely nothing wrong.

Students also have a bad stereotype. I can safely say that here the stereotype may fit. Vaguely. I like the odd party, and the odd drink, but never overdo it. I'm not one of the people that go out clubbing every night and get absolutely off their heads. Because to be honest, the people who do that just look ridiculous.
Most of all, our studies are actually important to those of us who want a good future. So we will turn up to every seminar and lecture, no matter how late we stayed up the night before.

Last but not least, Criminology.
Before you ask, not all of us want to be policemen/women. You can go into security, the prison service, law, the probabtion service, etcetera, or, yes, the police.
But I guess there is one thing that stands true to the Criminology stereotype: Our sense of humours. It isn't half odd.

One other stereotype that I have to mention would be blondes. Because they get bad press too. They're seen as dim-witted and vain. And, although some of them probably are, some are not like that. Take my lovely sister. Her A level scores were a grade higher than me on everything. And she is ridiculously knowledgeable. And Philisophical. Oddly.

So now that we have examined stereotypes, the next time you see a little old lady in the street, you should probably wonder whether she really does own lots of cats and knit.
You never know, she may own budgies and sew.