When someone is posed with the question ‘how do you define yourself?’ it seems fairly simple at first glance but once time is given to think about it most people are not aware of how to answer it. The question relates to a person’s identity and how they would define it in terms of their race, culture, class, religion and national identity. There is, however, a certain depth to this form of identification which most people do not think about as people are structured according to the society which they live in. This means that they live according to a certain routine on a daily basis which they define as their identification. The concept of identification can be classified further for each individual if time is given to the individual to think about who they are as a person.
In a country like South Africa, identity is a complex issue because of the historical evidence of colonialism and the oppressed governmental system of apartheid during the twentieth century. The apartheid government defined individuals according to their skin tone and not according to culture, religion, class or national identity. People were defined as either black, white, coloured or Indian. This did not give much leeway for the expansion of different cultures within these racial contexts. For example, black South Africans can be further divided into cultural groups through language, i.e. Xhosa, Zulu, Pedi etc. The same can be said about religion as in the coloured racial group, as an example, there are Christians as well as Muslims. National identity can be extended further than just South African as there are individuals who have a historical heritage of being of Irish, Scottish or Malay descent. These concepts began being dealt with when South Africa became a democracy in 1994, allowing research to be done into an individual’s identity as a person.
Today, the concept of identity is of extensive research based upon an individual’s historical heritage as well as their personal preferences. The idea of personal preferences interlinks with the establishment of sub-culture. Sub-cultures have existed for years but have just not been named, particularly within South African borders. They relate to an individual’s interest in a particular lifestyle such as a Gothic or Hip-Hop lifestyle. Most sub-cultures draw influence from forms of media that allow an individual to express their individuality within their society. The concept of sub-cultures, however, has become a dominating factor in most societies, as well as communities, because of its popularity status amongst the youth of South Africa and other countries around the world. The media portray that it is ‘cool’ to be different from other individuals and therefore, present, what they term, ‘alternative’ lifestyles. The question to ask is: how ‘alternative’ are these lifestyles if they are being followed by a certain amount of individuals around the world?
Sub-cultures relate to non-conformity. They design their own set of rules despite the fact that most of them claim that they are against the rules and regulations of the societies in which they exist. This means that there is still a certain structure that comes along with a sub-culture as well. Individuals who enter into sub-cultures usually fall into the basic standards of the sub-culture. For example, an individual who decides to be Goth will wear black clothing and listen to a certain genre of music in order to be validated by the Gothic sub-culture. Sub-cultures view these basic standards as stereotypes of the sub-culture as these standards become a ‘norm’ for individuals who are part of the sub-culture. In the same context, however, an individual who has differing views in a sub-culture is seen as an outcast of that sub-culture as they do not conform to the non-conformity of the sub-culture. This results in the individual being a non-conformist of the sub-culture’s non-conformity coming to the conclusion that even within sub-cultures there is no concept of individuality for an individual as they do not identify completely with the views and expressions of the sub-culture of which they form part of. This leads onto the next question: Is there a true reflection of an individual’s self-identification within society?
In order to understand this, I have researched a particular racial group in South Africa in order to understand the meaning of identity through the use of a sub-culture and the influence of the media on this particular racial group. I conducted interviews with individuals who, by societal standards and historical approaches, would fall under the classification of this particular racial group. I have used the works and research of other authors who have dealt with the particular racial group, the sub-culture and media in order to come to, what I hope will be, concluding statements about an individual’s identity within society.
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