film review: osama

film review: osama
part 1

Inspired by an afghan movie, osama, i discovered the importance of an everyday issue that we do not pay attention-identity. identity is formed in subtle ways, but with traces. In the following, I will analyze the formulation and factors of identity and give examples to issustrate the concepts.


According to Gloria Anzaldua, "identity is not a bunch of little cubbyholes stuffed respectively with intellect, race, sex class, vocation, gender. Identity flows between, over , aspects of a person. Identity is a river- a process." simply saying, gender, sex, races, memory and appearance are means to find our identity. But identity, itself is an ever-changing position and perception of a person formed by self and others. Generally, we cna divide four factors of identity, including biological characters, social acceptance, cultural influence and self-perception.

Biological characters is the very basic identity of a person. This includes the inborn sex and races. we are born with identity. since our birth, identity is given from our parents and our biological sex. we are our mother and father's son. We are male or female. Male and female is said to be a "foundation stone of a self-identity". But as we grow up, identity is no longer given from only the inborn characters and features. Rather, more factors are included and a unique identity is then formed continuously.

In the movie "osama", the Afgan girl needs to cross-dress as a boy for a living a living. In the school, the boys make her climb the tree so as to prove herself as a boy. Identity, here, is proved by behavior(we also can say by performance). One of the factors to determine one's identity is by the society. this can be affected by the social class, existing categories and social interaction. What you do and how people perceive can form an identity. this part of identity is from other people. The social factor of identity emphasizes the social identity, rather than self identity.

Due to different degree of oppenness of different countries, different number of accepting identities is formed. for example, in an open country like America, people can accept more than several categories of people like heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, transsexual, queer and etc. Howerer, in traditional countries like afghan and pakistan, number of accepting categories is limited. People only accept a few or even one kind of people of heterosexual. the social pressure can extract the non-normative categories like homosexual out of the community. This means that as if you perceive yourself as a homosexual, but as the people in your community do not accept the existence of homosexual, your social identity will not be formed with your self identity. In this kind of community, social identity will not be formed with your self identity. In this kind of community, social identity is limited according to the degree of acceptance and approval by the society.(the relation of social identity and self identity)

In addition, another formulation factor of identity is the cultural influence. Cultural influence seems similar to social acceptance(not similar, but related very closely). However, if social acceptance is by the people, cultural influence is by the tradition and religion. The cultural factor includes the country tradition, religion and etiquette. this factor affects both the self identity and social identity. the religion will influence the free-will of the people and gradually prohibit the formulation of identity that is not allowed in the religion code. The person himself/herself changes its self identity due to the influence of the tradition and religion, while other people having same religion and tradition change the social identity on this person.

For example, a Muslim girl living in america is a homosexual in nature. identity of homosexual is acceptable by the society. However, as a Muslim, she is educated that homosexual thinking and behavior do not please the God. she will formulate her self identity as a heterosexual girl. This is, then, not the social factor of identity, but the cultural factor, In her community of Muslims, they will also have a social identity on her as well.

part 1