Ascribed Identities

Listed are a few of the ascribed identities I feel have been “assigned” to me by various sources; I’m sure there are more but these are the ones I can think of for now. For the most part I don’t feel any real negativity about my ascribed identities with the exception of being considered “disadvantaged” as a child or having my own children labeled as disadvantaged because of single mother status or divorce.

Disadvantaged is an identity, or as I prefer, a label given to me by society based on my ethnicity, the socioeconomic status of my family, and the issues related to my parent in regards to alcohol. To me disadvantage implies defective, disabled, or otherwise impaired and I have never thought of myself in any of these ways. Challenged maybe but defective no.

Child of an alcoholic was and still is a label given to me by society, social and school systems once they are aware that I have an alcoholic for a parent.

Student is both an avowed and ascribed identity. As a child, student was an ascribed identity up to adulthood, but once adulthood is reached I feel that student is more of an avowed identity. I choose to be a student as an adult, whereas as a child I have no choice in the matter.

Daughter and sister are ascribed identities that occur by nature of my parents giving birth to me and the other children they had. They didn’t select my sex of course, but they did make the choice to have children.

Mother and wife are identities, again, that I feel are both avowed and ascribed identities. My choice to have children and the feelings I have towards my children are what make this identity mine, although society labels me as such as well. You can be a Mother by society’s standard but not feel motherly. You may not care for, neglect or abuse, or choose to give up your children and society would still see you as a Mother.

Sergeant and Airman were titles assigned to me while I was in the military. Anytime I wore the uniform I was these identities. I wasn’t anything else to people looking at me; not any of the other ascribed identities I listed above. When you have an outwardly appearance that is drastically different people are more apt to see only that part of you, it’s similar to the way people view ethnicity, disabilities, etc.

Which leads me to the other ascribed identities related specifically to my ethnicity, that of being Mexican-American. I have never felt ashamed of either of these identities, I’m proud to be ethnically different. I enjoy my Mexican, German, and Irish ethnicity in general! Because of my skin color my Mexican ethnicity is often called into attention far more than my German or Irish and so this identity is more prevalent.

Unfortunately, similar to disadvantaged, divorced and single-parent carry a certain amount of stigma with them; yes even in this day and age. Often divorced and single-parent families will be lumped into the disadvantage category due to the socioeconomic drop that often happens, especially for women, when divorce occurs and when children are involved. I don’t know that it’s really negative or not, it is just what it is.

I think the line gets blurred between what is avowed and what is ascribed, kind of like which came first the chicken or the egg. Some of your avowed identities probably are or may be a result of what was ascribed to you. We all like to think we are who we are because we want to be that way, but environmental influence is strong. How do you feel about any of your avowed identities that developed from an ascribed identity?