What experts say II

David Gauntlett is an important figure amongst media theorists, known for his Identity Theory. He studied how media affected one’s identity in relation to gender, femininity, masculinity, sexuality etc, arguing that all of them are in continuous process of transformation (vom Orde, 2016).

Q&A with Professor David Gauntlett | Bayes Business School

Suggesting that one’s identity is built through observation of role models that one is exposed to, he argued that media provide growing population with a variety of such models, which might encourage people to behave or look similarly to them. Gauntlett used the example of Lara Croft to explain how the film character might have an influence over the young generation, communicating to girls to become stronger and more independent through Lara Croft’s confident and cool portrayal (vom Orde, 2016).

This might be a useful theory to explain such phenomenon as the increasing number of clean-eating bloggers who liked the idea of being healthy and beautiful and started creating similar content, while getting eating disorders. Some examples of these can be owners of best-selling clean-eating books, who realised the extent of the harm with time.

References

Vom Orde, H. (2016). Perspectives on identity: An overview of identity concepts from psychoanalysis, sociology, and psychology. Televizion. https://www.br-online.de/jugend/izi/english/publication/televizion/29_2016_E/vom_Orde-Perspectives_on_identity.pdf

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