The Meaning of the Mask
This was taken the night of the exhibition.
Everybody has a secret identity, something nobody sees. To cover their secret identity they come
up with other identities they let people see. The idea of multiple identities has been around as long as there have been civilizations; each person would hide the parts of their identity that they didn’t want anybody to see. Their cover
identities might have been used as to not hurt somebody or so that their reputation could be kept. Some people purposely have hidden identities while others have no idea that they have hidden identities, once we realize that we
have multiple identities we can acknowledge them to change how people view us. The reason we have multiple identities is because we feel the need to be accepted into our society. If we have a personality that does not fit with the society we try to hide it and create a new identity to mask it. One’s identity can be seen everywhere you go with everybody you meet; they can change who we are and how we act. We can decide if we want to keep acting how they want us to be or we can change so we act how we want to act. Through this change we find our true selves: the person that we want to be not the one society wants us to
be.
The movies we see are filled with hidden identities. In the movie Mean Girls, Katy has different identities for each person she hangs out with.
With the “Plastics” Katy acts like she doesn’t care about what other people think of her. When she hangs out with her other friends she acts like she normally would; shy and insecure. Eventually though all these different identities brings chaos to her life, causing everybody to hate her. During the time that everybody hates her she realizes what has happened and tries to make amends which leads her to finding
her true identity and she lets everybody see and know her as that person. The reason she had so many identities was because the society she lived in had different ideas of how she should act when she hung out with different types of people. People want to tell us how to act, talk, and dress. To please them so that they will accept us we will dress, act, and talk how they want us to. I have experienced the need to fit in with the society. When I first started middle school, I wanted to be accepted so I tried to hang out with people who
were somewhat popular. They wanted me to act how they did and talk like they did. By 7th grade I realized that I didn’t want to be like them. I
started to hang out with people more like me and I felt as if they honestly accepted me. While there are multiple identities in the movies, they are also in the real world.
Every individual has their own life and in that life they have their own identities. In my own life I have seen the different identities each
of my friends had; I watched them and saw that how they acted with me was different than how they acted with their other friends.
I saw the transformations with my closest friend in middle school. When she was around me she would act like herself and she would tell me things nobody else knew about her. When she was around other people, she would withdraw from the real world and become
quiet, not really speaking to anybody. The same thing happened to me; I noticed that when I was around my close friends I acted like myself; the joyful, happy, crazy person I truly am. However when I was around other people I would act totally different; I would be quiet and act shy around people I didn’t really know or like. We will act however we want when we are around our true friends, and hide behind a mask for the rest of the world.
Ever noticed that guys act differently when they are around their closest friends than when they are around people they know but don’t
really talk to? A group of people noticed that exact thing happening. Guys would act differently when they were
around other guys than when they hung out with their close friends. In the video Tough Guise, they talked about how guys need to act tough and strong, how they can’t show weakness because that was how they were socialized to be. One girl in the video commented on how when she
would hang out with the guys they felt as if they could be themselves, they cried and complained to each other but when there were other guys around, they would put on an act and play tough, they would pretend that the world revolved around them. This video showed how guys have to cover up who they really are with a false identity that they tend to keep with them their whole lives.
“The Looking-glass Self” is how you see yourself and how you act because that is the way other people see you. In the article “The Complexity of
Identity” Beverly Tatum states, “Other people are the mirror in which we see ourselves.” You act a certain way
because you are seen a certain way. If your friends see you as tough then you don’t let them see you when you are weak. With each new way you are seen it changes who you really are. Every day you change because of your looking-glass
self. You act differently because each new person sees you differently thus changing who you really are. Your looking-glass self is different than the person on your right and the person on your left. This is because nobody hangs out with exactly the same people or has the exact same kind of family. My “looking glass self” is shown through my masks.
I have three masks because my identity has three main layers. The mask on the left is the layer nobody sees, it is dark gray because it is filled with my deepest fears and worries. The mask is rough, not smooth and perfect shows that everybody has flaws on the inside, that we all have our own troubles. The skull shows the death and despair that is always on my mind even if I don’t talk about it. The lips are stitched shut because this is the layer that I never want to talk about and the one I keep want to keep a secret. The middle mask is the layer only my friends and family see. It is all different colors because only my friends and family see my true colors. There are warm colors and cool colors because my friends and family see the energetic and gloomy qualities of me. The shapes are not the same because no part of my life is exactly the same. The black in between each color shows that even though all these parts are within me they are not acted upon at the same time. The mask on the right is the layer that strangers see first. They only see the mask I put on to cover the true me. They only see a face of a teenage girl; they expect the stereotype of a teenage girl; they assume that I worry about boys, hair, and make-up. So I put on the mask of that girl, even though that is not the real me.
Through this project the way I view my world has changed. My perception of the world has changed for me. I no longer just see people as
random strangers on the street. I now see them as an individual who has their own problems that they don’t let anybody see. I now see how much stereotypes can affect people. Because of stereotypes a person who sees themselves in that category will act the way people expect them to and end up in a worse position than they started with. I learned that I need to just let people be who they want to be and never try to change them. Behind every mask is a person and a story.
up with other identities they let people see. The idea of multiple identities has been around as long as there have been civilizations; each person would hide the parts of their identity that they didn’t want anybody to see. Their cover
identities might have been used as to not hurt somebody or so that their reputation could be kept. Some people purposely have hidden identities while others have no idea that they have hidden identities, once we realize that we
have multiple identities we can acknowledge them to change how people view us. The reason we have multiple identities is because we feel the need to be accepted into our society. If we have a personality that does not fit with the society we try to hide it and create a new identity to mask it. One’s identity can be seen everywhere you go with everybody you meet; they can change who we are and how we act. We can decide if we want to keep acting how they want us to be or we can change so we act how we want to act. Through this change we find our true selves: the person that we want to be not the one society wants us to
be.
The movies we see are filled with hidden identities. In the movie Mean Girls, Katy has different identities for each person she hangs out with.
With the “Plastics” Katy acts like she doesn’t care about what other people think of her. When she hangs out with her other friends she acts like she normally would; shy and insecure. Eventually though all these different identities brings chaos to her life, causing everybody to hate her. During the time that everybody hates her she realizes what has happened and tries to make amends which leads her to finding
her true identity and she lets everybody see and know her as that person. The reason she had so many identities was because the society she lived in had different ideas of how she should act when she hung out with different types of people. People want to tell us how to act, talk, and dress. To please them so that they will accept us we will dress, act, and talk how they want us to. I have experienced the need to fit in with the society. When I first started middle school, I wanted to be accepted so I tried to hang out with people who
were somewhat popular. They wanted me to act how they did and talk like they did. By 7th grade I realized that I didn’t want to be like them. I
started to hang out with people more like me and I felt as if they honestly accepted me. While there are multiple identities in the movies, they are also in the real world.
Every individual has their own life and in that life they have their own identities. In my own life I have seen the different identities each
of my friends had; I watched them and saw that how they acted with me was different than how they acted with their other friends.
I saw the transformations with my closest friend in middle school. When she was around me she would act like herself and she would tell me things nobody else knew about her. When she was around other people, she would withdraw from the real world and become
quiet, not really speaking to anybody. The same thing happened to me; I noticed that when I was around my close friends I acted like myself; the joyful, happy, crazy person I truly am. However when I was around other people I would act totally different; I would be quiet and act shy around people I didn’t really know or like. We will act however we want when we are around our true friends, and hide behind a mask for the rest of the world.
Ever noticed that guys act differently when they are around their closest friends than when they are around people they know but don’t
really talk to? A group of people noticed that exact thing happening. Guys would act differently when they were
around other guys than when they hung out with their close friends. In the video Tough Guise, they talked about how guys need to act tough and strong, how they can’t show weakness because that was how they were socialized to be. One girl in the video commented on how when she
would hang out with the guys they felt as if they could be themselves, they cried and complained to each other but when there were other guys around, they would put on an act and play tough, they would pretend that the world revolved around them. This video showed how guys have to cover up who they really are with a false identity that they tend to keep with them their whole lives.
“The Looking-glass Self” is how you see yourself and how you act because that is the way other people see you. In the article “The Complexity of
Identity” Beverly Tatum states, “Other people are the mirror in which we see ourselves.” You act a certain way
because you are seen a certain way. If your friends see you as tough then you don’t let them see you when you are weak. With each new way you are seen it changes who you really are. Every day you change because of your looking-glass
self. You act differently because each new person sees you differently thus changing who you really are. Your looking-glass self is different than the person on your right and the person on your left. This is because nobody hangs out with exactly the same people or has the exact same kind of family. My “looking glass self” is shown through my masks.
I have three masks because my identity has three main layers. The mask on the left is the layer nobody sees, it is dark gray because it is filled with my deepest fears and worries. The mask is rough, not smooth and perfect shows that everybody has flaws on the inside, that we all have our own troubles. The skull shows the death and despair that is always on my mind even if I don’t talk about it. The lips are stitched shut because this is the layer that I never want to talk about and the one I keep want to keep a secret. The middle mask is the layer only my friends and family see. It is all different colors because only my friends and family see my true colors. There are warm colors and cool colors because my friends and family see the energetic and gloomy qualities of me. The shapes are not the same because no part of my life is exactly the same. The black in between each color shows that even though all these parts are within me they are not acted upon at the same time. The mask on the right is the layer that strangers see first. They only see the mask I put on to cover the true me. They only see a face of a teenage girl; they expect the stereotype of a teenage girl; they assume that I worry about boys, hair, and make-up. So I put on the mask of that girl, even though that is not the real me.
Through this project the way I view my world has changed. My perception of the world has changed for me. I no longer just see people as
random strangers on the street. I now see them as an individual who has their own problems that they don’t let anybody see. I now see how much stereotypes can affect people. Because of stereotypes a person who sees themselves in that category will act the way people expect them to and end up in a worse position than they started with. I learned that I need to just let people be who they want to be and never try to change them. Behind every mask is a person and a story.
Mask Reflection
1. Project based learning is different from how I am used to learning because usually I would just take notes on the unit and have to memorize the notes for a test. I wouldn’t have anything besides a grade on a test to show what I learned throughout the unit. It is similar because I still learned the subject and knew plenty about it.
2. I believe that I need to work on my refinement. I need to work on this because while I was looking at my mask I noticed a lot of rough edges which took away the appeal of the mask, with refinement my projects will look more professional and more appealing.
3. I am most proud of how I have three masks. This is because many people only had one or two mask and most of the viewer’s came to my exhibit because I had the three masks.
4. “Everybody has a secret identity, something nobody sees. To cover their secret identity they come up with other identities they let people see.” I am most proud of this section because it starts my whole essay; it is a strong lead that captures the reader’s interest, to me it has this sort of eerie feel to it that I really like.
5. I want to remember from this project that people and cultures are different and that we shouldn’t judge them just because of how they were raised and how they act.