Identity is granted by others’ status appraisals, not self-declared

Evidence

For all these concerns, the persona is a mere “application.” Receiving an identity requires being identified by others. Why are others identifying us? The most immediate reason for their attention is status appraisal. To properly interact with strangers, we must know their status. All identifications involve classifications of individuals into groups and tiers based on taste and immutable characteristics. Everything is fair game in these identifications. From social science research we know that even the paltriest personal trivia—stances, accents, clothing choices, furniture arrangements—can offer clues to status. At the same time, appraisers identify us through the signals, cues, and significant absences they find important. We may have control over what others observe, but we have no control over how they classify us. Nor do they: their means of perceiving and identifying us is based on their habitus. So, for all practical purposes, questions of identity are bound up with status. Personas are vehicles for status claims, and identities are results of status appraisals. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 289

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Status is granted by others’ recognition, never claimed unilaterally. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 194; Personal identity is largely an outcome of status appraisal — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 296; Being named and hailed by others constitutes one’s identity — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 237 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Personal identity is largely an outcome of status appraisal #corroborates (0.95) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 296
• Being named by others can produce the very identity one then inhabits. #corroborates (0.93)
• Being named and hailed by others constitutes one’s identity #expands (0.90) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 237
• The new identification produces a self that did not preexist it. #expands (0.80)
• Discrimination wrongfully denies others public recognition of their social worth #exemplifies (0.75) — Cristian Tileagă, The Nature of Prejudice, 65
• Self-identity depends on the trustworthy company of equals #qualifies (0.72)