The demand to be a self is culturally constructed, not innate

Evidence

What would it look like to not produce a self? Or to obscure oneself to one’s audience? Many artists have worked for the obfuscation or multiplication of the self, a denial that one can be made to speak their name and remain the same. Today, though, we often assume that the desire or demand to be a self is innate, inborn. — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 106

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the Frankfurt School’s account of how bourgeois culture naturalizes historically contingent subjectivity. — connects to: Authenticity is judged by others against demographic norms, not by inner voice — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 272; The self is not a real self sealed off from social influence. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 293